This Vandal's Never Wrong
By Dale Grummert, Lewiston Tribune

December 15, 1996

Whenever a school makes a coaching change, one has a tendency to scan the roster for possible "victims" -- players who on some literal or psychological level will fall by the wayside.

At Idaho last spring, one might have circled Jason Jackman's name.

More than any other Vandal, his fate seemed tied to that of Joe Cravens. He signed with him when the latter was a University of Utah assistant in 1992, he floundered a bit in Cravens' absence the following year and, after a one-year junior-college exile, he spurned Nevada-Las Vegas and the entire Western Athletic Conference to join Cravens' ill-fated adventure at Idaho.

If one subscribes to the theory that athletes assume certain traits of their coach, and that to be a Cravens player implied a frankness, an emotionalism and a touch of blue-collar flamboyance, Jackman last season was a Cravens player.

A 6-foot-9 post, he defied basketball's prevailing shaved-head ethos with a longish, wavy coif (with goatee) that drew catcalls on the road -- "What is this, a beauty contest?" -- and mixed interestingly with his finesseful postwork, his muffled chipping at the officials and his occasional flare-ups of temper. The most notable outburst came at Idaho State when Rob Preston teasingly handed him the basketball and Jackman fired it back at him.

This season, the hair is trimmed -- a girlfriend's edict, not the coach's -- and the emotions are less visible. The statistics have climbed, and so has the grade-point average. The postwork is more focused, the defense crisper, the rebounding more consistent.

Jackman appears to have become, among other things, a Kermit Davis player.

In a way, it was inevitable. Two players who did, for one reason or another, become casualties of the coaching transition -- Nate Gardner and David Sturing -- were fellow posts, and Davis signed only one post himself, reserve Kevin Byrne.

So Jackman is too valuable to be a victim, and much of Idaho's success this season may hinge on the performance of this slender senior with the deft turnaround jumper and gossamer jump-hook.

Heading into a border-rivalry game Saturday at Washington State, Jackman leads the Vandals with a 15.7 scoring average and 88-percent foul-shooting through six games, while averaging 5.3 rebounds.

"I think he has matured, on and off the floor, as much as anybody I've been around, in so short of time," Davis says. "Jason and I met a number of times (last spring) and talked about what he needs to do to meet his goals. Jason has a goal to graduate from this school (in sociology) in May, and to make some money playing basketball (probably overseas). The main thing he needed to do was to consistently play harder for longer periods of time. I think he's done that."

Jackman grew up in Las Vegas, the son of a stucco contractor who moved to Hurricane, Utah, when Jackman was a junior in high school. He signed with Utah at Cravens' behest, but there are indications that Utes head coach Rick Majerus was less pleased with Jackman than was his assistant. A year after Cravens took the Idaho job in 1993, Majerus told Jackman, if he wanted to start the following year, he should probably transfer.

To avoid forfeiting a year of eligibility as an NCAA transfer, he spent a season at Dixie College in St. George, Utah, where his options multiplied. Schools in the WAC and Big Sky pursued him, as did Nevada-Las Vegas, Kansas State and Tim Floyd at Iowa State.

But he remained loyal to Cravens and chose Idaho.

"That was definitely a weird choice, now that I look back on it," he says.

Not that his fondness for Cravens has dampened, or that he had a horrible season; he averaged 12 points a game while shooting 56 percent from the field. But, of course, the season was soured by a 12-15 record and Cravens' firing.

Now Jackman speaks of fate.

"I think everything happens for a reason," he says "This year has to be a great year, I figure."

Vandal fans will be pleased to learn that Jackman is never, ever wrong, according to his friend and teammate Kris Baumann.

"He's a very confident person," Baumann says. "I don't think I've ever won an argument with him. He'll go down being wrong rather than say you're right. Whatever he believes in, that's kind of the way it is with him. There's nothing wrong with that. It shows in the way he plays -- you never see any indecision in him."

This defiance comes in handy on the road, because even a shorn Jackman seems to invite the derision of fans. Last week, in his first visit to Idaho State since the Preston incident, Jackman maintained his composure while ISU fans behind Idaho's bench launched into the Batman theme -- "Na na na na na na na na. ... Jack-man!"

"I don't know how they pick who they harass, but I'm it every time," Jackman says. "What I don't understand is they'll chant your name. Hell, I love that."

Playing the superhero, it seems, is better than playing the victim.

Back to the Vandal Sports Page