With his sophomore season just underway, the excitement surrounding recruit Tyus Jones is heating up all over again. Tuesday's at the Apple Valley star guard's season opener against Eden Prairie -- during which he scored 37 points -- Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo and Ohio State assistant Jeff Boals were in the crowd, among others. I caught up with Debbie Jones, Tyus' mother, to chat about the reignited hubbub.
Q Have you guys called a lot of schools already?
A We have spoken to a number of colleges. Minnesota, Michigan State, Ohio State, Duke, Arizona, Baylor, Iowa, Iowa State, Providence. I think that's it.

Q So who is on the list right now?
A I don't think he really has a list per se, all of the places that have contacted him we've looked at, checked out, talked with them and did some looking online. But I don't think he has a list just yet. He probably had his favorites – but I couldn't even give you what that list is. He's gotten a lot of mail that comes into the high school for him from a lot other schools, your Florida, your Kansas, your Marquette, Stanford and a lot of those types of schools, but we haven't spoken with any of them directly yet.
Q What's going to factor into the final decision?
A I really think you've got to take absolutely everything into consideration. You look at the school, you look at the program, the coaching staff, the university as a whole, the system they run, the academics. I mean, I just think you have to take the whole entire system into play. Because all these big universities, they're going to have a lot of similar things as far as academically, set up for kids and programs and things like that. So I wouldn't say there is just one or two things, you really just have to take the situation as a whole and really look into things. And that's why it's so time-consuming.
Q What does he like about the 'U'?
A Well, it's close. That's what I like about the U. We've been over there and on campus and stuff. You know, I think the people are good that they have in place over there. It's a good university – they have good programs. I can't say one thing over another thing that would stand out other than the closeness for me.

Q From Tyus' tweets it seems like he's pretty excited for the new high school season.
A He's very excited to get it going. We had our first game on Tuesday. We led the whole way but Eden Prairie is just very disciplined and very well coached and they got us at the end.
Q Does Tyus take losses pretty hard?
A Definitely. Every game is so important. But it's just 'get back after it and hopefully play better.' We play again on Saturday (against Tartan).
Q How cool is it for Tyus to have so many schools in the building, like on Tuesday? Tom Izzo came to see Tyus play in person – pretty neat.
A It was pretty cool. We have called and talked with him. He's just a great guy. A great coach obviously, but just a great guy. They just kind of wave 'Hi' because you can't really do any conversations and stuff like that.
Q Did you guys know they were coming?
A When we had talked with them they said they were going to try and make it because they didn't have games those nights. Coach Smith and them – the U had a game, so they couldn't be there. But yeah, we had an idea they were coming.
Q Tyus is just 15 – how's he handling all this attention? Does he get into the recruiting stuff?
A He's just fine – he understands it all and gets the whole thing, so he handles it very well. It's great and the attention and all that is wonderful, but he just wants to win games. So that's his main focus and he knows he's just got to play and keep getting better. Obviously he's into it, but he's got his priorities straight. He knows what he's got to do both on and off the court and in the classroom. But because it came at such an early age, it kind of gives us an opportunity to really check out the schools and the coaches and the whole program of a number of schools ahead of time. That part of it is kind of good in a way I guess so you can kind of check them all out fully rather than do it as a last minute or quick decision
Q How about you? Do you kind of feel like a manager already?
A It definitely could be a full-time job I think. I'm just fine. I think at times it's overwhelming when you think of the whole idea of it. It's pretty impressive to have coaches at the games. I never expected that at all. It's all great. My oldest (Jadee) played because we went through some of this with him because he played Division I basketball, but we just didn't go to this extent. And especially not so early.
Q Is it strange for the rest of the team to see all these big names checking out Tyus on the first game of the season?
A The whole crowd was pretty electric and there was a lot of buzz over who was in the crowd and stuff like that. Kids were nervous – our team is very young. So everything is really new to I think everyone. But they handle it pretty well. When we've had workouts in open gym and stuff, there were coaches in the gym at times they could be, so they've seen them before, too. But it's a big deal, and they just kind of have to put that aside and go out and do what they have to do.