Denver Jones sends heartfelt message to Auburn fans after career ends in Final Four

Denver Jones had a winding road in his collegiate career, and on Saturday night, that road came to an end 2 victories short of a national title.

Auburn’s senior guard is a home-state guy, coming from New Market, AL. But that hardly means he’s remained in the state from birth through college. In fact, Auburn was Jones’s third stop in his collegiate career. He spent his first season at Garden City Community College in Kansas in 2020-21, then played the next 2 seasons at FIU in Miami.

If that wasn’t enough of a weird path, Jones had another stop in his bag of tricks. He would be coming back to his home state of Alabama to finish off his career, spending his final 2 seasons at Auburn. Jones isn’t a star like, say, Johni Broome, but he became an integral piece for Bruce Pearl’s Auburn machine, and was even named a semifinalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year this season.

All of it came to an end, though, after Saturday night’s Final Four semifinal loss to Florida in San Antonio, leaving Jones 2 wins shy of a national title to end his career. Jones had 10 points on just 3-of-9 shooting and was in foul trouble in the loss, and after it was over, Jones went to social media to write an emotional goodbye to Auburn.

Here was what Jones shared late Saturday night:

Jones called himself an “Auburn man” in the post. The Auburn man came full circle from his Alabama roots back to the Plains to end his collegiate career.

Cory Nightingale

Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.