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StVAC REPORTS
Jackson:
By CHARLES SMITH
Contributor
When former Alabama State great
Kevin Loder was waived by the Kansas
City Kings earlier this season, the small
Montgomery, Ala., school was left
without a representative in the National
Basketball Association.
That oversight, however, should be
rectified this spring when Lewis
Jackson graduates. Jackson, a silkysmooth
6-6 forward, is getting rave
reviews . from basketball people
everywhere while going largely unnoticed
by the general public.
Oliver ? who has sent 13 players to the
professional ranks during coaching
stints at ASU and Kentucky State - is
Jackson's biggest booster.
J .11 - f .?
^onsiacnng an aspects 01 me
game, Lewis Jackson is the best player
I've had a chance to coach,'* says
Oliver. "I haven't had a better shotblocker
than Elmore Smith, a better
shooter than Travis Grant or guys that
played with more intensity than Kevin
Loder and Billy Ray Bates. But as far
as having all these qualities in one
player and playing with the most consistency,
Lewis is the best.
"You can count on Lewis for 24 to
30 points and six to 10 rebounds every
"Basketball is like most things in
more you will get out of it. "
f
night regardless of who we're playing.
And he will always play good defense
and show leadership on the floor and
off. His completeness is what makes
Lewis Jackson such a special player."
Oliver, however, is not the. only
coach on the Jackson bandwagon.
Arkansas' Eddie Sutton, who saw his
club edge Alabama State 86-80 despite
Jackson's 30 points, calls the Hornet
-star "a legitimate first-team ailAmerican
. There's no doubt he'll be a
first-round draft choice."
"Jackson is a complete player ? a
good shooter, passer and defender who
has a great future ahead of him," said
Ole Miss* Lee Hunt after watching
Jackson score 27 points in a 87-75 loss
to the Rebels last year in the opening
round of the National Invitational
T ournameniJackson's
performance In that game
earned him a spot on the NIT all-star
squad that toured Australia last sum
tt r * i * ? -
mer. inc weiumpica, Ala., native
averaged 12.5 points and 5.1 rebounds
on tour, while leading the all-star contingent
in steals with 13.
Although his selection to the NIT
all-star team reaped some long-overdue
national recognition, Jackson already
had established himself as one of the
nation's finest collegiate players.
A starter since the fourth game of his
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: Doing So I
freshman year, Jackson was a firstteam
all-Southwestern Athletic Conference
selection last season after
averaging 23.9 points and 6.6 rebounds
per game to lead Alabama State to a
22-6 record in the school's first year in
Division I.
He was the 12th-best scorer in the
nation last year and finished second in
the SWAC scoring race behind national
scoring leader Harry "Machine
Gun" Kelly of Texas Southern. As
testimony to his all-around skills,
Jackson also finished second in the
SWAC in field goal percentage (59.8)
and third in free throw percentage
(78.1) and steals (66).
This season Jackson, who has 1,735
career points to his credit and earlier
this month surpassed Loder to move
into sixth place on Alabama State's alltime
scoring list, knows a professional
career could be in the offing, but has
maintained a healthy perspective on
the fame and fortune professional
basketball could bring him.
"There could be an NBA career in
my future," understates Jackson, "but
there are no assurances that I will stay
in the NBA, even after being drafted.
"It would be great to have a career
in the NBA, but the prospect of not
making it doesn't frighten me. If the
life: The more you put into it, the
NBA doesn't work out, I have my
degree in recreation to fall back on.
44Basketball has been really good to
me," he says. "It has gotten me where
I am today. When I first started playing
basketball on the playgrounds of
Wetumpka, I never thought it would
iaKe me tnis lar.
"And I think basketball can take me
even further if I'm willing to pay the
price. Basketball is like most things in
life: The more you put into it, the more
you will get out of it."
After many years as a smathcollege
power, Alabama State shocked the
basketball world last year by winning a
share of the SWAC regular-season title
and participating in the NIT in the
school's first year on the Division I
level.
Oliver is quick. uv givecredit.
far_Lhe .Hornets' unprecedented?
success to his star player.
*l don't know where our program
would be without a caliber player like
Lewis Jackson. He means an awful lot
to us/' says the 38-year-old coach.
The Hornets are off to another vintage
season.^Qliver's club has rolled to a
13-4 record with two of its losses being
a seven-point setback at Tulsa and a
six-point defeat at Arkansas. The
upstarts from Montgomeryonce again
are eyeing post-season action.
Many Things
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Jackson against Georgetown: Mea?
"Our first team goal was to go
undefeated in the regular season,"
notes Jackson. "We've already lost
four games, so our goals now are to
keep from losing any more games and
to get into the NCAA tournament. We
gofth realty high aiKl4he?*^
wor-k-reaily hard to reach them.
"If we're not fortunate enough to
get a bid to the NCAA," Jackson says,
"we would be delighted to go to the
NIT and try to win it. We would be
very disappointed, however, if we
didn't get a bid to either tournament."
Jackson, whose outward modesty
masks a quiet inner confidence, also
has a few individual goals, but, like
any good team player, makes it difficult
to distinguish between the team's
goals and his Own.
"**N
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luring up with the very best.
"The most important individual
goal for me is to lead this team as far as
it can go in a post-season
tournament," says the senior captain.
"I also want to be one of the top
scorers and rebounders in the nation,
career by being?named an allAmerican."
If Alabama State were still playing
on the small-college level, all-America
honors would be a foregone conclu
sion, just as they were for Loder in
1981 when Jackson was a freshman.
The star of this year's Hornet squad
knows the move to Division I may cost
him the ail-American status many feel
he deserves, and he appears willing to
accept that irony.
Please see page 8