It’s been a pretty good weekend for Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg. On Friday, Iowa State announced that it would give him a $600,000 annual raise on his current contract which runs through 2023, and on Sunday afternoon, former UNLV guard Bryce Dejean-Jones announced that he will join the Cyclones. Dejean-Jones is set to graduate from UNLV this summer, which would make him immediately eligible to suit up for Iowa State. Like DeAndre Kane before him, Dejean-Jones arrives in Ames with a history of incidents involving his attitude getting the best of him, so Hoiberg will have another opportunity to mold an embattled player into a key contributor.

Will Bryce Dejean-Jones find the same kind of success DeAndre Kane found at Iowa State?

Dejean-Jones led the Runnin’ Rebels in scoring last season (13.6 PPG), but his year ended on a sour note. He was suspended for the final game of UNLV’s regular season against Wyoming for a violation of team rules, and reportedly yelled at teammates following the team’s season-ending loss against San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference Tournament on March 14. We don’t know specifically what that outburst involved, but whatever it contained was enough for UNLV head coach Dave Rice to decide that a parting of ways was the best course of action for both parties.

When he played, though, he significantly helped UNLV. To go along with his scoring, Dejean-Jones averaged 3.0 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game, and shot 32 percent from three-point range. He was also a very good ball-handler, posting a personal turnover rate of 13.4 percent while using 27.5 percent of his team’s possessions when he was on the floor. A repeat of that kind of season would come in handy for a team that is tasked not only with replacing the production of Kane, but also the production of effective wing Melvin Ejim. Dejean-Jones figures to slide into Iowa State’s starting backcourt alongside sophomore Monte Morris while Naz Long and Matt Thomas will be available off the bench. Fellow transfers Abdel Nader and Jameel McKay will also be eligible after taking their requisite  redshirt years, although Nader’s career hit a road block on Sunday when he was suspended following an arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Brian Goodman (987 Posts)

Brian Goodman a Big 12 microsite writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BSGoodman.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2014 at 4:30 pm by Brian Goodman and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: bryce dejean-jones, fred hoiberg, iowa state, transfers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.