The Central Saga
- 6-4, 270-pound forward Scolt Stewart,
who believes he's a point guard in a line
backer's body, not to alma mater, but to
Durham - and to coach Jackson.
"Picking up those guys, and Andre
Jordan/' Jackson said, "Man, it makes it
easy for you."
So Jackson worked in his new talent
with the old, mixing in guards Larry
Crowder and Clifton Daye. What Dr.
Frankenstein. Coach Jackson, came up
with was an anything mechanical, but
wierd-looking yet effective team. Steel
rods protruding from players' necks were
optional.
The Eagles would play basically with
five guards Jordan, Daye, Crowder,
Walker, and Stewart. Central would out
shoot you, out quick you, out hustle you,
and ultimately. Central woiild outdo you.
For 17 games, fans and coaches and
media said all this running would stop,
Central would run out of gas, and all these
outside shots would miss one- day, some
thing about the old cliche, "you live by the
jump shot, you die by the jump shot."
J.C. Smith assistant Andrew Mitchell
said as much in the days leading up to
Central's 18th game of the season against
i
- the Bulls. "They live by the jumper,'* he
said. "They . . Aw, you know the rest.
To that point, though, the shots hadn't
stopped falling. Central was ranked No. 5
in the nation and was undefeated.
But for a game, at least, Mitchell was
right. Smith whipped Central 105-81 as
Chris Parker and Tyrone Satterfield and
Robert Boykins all had big games for the
Bulls.
ut no other team would stop Central
the rest of the way, except Virginia Union, '
which won a showdown in Durham
towards the end of the regular season and
again defeated the Eagles in th$ CIAA
championship game.
"1 just hope," Jackson said after the
tournament loss, "that we get another
chance to play them down the road.**
Jackson's wish came true in the South
Atlantic Regionals in Fayetteville. Having
learned from his first two losses, BCSR's
coach of the year ordered his team to run
? with Union, something mosf-eoaches felt
was self-prescribed suicide. -
But running was Central - remember
the outrun, outplay, outdo stuff? - and
Central was going to run. So Jackson
played his game instead of slowing the
- ball down as he'd instructed his team to do
in the earlier meetings with Union, the
defending national champions.
And Union couldn't run with the
quick, determined Eagles. It was, in the
words of Dick Vitale, an "NCer." No con
test.
Baby.
So Central was going ba^k to Spring
field, Mass., to the Elite Eight, to The Big
Dance.
"Greg has done a fantastic job," said
J.C. Smith coach Steve Joyner. "Being
able to get his first head job and then tak
ing them as quickly as he did to that next
level, it says a lot about his ability. But to
be honest, I'm not surprised."
Joyner said he felt that in order for
Central to be good again, the school need
ed a change. The Eagles had won the
national title in 1989 under then-coach
Mike Bernard. But, in the years following,
Bernard had gotten increasingly frustrated
with the program.
"I think sometimes it just comes
down to the frustrations of the worker,"
Joyner said. "It can lead to low productivi
ty. Mike was a guy who'd become dissat- ^
isfied and did want to get out. Because of
that, he didn't function at the level he
wanted to or his team wanted to. That's
not being critical about him or his team,
it's just being factual. And that's saying a
lot of good things about Mike, because he
knew it was time for a change."
So Bernard went to Norfolk State two
years ago to face new challenges and
Jackson, Bernard's assistant in Durham,
stepped up and stepped out.
So Central lost a close game to Cal
State Bakersfield in the national quarter
finals. But guess what? Most of the Eagles
are back next season.
"God had had a lot to do with all
this," Jackson said. "Some coaches in this
league in a long time and have never had
the opportunity (to go to the Elite Eight). I
realize that as a second-year coach, I've
been fortunate."
But then coach, so has your school.
They have you.
"For more than a century, the first
choice of Carpi inas for news, commentary
and advertising."
? By Langston Wertz Jr.
"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."
Anon.
" ? 1
~ 3- .
JACKIE ROOSEVELT ROBINSON
1919-1972
Baseball Hall ofFamer, Businessman and Civil Rights Activist
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