{"id":49441,"date":"2017-01-26T17:02:48","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T23:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=49441"},"modified":"2017-01-26T17:02:48","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T23:02:48","slug":"junior-college-transfer-finding-success-at-loyola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/junior-college-transfer-finding-success-at-loyola\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior college transfer finding success at Loyola"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elan Kane<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shawn Trochim, the McLennan (Tex.) Community College athletic director, called men\u2019s basketball coach Kevin Gill one day to talk about the actions of forward Aundre Jackson. But Jackson was not in trouble. Far from it.<\/p>\n

Trochim had just received a call about how Jackson and a few of his teammates had helped a family at a grocery store carry groceries to their car.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a good player but he\u2019s a better kid,\u201d said Gill.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For Jackson, now a junior playing at Loyola University, playing basketball and being a good person have always gone together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of believe in good karma, bad karma,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cWhenever I see somebody struggling, I try to help them out. Like with the family [in the grocery store] I saw that they had a lot of stuff so I helped them carry their stuff. Like with homeless people around my [home] neighborhood [or] around Loyola I just help them out because I know what it\u2019s like to not have much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it is the good karma or just hard work, Jackson is thriving at Loyola. He is ranked fourth in Division I men\u2019s basketball in field goal percentage, shooting 70.8 percent. He is also the second leading scorer on the Ramblers, averaging 14.8 points per-game and has been named the Missouri Valley Conference newcomer of the week three times this season.<\/p>\n

It all started in Texas. Jackson grew up in Kennedale, Texas, and started receiving Division II offers from schools after high school. He chose to first attend junior college at McLennan to
\ngive him a better opportunity to play at a higher level down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw people that I played against getting offers or scholarships and I felt I was just as good as them if not better,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

That motivation has stayed with Jackson throughout his collegiate career.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody didn\u2019t think I could do what I\u2019m doing,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cCollege coaches didn\u2019t take the chance on me, they didn\u2019t want to recruit me, they\u2019d sign me and then I\u2019d be undersized and I [couldn\u2019t] play for them. [I\u2019ve just] been overlooked for people that I feel I\u2019m better than, so I always play to prove that I\u2019m just as good or better than the people they took over me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s small size as a forward (he is currently listed at 6-5) has been a constant obstacle throughout his career, but his work ethic has helped him overcome it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore my varsity high school career started I would always get my shot blocked [and get] punked around because I was smaller but I played post,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

During the summers in high school Jackson would train with his coaches to develop ways to score over bigger players.<\/p>\n

Field goal percentage has always been a staple of Jackson\u2019s skillset. He holds the record at his high school for the most fields made and highest field goal percentage, and still recalls the game he shot 10-for-10 from the field.<\/p>\n

Gill attributed Jackson\u2019s field goal accomplishments to his game knowledge and confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a combination of taking good shots \u2013 he doesn\u2019t take a lot of bad shots at all \u2013 and he takes shots that he thinks he can make.\u201d Gill said.<\/p>\n

But the transition from playing junior college basketball to Division I basketball has not always been smooth for Jackson. He struggled around Christmas time to score with consistency, but Loyola coach Porter Moser said he did not expect anything different from a first-year player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care whether you\u2019re [coming from] high school or junior college, there\u2019s always a learning curve,\u201d Moser said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson admitted he got too comfortable but said his teammates helped him regain his confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we got into the conference play, everybody turned it up to another level and I don\u2019t think I did that,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cWhen I was going through those bad games, my teammates were just telling me they know I\u2019m a beast, they know what I can do, so [I should not] lose my confidence. Just keep coming to practice, keep coming to games ready to play and then everything will fix itself, which it kind of did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moser emphasized the importance for Jackson to perform at a high level this late in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s crafty,\u201d Moser said. \u201cWe need a low post threat and he\u2019s our best one and we\u2019ve got to continue to get big games out of him down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, Gill said he is proud of Jackson\u2019s on-court achievements, but especially proud of his off-court ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just so happy for him. It couldn\u2019t have happened to a better guy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Aundre Jackson warms up before a game against Bradley on Wednesday Jan. 27. (Elan Kane\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elan Kane Shawn Trochim, the McLennan (Tex.) Community College athletic director, called men\u2019s basketball coach Kevin Gill one day to talk about the actions of forward Aundre Jackson. But Jackson was not in trouble. Far from it. Trochim had just received a call about how Jackson and a few of his teammates had helped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":49799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3516],"tags":[3630,597,396,3537,3631,545],"class_list":["post-49441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2017","tag-aundre-jackson","tag-basketball","tag-college","tag-loyola","tag-profile","tag-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nJunior college transfer finding success at Loyola - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/junior-college-transfer-finding-success-at-loyola\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Junior college transfer finding success at Loyola - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Elan Kane Shawn Trochim, the McLennan (Tex.) Community College athletic director, called men\u2019s basketball coach Kevin Gill one day to talk about the actions of forward Aundre Jackson. But Jackson was not in trouble. Far from it. 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