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went to the basement every day to work on the ball-handling drills from practice. Caryn thought she was going to tear the house up at first when she heard the ball crash into the furnace or television stand.
Eventually, it started sounding like music. After about three weeks, it sounded so smooth that Caryn pointed it out to her oldest son and then immediately called Rickea’s godmother, Debra Walker, who played at Cheyney State.
“She got it ... I don’t know what it is, but she got that ‘it’ factor,” Caryn said she told Walker. “From that moment on, she just was determined to be great ... I explained to her what the process looks like to be a great player, and Rickea nailed every one — every one. That’s why she’s successful, because she trusts the process and she works hard at it.”
Why Rickea Jackson is ready to meet the moment
Monique Brown was accustomed to the one-word texts from Jackson. “Gym?”
Brown, the athletic director and girls basketball coach at Detroit Edison, told Jackson two things in seventh grade: she’d never go hungry, and Brown would never tell her no when she asked to get in the gym.
“She took both of those and I swear she ran with it,” Brown said with a chuckle. Jackson arrived early and stayed late after practices. She was also sending Brown “gym?” texts at all times of the day, whether it was 6 a.m. on Christmas morning or Saturday nights.
Jackson spent six years playing for and training with Brown, who watched Jackson start from scratch and develop into the No. 7 recruit in her class by her sophomore year. She saw Jackson take a team that was so bad her freshman year that other schools tried to get her to transfer, and lead them to three straight state titles. Her work ethic created a standard, and players in the next three classes won Miss Basketball after Jackson in 2019.
Brown will never forget the final minutes of the first championship and how Jackson demanded the ball in the huddle.
“She did a rip and drive and got an and-one out of it, and it was like, ‘Whoa, OK, we have a superstar,’ ” Brown said.
She showed a fearlessness that’s still a hallmark of her game, and how she can — and wants to — meet the moment. Every player is willing to make the game-winning shot, but Jackson is willing to miss it.
“It’s easy to say you want it, but can you handle it? And she can play on the biggest stage, and she wants the ball,” Tennessee coach Kellie Harper said. “She wants to take the tough shot, and she has that much confidence in herself. That’s what separates her.”
The competitive fire that fuels Rickea Jackson
Jackson couldn’t bring herself to smile with a silver medal hanging around her neck.
Not after Mississippi State had made it all the way to the championship of the 2019 World University Games. Not after she had scored a game-high 18 points in the gold medal game before playing a single minute in college, and they lost by only eight points.
The players lining up on the podium were asked to smile, and everyone obliged — except Jackson. Her face was straight, her head tilted to the right. Brown called it Jackson’s “sore loser face.”
“She just couldn’t bring herself to do it,” Caryn said. “Before the actual photo, (they were) trying to talk to her to get her to smile and she just couldn’t do it. She just could not do it. So that picture right there, you can see the baby in her.”
Rickea grew up with three brothers in a competitive family, and even before she started basketball — when it was cheerleading, jazz and tap dancing or singing in the choir — she wanted to be the best.
Tennessee assistant Samantha Williams, who has worked with WNBA veterans like Jasmine Thomas and Chelsea Gray at Duke, called Jackson one of the most competitive players she has ever coached.
Jackson isn’t the same 18-year-old who couldn’t fake looking happy in second place. Last summer, after she led Team USA to a silver medal at the FIBA AmeriCup, there was a smile on her face.
“I think you have to hate losing to be elite, and she hates it,” Harper said. “It’s got to eat you up inside. I think it’s OK to be respectful and professional after a loss, I think that’s important, that shows and displays maturity. But I know when we lose, she’s struggling.
“She hates losing — and all the great ones do.”
Why Rickea Jackson never quit
Walker spends most of the time listening when she talks to her goddaughter.
People talk to Jackson enough. Walker prefers to listen to Jackson’s perspective, to hear what she’s thinking. They talked for two hours one evening after coach Vic Schaefer left Mississippi State after Jackson’s freshman year. Everyone expected Rickea to leave, and even Caryn tried talking her into leaving. But Rickea couldn’t abandon her teammates. And she didn’t want anyone thinking she was a quitter, because “Rickea never quit on anything,” Walker said.
“If I quit now, I’m going to quit the rest of my life,” Jackson told Walker. “If I stop now, I’m going to continue to stop. I have to see this through.”
That mentality carried her through a college career that didn’t have any shortage of bad breaks or setbacks. The pandemic ended her freshman year early, there were three coaching changes at MSU and an injury sidelined Jackson for eight games this season, just when it looked like she was going to have her All-American year.
“She’s put herself in position to be one of the best players in the country, regardless of the journey that she’s had to get here,” Harper said. “I 100% believe she’s going to be a terrific pro ... she will not just be a pro, I think she’ll be really successful at the next level, I do. I wholeheartedly believe in that.”
There’s no question that Jackson’s best days are ahead of her. The fact that she wasn’t in position to win the top accolades in college holds no weight at the next level, which she has always been preparing for. It’s always been about the next level. That’s why Caryn didn’t start Rickea with “baby basketball” and threw her out there in an AAU practice from the jump.
“The people who know, they know. And the people who are in this game for accolades, they’ll never know,” Walker said. “You have kids who were AllAmericans two years ago, and they’re sitting at home. So, her thing is longevity. It’s not about All-SEC or All-American. It’s not about that.
“At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, Rickea Jackson will be standing by herself, I guarantee you.”
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
“I think it’s OK to be respectful and professional after a loss, I think that’s important, that shows and displays maturity. But I know when we lose, she’s struggling. “She losing — and all the great ones do.”