Meet Derrick Jones

Throughout the Bay Area and northern California are basketball trainers and coaches looking to make their bones and move up. The time spent in gyms is long, the financial reward is next to non-existent but it's necessary to pay dues in order to get that needed break.

One such individual is Derrick Jones, currently an assistant coach at Diablo Valley College.

His bonafides?

A 1995 DeAnza (Richmond) High graduate, Jones broke an ankle in his senior year, requiring the insertion of pins and plates and thus ending his high school playing says.

Then it was on to Diablo Valley College (DVC) and connecting with longtime Coach Steve Coccimiglio.

Moving on to Sonoma State was next but Jones' playing was again halted by injury, this time a torn ACL.

Upon his graduation from college in 2002, Jones began teaching and coaching at West County Charter School in Richmond. Assisting at Berkeley High was next from 2009 to 2011. He rejoined Coccimiglio at Diablo Valley College in April of 2011 and remains there.

As he explained, "I've always loved basketball." That meant playing but also training others and working camps during the summers.

"My sights are set on getting to the four-year level and coaching full-time."

He's working on earning a Master's degree at the moment.

Jones' tenure at DVC started out with a player development focus, then it was an expansion into recruiting followed by immersement in the X's-and-O's of DVC's offensive and defensive schemes. The effort to become as well-rounded as possible will make him all the more attractive.

So what hoops opinions and advice does he have to share?

Let's dive in.

"If you want to have the best chance of getting on the court, play a level down from where people are telling you." Jones doesn't mean dropping to D-II from D-I but rather a high mid major to a lower one.

With recruiting, "nothing is certain until the [letter-of-intent] paperwork is faxed to you. It's definite when a school is pressuring you to sign but not being pressed to sign probably has a reason behind it. They are looking for you to improve and looking at other prospects as each assistant coach has 50 to 100 kids he's looking at."

Asked about the disappearance of the jump stop, Jones said, "it's a lost art, something we have to re-teach to guys. At the high school level, you're faster and can jump higher than the others but at the college level you need to jump off two feet. College teams rotate better on defense and there are seven-foot defenders."

Regarding expanding one's game, Jones offered, "I'm a big believer in pickup ball. Today, everything is structured and you can't make a mistake without the fear of getting pulled. I like refining your game when there is no pressure so you can experiment and try new things." Call it purposeful practicing.

On becoming a shooter: "shooting just takes so many reps, six days a week, 600-1200 shots daily. It becomes muscle memory. But you have to do it correctly or improvement won't happen."

Another aspect that baffles Jones is that kids still expect that they will be the man when moving on to a college team of any level and that plays will be run specifically for them, like in high school.

The etiquette, or lack thereof, in recruiting brought forth some advice. "Too many kids don't return calls and texts. So often we don't hear back. There were six kids we didn't recruit last time because they didn't respond.  Sometimes, they don't understand that getting back doesn't mean you are committing. Just call back. Otherwise, bridges get burned. and if you want to transfer down the road, that door might be closed."