When former Duke star J.J. Redick played at Comcast Center, the crowd booed the Blue Devil guard every time he touched the ball. Fans loathed Redick, somewhat because of his cocky demeanor, but mainly because he was the best player on the Terrapins’ biggest rival.

Last night, a Virginia player got similar (albeit more mild) treatment.

Just as the crowd at Comcast Center quieted for the singing of the National Anthem, a fan yelled “F— You J.J!” just as many Terps faithful shouted when Redick used to come to town.

The J.J. this fan was deriding is seldom-heard-from freshman reserve guard Jeff Jones.

What did Jones do to draw Terps fans’ ire?

In 2006, as a highly-touted recruit from Pennsylvania, Jones verbally committed to this university, pushing aside various other high-profile schools that craved the 6-foot-4-inch guard’s services. Later in the year, Jones reneged and settled on Virginia as his destination for higher education.

Shortly after backing out, Jones said his reversal came down to making a decision too soon, and not weighing out all of his options.

So far the Terps haven’t missed much.

Jones has made little impact in his freshman season, playing about 14 minutes per game while shooting a measly 38 percent (22 percent from downtown). While progression is always expected in young players, Jones’ efforts thus far are less than encouraging for a player whose calling card is long-range marksmanship.

His struggles didn’t prevent informed Terps fans last night from letting the freshman know how much they disapprove of his bolting from the university before ever arriving.

As the first player off the Cavaliers’ bench, Jones received a chilly reception, and he heard it time after time when he had possession of the ball. (The fans certainly weren’t mimicking a Cavs rally cry by screaming “‘Hoos.”)

“You kind of knew, because they have passionate fans, you knew it was coming,” Jones said about the boos directed toward him. “I kind of tuned it out.”

It wasn’t the first time Jones received this type of reception at Comcast Center. In his previous visit, last April at the Capital Classic high school all-star game, fans persistently booed him.

But at least in that game, he was on the court for extended periods of time and scored seven points in the exhibition. Last night, his first entrance into the ball game was his also his last one … and it consisted of zero points in three minutes.

“[For] everybody that gets a minute, [there’s] somebody that doesn’t,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “If you wanted him in the game, who am I going to take out?”

While Leitao’s elementary philosophy is true, we aren’t talking about the Kansas Jayhawks or Memphis Tigers here. Virginia is not a very deep team and it had several players in the game who rendered virtually no production.

Which means Jones’ progress this season has obviously been fairly slow. Not to say that he won’t be a fine player down the line, but right now, he isn’t worth the hype he received for spurning the Terps.

And due to Jones’ backtracking, Gary Williams had an extra scholarship to offer, which paved the way for one of the Terps’ current freshman to come aboard. The extra man is presumably guard Cliff Tucker, who was the last of the bunch to commit.

Tucker also had a quiet game, being held scoreless in just four minutes. His numbers are similar to Jones’ this season, but all of that is moot, because he chose to be a Terp after Jones chose not to be. It’s too early to say which youngster will have a better career, but last night, Tucker and the Terps went home happy with a win.

“It’s a good experience to be out here, but it don’t feel good because we lost,” Jones said after the game.

And by the way his young career has gone thus far, it’s tough to say the Terps lost when they missed out on Jeff Jones.

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