Aug. 22, 2005

Kenyon Jones, 27, who earned West Coast Conference Most Valuable Basketball Player honors at USF in 2000, passed away of natural causes Thursday night at his Atlanta home.

Jones, a native of Savannah, Georgia played at the University of California from 1995-98 before transfering to USF prior to the 1998-99 season. After redshirting a year, Jones helped USF get off to a 12-1 start to the season, a year in which the Dons went 19-9.

Jones averaged a team-best 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game for the Dons and scored 37 points in a USF win at Nevada.

After his collegiate career he played in Greece for Maroussi Athens and Panathinaikos Athens. He played on the Denver Nuggets NBA Summer League team this summer.

"Kenyon Jones was a great teammate and friend," said USF assistant coach Anwar McQueen who was Kenyon's teammate at California and talked to the family Friday. "I spoke to a lot of our former teammates today and they are all crushed. Coach Mathews also called and we talked about Kenyon's time at USF. He was influential in my decision to come coach at USF. He spoke highly of the school."