Basketball Notebook
Timid? Take That, Says Lackey Center In a Breakout Year
Lackey center Tayvon Jackson has nearly doubled his scoring average from last season and is averaging 12 rebounds.
(By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)
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Thursday, January 5, 2006
One word. That's all it takes to turn 6-foot-9 Tayvon Jackson from a confident honor roll student into an insecure mess.
Soft.
It was a label that dogged the Lackey center last season as a junior despite the Chargers' winning 16 games with Jackson in the middle.
"A lot of people said I was timid, and that bothered me a lot," said Jackson, who averaged only eight points per game last season. "I said I wasn't going to get pushed around anymore."
So Jackson pushed back and has made perhaps the most startling improvement among any player in the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference over last season. After a summer of top-tier AAU competition and the confidence gained from signing a Division I scholarship to Mount St. Mary's, Jackson is exuding the dominance first-year coach Tony Mast hoped for. Jackson is averaging 15 points, 12.4 rebounds and 7.8 blocks as Lackey started 4-1 heading into last night's game against Northern.
"Before the season," Mast said, "I told him, 'You're going to be dominant. You have no reason not to.' "
Following a career-high 25 points (to go with 14 rebounds and 7 blocks) against Patuxent on Dec. 13, Jackson faced three straight Prince George's County opponents -- Surrattsville, Gwynn Park and Oxon Hill. Not only did he average 14.3 points, 13.3 rebounds and 10 blocks in those games, but Jackson twice posted triple-doubles -- against Surrattsville and Oxon Hill.
Jackson said he had never had a double-double before this season.
"I felt like I improved a whole lot since last year," said Jackson, who bulked up to about 200 pounds and added a nice hook shot to his offensive game. "I got a lot stronger. They can't push me off the blocks anymore."
Jackson has traded his awkward and tentative displays for a more aggressive and commanding approach that befits the SMAC's tallest player. Mast said Jackson is not afraid to lower his shoulder into a defender or drive hard to the basket for a dunk.
That might be the biggest difference from last season. Jackson said his only dunks came in transition. Given his size, Jackson knew he could dunk off half-court moves. Yet he said he was "worried about the contact."
"You could tell things changed, because now he's got confidence," Mast said. "Now he's dunking in half-court sets. He now knows he can dunk it on people and take it to them with force. The biggest difference is his intensity. He's not afraid of anybody."
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