By Dave Morrison
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The point guard has always been the driving force of Mountain State University’s high-octane offense.
When the Cougars made an unprecedented run to the national championship game in 2003, it was Reynardo Curry, an extraordinary scorer, who drove the bus.
The next year, when MSU beat Concordia to win the championship, Adrian “A.J.” Jackson, the best pure point guard to suit up for MSU, manned the point.
Before that, excellent points like Thaddeus Breckenridge and Tommy Fox ran the show.
So how does current point guard Jarvis Jackson stack up?
He has the Cougars among the leaders in scoring nationally, the team has a 30-2 mark, and if they run the table in Kansas City, a 35-2 record would be the second-best in school history.
Stat-wise, he is proficient, his 5.5 assists fourth nationally (and No. 1 in the NAIA national tournament field), and he is also averaging 8.2 points per game.
Notably, Jackson backed up Ralph Legg last season and now the role has reversed.
“Jarvis’ decision-making has improved over the last two years,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “He has accepted the point guard role and has done a great job running our offense. And that is an important component to making us go.”
Bolen refuses to make comparisons with former point guards.
I have no such reservations.
He has a little bit of Curry in him and a little bit of Adrian Jackson (no relation).
It’s no fluke.
“I’ve seen tapes of A.J. and Reynardo,” Jackson said. “Coach Barksdale gave me a couple of tapes of each one last year and I watched them.”
Look no further than the Independent Region Tournament and you’ll see the likeness of each.
In the first game, a win over Morris, Jackson had just two points but dished out 10 assists. That is an Adrian Jackson-type line.
In the championship win over Voorhees, he had 20 points and four assists.
That is a Curry-type line.
“When he needs to score 20 points and get four or five assists, he can do that,” Bolen said. “When he needs to score four to six points and get 10 to 12 assists, he can do that. That’s what I mean about his decision-making. “
“I can usually tell early in a game if they’re hugging James (Spencer) and Adron (Marshall),” Jackson said. “Obviously teams are going to try to take the ball out of James’ hands, he is the leading scorer in the nation. If they try to take the wings away, then I’m going to try to beat my man and create for our big men.”
A lot of times that leaves an open lane to the basket for the cat-quick Jackson.
The irony is, Jackson didn’t come to MSU as a point guard.
He was a two-guard at his junior college, Spartanburg Methodist, and he switched between one and two in high school.
He didn’t become a permanent point guard until last season.
“Which is fine, because I like passing the ball,” Jackson said.
Come on, every player likes to score points, that’s the way you win games.
“You’re right about that,” said Jackson, a happy-go-lucky guy who is seemingly always smiling. “Everybody wants to score. But right now we’re just worried about winning this first game. I’ll do whatever it takes to get us that win.”
While he didn’t come into the program as the point, he has certainly made his point at the position. And part of it is his infectious personality.
“It is an important position,” Bolen reiterated about his point guard. “But he has developed into a good leader and his teammates enjoy playing basketball with him. He’s a very high-energy player and he always has fun when he is on the court.”
