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Kam Jones makes history with first triple-double since Dwyane Wade

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Well now, you want to hear from the man of the hour? You want to listen to him wax poetic on his historic performance? Attend to his words about how he vaulted himself into a category in which only the few elite-of-elite can brag they reside? How he added onto an already illustrious career with even more, permanent illustriousness?

Lucky for you, you can.

Because here he is, Kam Jones, only minutes removed from an all-time performance in which he scoffed in the faces of those who in their naïveté doubted his ability to run the floor by branding his latest and best masterclass into the minds of all, which will be remembered through this fall and many falls to come. Into the press conference room he walked, all 6 feet, 5 inches and 205 pounds. His braids tied tight, tattoos visible and body dripping sweat.

He’s speaking gravelly about what the world wants to know — the 40 minutes he just spent spinning heads nationwide and awaking the last of the remaining sleepers with 17 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists to become the third Marquette men’s basketball player in program history to post a triple-double and the first since Dwyane Wade did so 21 years ago in the Elite Eight of the 2003 NCAA tournament.

“It means a lot,” Jones said. “It’s what you come to Marquette for.”

Perhaps unlucky for you, he doesn’t have much to say. He’s not waxing anything, let alone poetic. There’s almost a nonchalant-ness to his words. As if those curious can look at the box score for all the information they want. He said all he needed to on the court. What more is there to add?

“Give God all the glory,” he continued. “It’s a huge testament to my teammates just trusting me. I appreciate them trusting me to be one of the main leaders of this team. Everybody was huge for us tonight. Everyone was huge for us winning.”

It just so happens that as Jones talks about this “everybody” and “everyone” — however important they were to 15th ranked Marquette’s impressive 76-58 toppling of No. 6 Purdue — a quick google search of his name brings up a litany of results which shine a light on the gravity of his Tuesday night.

Things like how he’s the third player in the last 15 seasons with a triple-double in a win over an Associated Press Poll top 10 team. And how he became one of 18 players to reach 1,500 career points in a Marquette uniform. And how he put himself even more firmly into national player of the year conversations. And how he may be the best guard in college basketball with an average of 22.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6 assists per game. And how he is playing like a first round pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

Jones doesn’t entertain the chatter.

“You didn’t do all this hard work to have a good five games,” he said. “You did it to have a good season. So being consistent and figuring out how to constantly get better is huge.”

The man from Memphis was speaking like a senior. Someone who has been around long enough to experience two heartbreakingly abrupt losses in March. To fight through poor shooting stretches. To have bad games. You can tell he’s battle-hardened by the way he carries himself.

You can also tell by watching how he played.

“He was like a seasoned veteran tonight,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “He didn’t kill us until he had to.”

Jones went into the locker room with three points, seven rebounds and six assists — the triple-double-watch alarm emitting a quiet noise that let you know it was there but that more needed to happen still.

Then it got louder with a layup mystifying in nature until you remember the name of the person who shot it.

Then the alarm continued to get louder seconds later when he reached 10 rebounds. Then after some time at the same decibel level it once again ramped up in noise when he hit double-digit points with 3:36 remaining. And then finally, with 51 seconds remaining and the game’s fate long decided, the alarm blared the “watch” out of existence with a new, previously unheard deafening noise in perhaps the most poetic way possible — with his right hand man Stevie Mitchell sinking the three that marked his 10th assist.

“Shoutout Stew, he was ready,” Jones said.

Shortly after, Jones made his way off the court for good; job done, history achieved. He walked off to a serenading as the monumental achievement was celebrated for the first time in decades and hugged his coach, Shaka Smart, before taking a well-earned rest on the bench.

“He’s worked his tail off,” Smart said. “When the guys go in the gym they have their little chip on them. We get a report at the end of the week, and Tyler (Kolek) was like through the roof. We’d be so concerned he was overdoing it. Kam is right there with how he’s working.

“He’s always had better ability as a play-maker than people might think. But his role was a little bit different when we had Tyler and Oso (Ighodaro) because those guys were such good passers and distributors, and we needed him to think score, score, score. We still need him to score, but he has the ball in his hands more and we need him to create opportunities for other guys.”

After his press conference ended, Jones got up from his chair, walked down the podium ramp and once more gave Smart a hug. He then turned around to his coach, who was getting ready for his own presser, and doled out his final assist of the night.

“You might want to take that other seat, Coach,” he said. “I’m a little sweaty.”

Nobody said making history was easy.

This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.