Long before Browns eyed Dawand Jones, KSU hoops coveted 'the same gifts' he's using in NFL

BEREA — Dawand Jones grabbed a basketball and nearly tore down a hoop with a thunderous, one-handed slam dunk.

The Kent State University basketball players who had been working out in the M.A.C. Center paused to process the moment.

“He dunked the ball so hard that the basket stanchion almost came down. It started wobbling,” Kent State men's basketball coach Rob Senderoff told the Beacon Journal. “The entire gym stopped to look, and every person was, like, 'Holy cow! What did this kid just do?'”

The scene unfolded while Jones visited Kent State as a basketball recruit from Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis.

Long before the Browns became mesmerized by the rare combination of size, athleticism and footwork Jones possesses, Senderoff fell in love with it while scouting the AAU circuit.

When Jones picked up a ball before dunking it at Kent State, “it literally looked like an orange in his hand because his hands are so huge,” Senderoff said.

At the time, Jones' other hand was broken and protected by a purple cast. It made the sight of him nearly destroying a hoop even more memorable.

If Jones would have played college hoops instead of football at Ohio State, Senderoff said he believes the 6-foot-8, 374-pound offensive tackle could have developed into an All-Mid-American Conference center with the Golden Flashes. Instead, Jones went another direction and became a fourth-round draft pick of the Browns this past April.

“A lot of the same gifts that have helped him in football were some of the same things you saw as a basketball player,” Senderoff said. “He had unbelievable feet, great hands and great touch, and he had a joy for playing. He was an unbelievable teammate that everyone enjoyed playing with, and it was very evident anytime you watched him.”

As the Browns (2-2) spend Week 5 on a bye after an up-and-down start to the season, they are pleased with how Jones has answered the bell as a rookie who's starting much earlier than expected. The season-ending knee injury two-time first-team All-Pro Jack Conklin suffered on his 22nd snap against the Cincinnati Bengals in the Sept. 11 season opener resulted in Jones becoming the team's No. 1 right tackle.

“For that young man, the way he came into the organization with a lot of ... anonymous criticism kind of attacking his work ethic, his character, things like that, he really has been fantastic,” Browns General Manager Andrew Berry said during his bye-week news conference. “He’s done a really, really nice job for us, and he should be commended for coming in and being prepared when his number was called much earlier than any of us anticipated.”

Among the criticism to which Berry alluded was Jones had dreamed of playing in the NBA, not the NFL. The Browns, however, adopted a stance along these lines: Myles Garrett is the brother of former NBA player Sean Williams and has long flirted with his basketball fantasies, but it hasn't prevented him from becoming one of the NFL's best defensive ends.

“I know there was a knock on Dawand from what I heard about the fact that he played basketball or really liked basketball,” Senderoff said. “And in some ways, [his basketball background is] helping him.”

How so?

“Buzzing and always staying on your feet,” Jones told the Beacon Journal. “Whether you're playing defense, offense [in basketball], you're always on your toes. So I feel like that helped me in that aspect of pass blocking.”

Put another way, Jones said his footwork would not be as good — “not by a long shot” — if he didn't play hoops for most of his life.

Jones has made substantial progress with the Browns since May, when he reported to rookie minicamp out of shape and vomited during his first NFL practice.

Pass protection is the strongest area of Jones' game in the infancy of his professional career partly because his length often allows him to initiate contact with edge rushers. He said he's focused on improving his pass blocking, but he and the Browns are on the same page about a need for even more growth as a run blocker.

According to ProFootballFocus.com's grades, Jones ranks 55th among 71 qualifying offensive tackles this season. His pass blocking is 25th, but his run blocking is 70th.

“Dawand has done well in some areas, and then there's areas where you have nuances that he has to kind of learn,” Browns assistant offensive line coach Scott Peters said during a recent news conference. “ … It’s more just nuance in the run game and being more in it. Obviously, he’s got room to grow in pass protection as well from a technical standpoint and just the situational awareness piece, which comes with experience, but he’s taken good steps in the right direction.”

Jones, 22, has less football experience than most NFL rookies. After his freshman football season at Ben Davis, Jones decided he would focus on basketball, he said. He stuck to the plan for a year and didn't play football as a sophomore. Coaches persuaded him to return to the gridiron as a junior. He wound up winning a state championship in both sports — basketball as a sophomore and football as a junior.

“I'm sure there was a battle going on in his mind of, 'I love basketball, but everyone is telling me that I look like an offensive lineman who can play in the NFL,'” Senderoff said. “Luckily for him, he listened to those folks.”

In an alternate universe where Jones chose college hoops, he would have picked Kent State over Ball State, Cleveland State and Bowling Green.

As a Ben Davis senior, Jones averaged 17.9 points on 72% shooting from the field and 9 rebounds en route to coaches voting him the Marion County Player of the Year.

