Former Utah, Utah State guard Rylan Jones has found his next college basketball home
On two separate occasions when faced with the choice of where to play college basketball next, point guard Rylan Jones chose to stay in the state of Utah.
The first time was when he was a star at Olympus High and signed to play for the Utah Runnin’ Utes.
A few years later, he transferred north to play for the Utah State Aggies (his dad Chris was an assistant at both places when he was there and is now the head coach at Highland High).
Jones entered the transfer portal again last month, and this time he is going all the way across the United States.
On Friday, the Samford Bulldogs in Alabama announced that they have officially signed Jones.
About 40 minutes before the announcement, Jones took to Twitter to thank Aggie fans for the last two years.
Aggie nation thank you for an unbelievable 2 years! Blessed to be able to live my childhood dreams of being an Aggie and playing in the spectrum in front of the best fans! once an aggie always an aggie 💙
— Rylan Jones (@rylanjones15) May 19, 2023
The 6 foot, 178-pound Jones, who won the Deseret News’ Mr. Basketball award in both 2018 and 2019, has started 75 games over the past four seasons but has been slowed by a number of injuries.
This year, he sustained a concussion that sidelined him from Jan. 7 through the end of the 2022-23 campaign.
Last season, Samford finished tied atop the Southern Conference standings with Furman, which upset Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling in the second round to eventual national runner-up San Diego State.
