Jackson follows heart in becoming a Bulldog
People tried to warn women's basketball player Rickea Jackson about the hot weather and bugs of Mississippi.
That did not keep the Detroit, Michigan, native, from following her heart and attending Mississippi State.
It has been an outstanding freshman season for Jackson with the Bulldogs and now she is the one bugging MSU'S opponents.
“I didn't listen to what outsiders were saying,” Jackson said. “When making my decision, people were just saying Mississippi as a state, ‘I don't think you will like it.' I took my visit and fell in love with it. It feels really good that my gut feeling was right.”
Jackson has become one of the top newcomers in the nation this season. She was chosen to the Allsoutheastern Conference second team this week, made the SEC Allfreshman team and was announced as a finalist for the Gillom Trophy, which recognizes the best women's college basketball player in Mississippi.
The three-time SEC Freshman of the Week has accounted for 22 percent of MSU'S scoring during conference play with six of her 12 double-digit scoring games during league play going over the 20-point mark. She was the only freshman in the SEC to score over 30 points with a career-high 34 points in a Bulldog win at Auburn.
Jackson has emerged as MSU'S leading scorer with 14.5 points per game. In SEC games only, she ranks fifth among all players with 16.5 points per outing and eighth in field goal percentage (.480) and is the second-leading rebounder for the Bulldogs at 5.4 boards per game.
The progress of Jackson has been because of the attention to detail in practice.
“Just seeing the things we do in practice pay off with so many drills and taking so many game situations into the game,” Jackson said. “It builds my confidence to know my teammates trust me to get the ball and coaches put me in position to be successful.”
MSU head coach Vic Schaefer wants to keep all of his young players moving forward and not backward.
With this week's SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, it will again be a new experienced for Jackson and the other freshmen Bulldogs.
“We've got an opportunity,” Schaefer said. “We want to stay humble and stay hungry. You start drinking that Kool-aid, it's not a good thing. When you get a little older and more mature, you have a better understanding of it. When you are young, you can get full of that pretty quick.”