Loyola plays at 6 pm tonight vs Nevada
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For Aundre Jackson, senior at the University of Loyola, it has been quite a ride. He plays for the Ramblers who won the Missouri Conference with a record of 15-3, made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 33 years and have won their first two game to make the Sweet Sixteen as a ?Cinderalla? team. {{more: continue …}}?
Last week the 11th seed Ramblers not only upset 6th seed Miami, 64-62 but then went on to beat #3 seed Tennessee 63-62. Playing as 6th man, Jackson had 12 points against Miami and 16 against Tennessee.?
KHS Head Coach Doug Groff with former player Aundre Jackson after game in Dallas last week
But Kennedale gets to tag along on his shoe laces, you see Jackson represents the first time any Kennedale player has reached this level of the NCAA playoffs. For Head Coach Doug Groff who coached both he and Ty Charles on Kennedale?s first undefeated regular season team (33-0) that? ended with a state semi-final finish, it has been fun to watch both.?
The two players combined to set 6 individual records while at Kennedale including 940 rebounds (Charles), 537 assist (Charles), 66.5% field goal (Jackson), 746 field goals (Jaskson), 464 post feeds (Charles) and 336 deflections (Charles). It has to be noted that Jackson also won a perfect attendance award while at Kennedale.
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?Ty Charles – the 100 and the 500 Club at SFA? …
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Charles, playing for Stephen F Austin as a senior this year, helped bring SFA back to the NCAA Tournament after missing last year. In three of Charles?s four years at SFA, the Lumberjacks have made the March Madness. Twice they made it into the second round. Charles started as a freshman in 21 games and has a career win record of 100 plus games at SFA. He has also became the 10th player in SFA history with 500+ rebounds. SFA lost this year in the first round to Texas Tech.
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Aundre Jackson – JUCO star to 6th Man in Sweet 16 …?
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Jackson took a different route to the Big Dance. He enrolled at McLennan Community Colllege where he averaged 15 points and 7 rebounds per game as a sophomore and continued his pin point shooting, just shy of 65 % that ranked him 4th in the country. He helped McLennan to the JUCO national semi-finals that year.
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Earning a scholarship at Division I Loyola University in Chicago for his junior and senior years, Jackson continued his big play, earning the Missouri Valley Conference Sixth Man of the Year honor. This year, up to the NCAA Tournament, Jackson averaged 10.9 point per game while shooting 57.6 from the field.
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Key for Loyola so far …
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When asked about what he thought about Loyola after seeing them play last week, Coach Groff said that they have definitely had some really great players but they also seem to have that thing you can but on paper or in the records, team chemistry. ?They play really well together and that goes along way in winning close games.”
