University of Tennessee Athletics
GWEN JACKSON EMERGES AS CONSISTENT PLAYER
February 21, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2003
by Donnell Field
Volunteers Magazine
When Vol fans look back on the 2002-03 Lady Vol basketball season several things will come to mind, but the most important of those was the emergence of Gwen Jackson as a consistent post player who stepped up and became the player many thought she would be when she arrived on campus back in the fall of 1999.
It is the process by which every collegiate athlete goes through and for Jackson it really took form in her senior season.
The Eufaula, Ala., native came to Tennessee with high marks and great things were expected from her. But many a coach will tell you that a great high school player does not always translate into a great collegiate player. Some develop later than others, and many never reach the next level at all and fall by the wayside.
For Jackson the biggest change in her game has been the consistent play both offensively and defensively this season. It is the type of transformation that Assistant coach Mikki DeMoss has been waiting for in a young and talented collegiate player like Jackson.
"What Gwen has learned to do, whereas before she would let her offensive play effect other aspects of her game," said DeMoss. "She has matured into a player that if her first couple of shots are not falling then she still plays hard. She is still getting on the defensive boards, offensive boards, and defensively she is usually guarding one of the toughest players. So her defense is still there and she is getting loose balls, things like that. Used to if she missed her first couple of shots she would fall down in other areas of her game. She would let it affect her. I think that just comes with maturity and she has learned to play out of it better."
DeMoss compares Jackson to former Lady Vol Lisa Harrison, who in her senior season emerged into a dominating player that earned All-America honors and has continued her career in the WNBA.
"Her career has taken on the type of career Lisa Harrison had when she was here," said DeMoss.. "She was an All-American her senior year. She really stepped up her senior year. It was like all of a sudden the light came on. She became the player we all thought she could have been since she was a freshman. As coaches and fans we all get impatient. We have to let them go through that maturation process. And I think with Gwen that is kind of what I am seeing."
Jackson scored a career high 29 points against George Washington University back in November, and she averaging 14.0 ppg, good enough for second on the team behind senior guard Kara Lawson.
Jackson has the skills and the talent that she was chosen as a preseason nominee for the Naismith Player of the Year award and was also selected by the media as a preseason second-team All-SEC selection. After her performances against South Carolina and Mississippi State she earned SEC Player of the Week honors after averaging 21.5 ppg and 7.0 rpg.
"This year seems to be her best year," DeMoss said. "She is more consistent, more focused and seems more mature. In your senior year you have a sense of urgency that you don't have obviously when you are an underclassman."
The biggest reason Jackson is not on the first team is that there are several SEC players who are also strong candidates for All-America honors, such as South Carolina's Jocelyn Penn (who is ranked second in the country in scoring at 27.0 ppg), LSU's Seimone Augustus (14.6 ppg) and Mississippi State's LaToya Thomas (who is second in the conference in scoring behind Thomas at 24.6 ppg) and Tan White ( who is fourth in the league in scoring at 17.8 ppg).
The turnaround for Jackson really came after the Connecticut game where Jackson was having an awful shooting night and she let it affect the rest of her game. It also cost her playing time as she spent the remaining 18 minutes of the game sitting on the bench.
It was a telling time for her and what type of mark she would leave on this Lady Vol squad. But one of Jackson's biggest backers came from her own coach, as Pat Summitt knew just what buttons to push to get Jackson to respond.
"She has been consistent as of late," Summitt said. "I really think one of the hardest lessons came in one of the biggest games in the Connecticut game.
"Up to that point I had seen her get in games and not shoot well and not sprint the floor, not rebound and not defend like she is capable so I sat her the last 18 minutes. But I told her after that game, 'Hey I am going to start you the next game, and if you do that again you are going to sit. You do the other things and don't worry about your shot. It looks great. You are going to have some of those nights when they aren't going to fall. What are you going to bring to this team. Because I have Shyra Ely sitting the bench who is a world-class athlete that runs the floor, who boards and plays defense and we have to have that out of you.'
It is a point Summitt said hit home for Gwen and has made the difference.
