Texas Tech basketball faces son of Lady Raider legend

Today, the Texas Tech basketball team will take on a familiar face and the son of Lady Raider legend Sherryl Swoopes when Jordan Jackson leads UTRGV into Lubbock.

Though most Texas Tech basketball fans pay no attention to UT Rio Grande Valley, when the Red Raiders face the Vaqueros today, there will be at least on face on their team that is somewhat familiar. But his face is nowhere near as recognizable in Lubbock as his mother’s.

The leading scorer for UTRGV is Jordan Jackson, a 6-foot-3 guard and the son of Lady Raider legend Sherryl Swoopes, arguably the best women’s basketball player of all-time. And back in 2015-16, Jackson himself represented the Scarlet and Black.

As a true freshman, he saw action in 23 games totaling 26 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals. But when TUbby Smith, who recruited him, took the job at Memphis, Jackson left the program.

He didn’t travel far though as he wound up at Midland college where he averaged 9.0 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting .439 (82-for-187) from the field in 26 games as a sophomore. The next year, he found his way to Brownsville to join the Vaqueros.

But his career at UTRGV got off to a disappointing start. In 2017-18, he saw action in only five games before an injury ended his season. He’s back now as a graduate student and playing well.

Thus far, he is UTRGV’s leading scorer at 14.9 p.p.g. He’s had nine double-digit games including a season-high 29 against North Dakota State.

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A volume shooter to say the least, he’s averaging 13.1 shots per game. That’s 2.5 more than Tech’s most frequent shooter, Davide Moretti averages.

When he came out of St. Pius X High School in Houston, Jackson was known as a slasher and an elite jumper but not a shooter. It appears that hasn’t changed much.

This year, he’s just a 19.5% shooter from behind the arc. But that hasn’t stopped him from letting it fly from deep. He’s averaging 3.1 attempts per game and four times this year, he’s shot at least five 3’s.

Now he returns to play in an arena where he got his start in the college ranks. What’s more, he will play under the gaze of his mother’s retired jersey hanging from the rafters and her name in the Ring of Honor.

"“That’s just like LeBron James going back to play against Cleveland. You always want to go back to where you first started and it’s always a special moment,” Jackson told The Monitor. “Hopefully we can come in here and play the brand of basketball I know we can play as a team and be victorious.”"

It has to be a special game for Jackson, who didn’t get to play in Lubbock last year when his team lost to the Red Raiders 71-46. Now, he gets his shot at his former team and the school that made his mom famous…or vice versa.

Of course, Swoopes led Tech to the 1993 National Title, which was until the 2019 men’s track title the only national championship in school history. In her two years with the Lady Raiders, she averaged 24.1 points per game. She then went on to win 3 Olympic Gold Medals and 4 WNBA championships.

As for her son, he isn’t lacking confidence despite his team being a decided underdog today.

"“Like coach says, ‘It’s the perfect opportunity for the right people,” he told The Monitor. “We’re going to take advantage of this opportunity and we’ll come out there and shock the world. In college basketball nowadays, everybody’s getting beat.”"

There was a time when no one dominated the game of college basketball quite like Jackson’s mom. But though he seems to believe that his team can pull the upset today, he will likely have to channel his inner Sherryl Swoopes if he is going to lead UTRGV to a win in the arena where his mother’s larger-than-life image is one of the first sights many see when they walk through the doors.

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