Yves Pons
 Pons in January 2019 | |||||||||||||||
| No. 35 – Tennessee Volunteers | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Shooting guard / Small forward | ||||||||||||||
| League | Southeastern Conference | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | 7 March 1999 Port-au-Prince, Haiti | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality | French | ||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 97.5 kg (215 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | INSEP (Paris, France) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Tennessee (2017–present) | ||||||||||||||
| Stats at NBA.com | |||||||||||||||
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |||||||||||||||
Medals
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Yves Pons (born 7 March 1999) is a French college basketball player for the Tennessee Volunteers of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Early life and career
Pons was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and did not know his biological parents. When he was four years old, he was adopted by a French couple, Babeth and Jean-Claude Pons, and immediately moved to France with them.[1] Pons attended French sports institute INSEP, in Paris, and played for its affiliated club Centre Fédéral de Basket-ball in the Nationale Masculine 1 (NM1), the amateur third-tier division of French basketball.[2]
Pons decided to play college basketball in the United States for Tennessee under head coach Rick Barnes, after being recruited by assistant coach Michael Schwartz. He chose the Volunteers over offers from Florida and Texas Tech.[3] He became the first four-star recruit to play for Barnes at Tennessee and the first French men's basketball player in school history.[4]
| Name | Hometown | High school / college | Height | Weight | Commit date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yves Pons SF |
Paris, France | INSEP (France) | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | 215 lb (98 kg) | Feb 28, 2017 | |
Recruiting star ratings: Rivals: 247Sports:
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| Overall recruiting rankings: 247Sports: 63 | ||||||
Sources:
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College career
Pons suffered an ankle injury in his Tennessee debut, a win over Presbyterian, and was limited to four minutes.[5] In his freshman season, he played 24 games off the bench and averaged 5.2 minutes per game. As a sophomore, Pons scored a season-high 10 points against Eastern Kentucky in his first career start. He was featured on SportsCenter's top 10 plays for a two-handed block during the game.[6] In February 2019, Pons suffered a facial fracture in a collision in practice and underwent a corrective procedure.[7] Pons averaged 2.2 points per game as a sophomore, but put in a lot of work on his game after the season.[8] He saw considerable improvement as a junior, scoring a career-high 15 points in his season debut versus UNC Asheville and eclipsing that mark in his next game after scoring 19 versus Murray State.[9]
National team career
Pons won a gold medal with France at the 2014 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship in Latvia, after averaging 3.8 points per game.[10] He averaged 10.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game at the 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship in Zaragoza, Spain, as his team finished in sixth place.[11] In 2019, Pons joined France at the FIBA U20 European Championship in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he averaged 2.6 points per game for the fourth-place team.[12]
Career statistics
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
College
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017–18 | Tennessee | 24 | 0 | 5.2 | .500 | .667 | .500 | .6 | .2 | .1 | .1 | .7 |
| 2018–19 | Tennessee | 35 | 13 | 11.7 | .516 | .280 | .400 | 1.8 | .5 | .3 | .4 | 2.2 |
| Career | 59 | 13 | 9.1 | .513 | .321 | .412 | 1.3 | .4 | .2 | .3 | 1.6 | |
References
- ^ Hein, David (17 January 2017). "Spectacular Pons loud on the court, reserved off the hardwood". heinnews. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
- ^ Hein, David (22 March 2017). "How reliable is Yves Pons? French ace injured again". heinnews. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ Ramey, Grant (13 April 2017). "The story behind Tennessee landing Yves Pons". 247Sports. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
- ^ Calhoun, Caleb (28 February 2017). "Tennessee Basketball Recruiting: Four-Star Forward from France Yves Pons Commits to Vols". All For Tennessee. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ Megargee, Steve (10 November 2017). "Vols capitalize on 28-0 run to trounce Presbyterian 88-53". USA Today. Associated Press. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ Provost-Heron, Troy (28 November 2018). "Yves Pons kickstarts Vols in win over Eastern Kentucky". The Daily Times. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ Kaplan, Phil (13 February 2019). "UT Vols' Yves Pons wears mask, plays briefly, after suffering facial injury". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ Ramey, Grant (November 18, 2019). "Is this the new normal for Yves Pons?". 247 Sports. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ Henley, Gene (19 November 2019). "Vols forward Yves Pons has made tremendous progress since last season". Chattanooga Times Free Press. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ "Barnes Announces Signing of Yves Pons". University of Tennessee Athletics. 12 April 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ Sparks, Adam (18 October 2017). "Myth of Yves Pons grows before Vols debut". The Tennessean. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ Ramey, Grant (16 June 2019). "Yves Pons spending summer playing for France U20 national team". 247Sports. Retrieved 17 November 2019.