"Since that time she has been after it. I think if I had been smarter I would have said that a year ago."
Since that point, Jackson has been on a terror, which has been bad news for the opposition. It has been obvious that the Lady Vols have another gear level when Gwen is playing at both ends of the court, as Coach DeMoss pointed out.
"We play at a different level when Gwen is playing at the top of her game. We go from a top six through fifteen team to a top three team. We jump a notch when Gwen is at the top of her game. So I think it takes a lot of pressure off of everybody, but in particularly Kara because she feels a lot of the load and pressure to score. With Gwen we were missing shots against Mississippi State and she was just cleaning up the offensive board. So you don't feel all that pressure to hit every shot or shoot an unbelievable percentage when you are getting on the offensive boards like that.
In wins over Alabama, DePaul, South Carolina and Mississippi State she scored 10, 18, 18 and 25 respectively.
Her efforts helped Tennessee run its conference mark to a perfect 5-0. In the rout of the Gamecocks, the 6'2" forward was 7-of-8 from the floor and totaled 18 points in only 16 minutes. During the 14-point win over the Lady Bulldogs, she posted her third double-double of the season with a 25-point, 12-rebound performance.
Jackson currently ranks second in the SEC in three-point field goal percentage at .463 (19-of-41), sixth in both field goal percentage (.593) and free-throw percentage (.758) and ninth in scoring average (15.7 ppg). In conference games only, the senior ranks second in field goal percentage (.712), third in scoring (20.4 ppg), sixth in three-point percentage (.455) and eighth from the charity stripe (.852).
On the week against the Gamecocks and the Bulldogs, Jackson was responsible for nearly a point-a-minute as she tallied 43 points in 45 minutes of action on the hardwood.
"I think Gwen is playing super basketball right now. She's focused on her defense and board play. She's working without the ball and has been working hard to get into position for the ball. I think she's committed to doing the dirty work. She's been hitting the boards and getting aggressive. Gwen has had to defend LaToya Thomas and Jocelyn Penn, who are two of the four best players in this league. Overall, she has stepped up defensively."
But when talking to Jackson about her outing against Mississippi State she is very low-key and knows there is always work to be done.
"We didn't play as well as we wanted to. Defense was our priority. Stopping LaToya Thomas is a tough job.
"It's an honor to play against LaToya. She's an awesome player. You're not going to keep her from scoring. If you can go a five-minute stretch where you limit her scoring, then going against other posts should be a breeze. She makes great moves. Her game speaks for a lot and you just try to limit her touches."
But it wasn't only Jackson's defense that led the way for the Lady Vols but her offense also was key to the win.
"I credit my teammates and my coaching staff. They tell me that I am a go-to player and score. This team is so unselfish and when one player gets on a roll, you go to them. I take one game at a time. As a senior, I have a responsibility to this team."
In UT's 19 outings, Jackson has reached double-figures 15 times, including five games of 25 points or more.
Coach Summitt see her play as a by-product of her maturing into a complete player.
"I think the biggest difference in Gwen has been she is committed to being a complete player," said Summitt. "In the past she let her offense affect her game. And now she is playing with more intensity and more of a commitment to rebounding the ball and playing good defense. It has been interesting because in the last two games (South Carolina and Mississippi State) she has had the toughest assignment of defending Jocelyn Penn and LaToya Thomas, and now she will go in and guard Shameka Christon, who is in the top three in scoring, so it has got her focused on defense."
As Jackson enters the final months of her career at Tennessee it is the time in the program that is making the biggest difference for Jackson and how her teammates rally around her.
"I think when you have been through this program for three plus years you learn a lot," Summitt said. "Just about what to expect and how to handle situations better. It is the adversity that she has learned to handle.
"It is important that your seniors step up and make big plays. That they lead by example and come to play every night. They can deliver a lot to our team and they have to be leaders. as well. I think Gwen's leadership has been by example, but I think that has ignited our team a lot. It has given them confidence and energy. She has really earned the respect of her teammates for the way she has played as of late.
It is a welcome site for a team looking to peak at the right time and make another run at title No. 7, which this year takes place just down I-75 in Atlanta.
