Adversity, journey toughen Detroit’s Rickea Jackson, Tennessee star
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Reflecting on her journey through college basketball with just a few regular-season games left in her career, Rickea Jackson wouldn’t change a thing.
She’d still leave Detroit for Starkville, Mississippi, as an 18-year-old to go play for Mississippi State and then-head coach Vic Schaefer, and stick with the Bulldogs through his departure — and the departure of his successor. And she’d certainly make the decision to transfer to Tennessee in early 2022 to be a Lady Vol all over again.
“I’m so blessed that I went through the adversity that I went through,” Jackson said. “I would not be as strong-minded as I am today. I would not have that chip on my shoulder. The grit. I don’t feel like I would have all of that.”
Jackson, a three-time state champion for Detroit Edison, 2019 Michigan Miss Basketball and a former McDonald’s All-American, is on the precipice of being a top WNBA draft selection after starring for the Bulldogs and now Tennessee (17-10, 10-5 SEC). After earning All-SEC honors last year with the Lady Vols, the only thing that has slowed Jackson this year have been injuries, which have kept the 19-plus-points per game scorer sidelined for a spate of games in 2023-24.
And coming off a 27-point outing in a payback win against Texas A&M on Thursday, Jackson and Tennessee are gearing up for the SEC and NCAA Tournament. Their final regular-season test will be on the road against No. 1 and undefeated South Carolina on Sunday at noon.
“She knows what she wants and she knows what she needs to do to get it,” said Kellie Harper, the Tennessee women’s basketball head coach.
Heading to Starkville
As a star at Detroit Edison, Jackson didn’t want to think about a college future much. Be it naivete or single-minded focus, all Jackson cared about was basketball. Jackson recalls getting her head coach, Monique Brown, to open up the gym before school so she could shoot before coming back later in the evening, after practice, for Jackson to get even more work in. It made for basically three practices a day.
Eventually, Jackson got around to college recruitment. Plus, it wasn’t like college coaches were going to ignore a top-10 high school prospect.
Jackson finally signed and went to Mississippi State after graduating in 2019 for two big reasons: She wanted to play for Schaefer, and felt she could follow in the footsteps of then-Bulldog power forward Victoria Vivians.
It was ultimately the care she felt from Schaefer that sold her on the Bulldogs.
“Especially coming out of high school as if I was a parent, I would send my daughter there as well, just based off of how much he cares about you off the court,” Jackson said. “He literally felt like a second dad to me.”
The Bulldogs program was also thriving then, coming off multiple Final Four runs in recent years. And things started auspiciously enough, with Jackson averaging more than 15 points a game and the Bulldogs…
Read More: Adversity, journey toughen Detroit’s Rickea Jackson, Tennessee star 2024-03-02 04:03:48