Matthew Elliot Jones was born on December 5, 1994 in DeSoto, Texas — the suburb just south of Dallas that has produced more Division I basketball players per capita over the last twenty years than almost any other corner of the state. He grew up in a basketball family. His father Mark and his mother Arolynn raised four kids — Matt, his older sister Alex, his older sister Jordan, and his younger brother Mason — and at least two of those four became national-level basketball players. Jordan was a McDonald's All-American in her own right, playing high school ball at the highest level the women's game offered. Mason played at the same DeSoto basketball factory that Matt would soon define. The kids ran wild on the family driveway, then in the gyms of north Texas, then in the AAU summer circuit, then onto the national stage.
DeSoto High School in the 2010s was one of the most successful boys basketball programs in the entire state of Texas. Matt Jones was the player who drove that. He started on varsity as a freshman. He led the Eagles to a four-year program record of 131-18. He averaged 17.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game as a senior in 2012-13, earning all-state honors. As a junior the year before, he had averaged 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds and earned second-team All-America honors from MaxPreps. He was named to the 2013 McDonald's All-American Game and the 2013 Jordan Brand Classic — the two most prestigious senior all-star showcases in American high school basketball. He was the No. 25 overall recruit in the 2013 class according to Scout, No. 36 according to ESPN and Rivals, and No. 34 in the consensus Recruiting Services Consensus Index. Every program in college basketball wanted him.
He committed to Duke on November 28, 2011 — as a high school sophomore, more than 18 months before he would set foot on Duke's campus. That kind of early commitment was a Coach K specialty in that era: identify the kids who fit the program's culture and lock them in before the recruiting wars got loud. Matt Jones fit. He was a 6'5" two-way wing with a real shooting stroke, a high basketball IQ, and the temperament of a player who would rather win than score. K had been recruiting him since middle school. The Duke staff knew exactly what they were getting: a kid who would never be the best player on his team and would absolutely make every team he was on better.
The class he committed to would eventually include himself and Semi Ojeleye (who would later transfer to SMU and become a Boston Celtics second-round pick). The class he would play with — because Coach K's recruiting calendar at Duke meant that the freshman classes overlapped — would include Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones (no relation), and Grayson Allen. That 2014 freshman class would become one of the most decorated in Duke history. Matt Jones, the 2013 commit, would be there as the sophomore connector who made it all work.