High Desert’s Shackelford has the Tide rolling
They say nothing good happens at 4 a.m.
But if you happened to be driving around in Hesperia in the wee hours last summer, you might have noticed Jaden Shackelford, sidestepping his way up a sidewalk, sometimes with his dad Anthony right with him.
“People are used to that here,”
Jaden said. “They see us out there doing crazy stuff and they say,
‘That’s just Shack and his pops.’”
Shackelford is the leading scorer for Alabama, second-seeded in its region of the NCAA Tournament and
UCLA’s Sweet 16 opponent on Sunday night.
Coach Nate Oats showed Shackelford, through
endless film cut-ups and analytics sheets, that he needed to sharpen up his defense. Since moderation is not an option, Jaden worked in the garage and then on the street. Darkness, High Desert heat and inconvenience are no match for Shackelford’s drive to be whatever he’ll be.
“I put a basketball in the crib,” his dad said. “He was shooting when he was one year old. I’ve always known he was special. What I’ve done is try to support him. When he comes knocking on my door in the middle of the night, ready to work out, it’s my job as a father to follow through.”
The Shackelfords regularly worked out before sunrise in Hesperia, then Jaden would practice for Hesperia High, and after dinner they’d go back to the gym. One night the wrestling team arrived home from a faraway meet and saw Jaden out there hooping.
Fanaticism bred results. Shackelford averaged 20 points per game as a junior and 34.5 as a senior, and 45 in Hesperia’s league games.
“Old guys from L.A. were coming to watch him,” Anthony said. “Eight games in a row he scored 50 or more.
The Ball brothers’ agent checked him out.
“And one guy became Jaden’s ‘hype man.’ He put on a show. He’d walk in the gym wearing an apron and had a spatula in his hand. He’d pass out these plates to everybody, and on the plates it would say, ‘Jaden’s eating.’ It was great.”
However, the local schools weren’t biting, not that UCLA and USC have to apologize for their personnel decisions at the moment. Shackelford had played with Jaime Jaquez Jr., now a Bruin, on The Truth, their EYBL team. Oregon State, Kansas State and UNLV tried to fill the void, but Avery Johnson, the former NBA guard and coach, won over the Shackelfords. He was coaching Alabama.
“He saw Jaden play one quarter in Vegas, after he’d heard a little chatter,” Anthony said. “He offered him (a scholarship) immediately.”
But before Shackelford enrolled, Alabama fired Johnson and hired Oats, who had coached Buffalo to an upset of Arizona in a second-round game.
“The next morning, he flew into John Wayne Airport,” Anthony said. “We had a time-share in Orange County. He met with us for a day and made us a priority. For sure, he had to re-recruit us.
“I’m not a tongue-biter. I’ll tell you what’s on my mind. Now coach and I call each other brothers.”
Alabama is 26-6 and won the SEC, and 47 percent of its shots are 3-pointers. The Crimson Tide combines fast offense with rapt defense, holding opponents to 28 percent shooting from the 3-point line. Of the remaining teams, only Gonzaga plays faster than Alabama, and only Loyola Chicago plays slower than UCLA. Bui the Tide has shown it can win games in mud. Can the Bruins win on a hamster’s wheel?
Shackelford’s decision to stay at Alabama was true to his personality. “You don’t run into rude people there,” he said, “and once I got used to the slower pace, I loved it.”
Anthony says “12 or 13” prep schools tried to pry Jaden out of Hesperia before his senior year, offering a chance to take his game coast to coast.
“He wasn’t going to be a 20-year-old senior,” Anthony said firmly. “This is a kid who didn’t have a cellphone until he was 18. Whatever he’s doing, he’s dialed in. Look, I’ve had Jaden hooked up to my Ford Expedition with a bungee cord, hooked him to blocks. We do stuff nobody can believe. But he’s been receptive.”
“He’s going to push me but he’s also going to sit down and talk to me,” Jaden said. “It’s been intense since I was in the fourth grade. That’s what I needed. There’s no way I was going to run away from home, in high school. I wasn’t going to be away from my family.”
After all, everybody knows there’s a road to the Final Four. Few have actually walked it, sideways if necessary.