Browns wide receiver David Bell was another candidate for the award. A 2022 third-round draft pick out of Purdue, Bell also grew up in Indianapolis and was a basketball and football star at Warren Central, a rival of Ben Davis. Like Jones, Bell won two state titles in high school — basketball as a junior and football as a senior.

“His school is on the East Side. Mine is on the far West Side. And it's just crazy that we basically hate each other — not him, but the teams,” Jones said.

Jones and Bell graduated from high school in 2019 and had vied against one another in basketball in youth leagues and AAU since they were 8 or 9 years old. In the Browns locker room, Jones brags about Ben Davis defeating Warren Central in football during the regular season and playoffs when they were juniors. But Bell and Warren Central went 6-0 against Jones and Ben Davis in basketball.

The secret to Warren Central's success? Bell said his hoops team double- or triple-teamed Jones virtually every time he touched the ball.

“He's one of the best that came through [Indiana], not just because of his size, but obviously the fundamental aspect,” Bell told the Beacon Journal. “He never beat us when he was in high school, but he ended up winning a state championship, and he was a hard task to handle. I feel like if he didn't play football, he probably could have played basketball, too. That's how much respect I've got for his basketball abilities.”

Ball State offered Jones his first basketball scholarship, followed by Kent State and the others, he said. Jones wasn't recruited by the country's top basketball programs “because he's a little short for a center at the highest level,” Senderoff said.

Jones joined KSU's hoops team for a bowling and pizza party during his visit. He ate one pizza during the team activity, Senderoff said, and then took two more pizzas back to his room.

“I think he ate more on his visit than any kid I've ever had here on a visit,” Senderoff said.

Jones said he “felt at home” with Kent State.

“When I was there for the visit, I liked the facilities, I liked the atmosphere, I liked that [it was close to] Cleveland,” Jones said. “It was in a city. There was something to do.”

Jones and Senderoff said Jones stopped short of verbally committing to KSU, but they had an understanding he would end up there if basketball were his choice.

“If he was going to play basketball, I would tell you I'm 99.9% sure he would've come to Kent,” Senderoff said.

Football programs were slow to pursue Jones in earnest, likely a byproduct of his decision to sit out as a sophomore, but the allure of playing for a Power Five team finally came calling. On the Monday after his senior football season at Ben Davis, Jones said Mississippi State reached out to him, and the big-time offers started to fly. He ultimately chose Ohio State.

“Me and his mom had a conversation about, 'Listen, I would love for you to come play basketball at Kent State, but when you're getting all of these offers from USC, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, you name it, clearly football is the right direction for him to go. … We get it. But I'm not mad. I'll be rooting for you. And if for some reason you don't like it and it doesn't work out, please call me.' That was basically how that one played out,” Senderoff said.

Since then, Senderoff has followed Jones' football career and has kept in touch with his mom, Deanna Jones.

“He's a really easy guy to root for as a coach,” Senderoff said. “He was really fun to be around.”

Jones remains a basketball enthusiast. He liked the Indiana Pacers as a kid, he said, but his allegiance is to LeBron James above all.

Cleveland sports fans can expect to see Jones attending Cavaliers games during the upcoming NBA season. He revealed he has already asked Browns owner Jimmy Haslam for Milwaukee Bucks tickets and talked to him about the franchise's blockbuster trade for Damian Lillard. Jimmy and Dee Haslam formally joined Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan as co-owners of the Bucks two weeks before the Browns drafted Jones in April.

Jones said he probably picked up a basketball as early as 2 or 3 years old and started playing football at age 5.

Greg Oden, Joel Embiid and Shaquille O'Neal were the basketball players Jones wanted to emulate. He established a rapport with Oden, another former Indiana high school hoops star, and has received congratulatory text messages from him over the years.

The offensive tackles Jones said he idolized as a kid and watched on YouTube are Anthony Munoz, Jonathan Ogden, Tyron Smith, Andrew Whitworth and Jason Peters.

“I love Ogden,” Jones said. “Ogden reminds me of myself just because he's 6-8 and they say he'll beat you in a rep and then smile after.”

Philadelphia Eagles four-time Pro Bowl selection Lane Johnson is the tackle Jones studies the most nowadays.

“If I need help blocking somebody, I go watch Lane,” Jones said.

Reflecting on his career choice, Jones expressed confidence he took the right path.

“I just wanted to be different no matter what I did,” Jones said, “and I was like, 'What sport can I be different at?' I looked at it, and I was like, 'I can be different in football. Nobody's 6-8. Nobody has the intangibles I have.'”

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Jones said he eventually came to the realization basketball would have likely led him to a career overseas whereas football would give him an avenue to evolve into a standout at the sport's top level.

“In the NFL, I get to do something I love and go smash somebody in the mouth every day,” Jones said.

Smashing hoops was fun while it lasted, though.

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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Browns rookie Dawand Jones considered Kent State basketball