Willie Mosley
Staff Writer
Eight games into the season Jackson State University Men’s basketball team may have a 1-7 record but can still claim many moral victories.
Coming into the season after losing 10 players from last year’s club and bringing in nine newcomers, many would believe that this would be a rebuilding year. A year in which Jackson State’s tradition rich basketball program would not be competitive returning only one starter from last year’s team. Many would support that notion of not being competitive this year after getting blowed out in back to back losses to ranked opponents in the University of Florida and Baylor University. Both teams scored 90-plus points on an young and inexperienced JSU team that looked shocked and confused at times.
But since then JSU has seemingly found a nitch defensively and has even won a game. Outside of beating Concordia at home JSU has proved to be very competitive in losses to Tulsa, Wright State, and even giving 22nd ranked Memphis all they could handle for the first half of play this past Monday night on Foxsportsouth. Much of that has to be credited to the play of Kelsey Howard an outstanding freshman from Vicksburg, Miss. Howard has averaged close to 15 points per game and has stepped up to the plate this season for JSU.
JSU assistant Coach Eric Strothers said, that Kelsey Howard is a special player and he could tell he was a mid-major prospect when he recruited him out of high school. On a team that JSU has no other choice but to play three to four freshman on the court at a time, progress has definitely been made and if you’re a box score fan you can tell a huge difference in the rebounding department since Sophomore post-player Willie Readus has started playing. Readus a native of Morton, Miss. missed the first six games of the season because of an eye injury he suffered in the pre-season. But since he has been released he has logged in significant minutes and has helped Jackson State almost come away with a victory vs. North Florida and be competitive vs. 22nd ranked Memphis. In the 69 to 60 loss to North Florida, Readus scored ten points and fouled out with three minutes left during a time in which the game was tied. JSU never found its rhythm after he fouled out and the same could be said vs. Memphis a game in which JSU were only down by six points at the half and ended up losing 70-45.
Coach Strothers sighted the first quarter of the season as a learning experience and a chance for the younger players to get exposure and prepare them for the conference play.
“We’re young but I think this is the best freshman class we ever had with Kelsey doing what he needs to do and Keeslee Stewart a freshman from Hinds AHS giving us good minutes.” Strothers even went on to talk about the front court in that junior center Raymond Gregory is working extremely hard and sophomore Jamarious Sykes is going to come on strong during conference play.
JSU can also say that they have arguably one of the best backcourts in the conference this year with the combination of Christian Williams, Jenirro Bush, and Kelsey Howard. Williams a combo guard moved to point guard because of the absence of Rod Melvin has played great in spurts this season but is still learning the position Strothers said. And as far as Howard and Bush goes, opposing teams are well aware of what both can do. “I believe that Howard’s success has been because of Bush’s success and opposing teams have targeted Bush not knowing of Howard’s ability but now teams know of Howard and its Bush’s time. Bush just has to be patient and let the game come to him. We maybe young this year but I can guarantee we will play hard every game and we will be okay when we start conference play.”
