Playing for an Oregon women’s basketball team that has its ups and downs in recent years, nobody has a smile on her face quite like Jillian Alleyne.
Always punctual and mature, Alleyne’s positivity shines as the most prominent player in the program. There’s not a day that Alleyne doesn’t have a smile on her face, her mother, Pamela Williamson, said.
“My mom has always been a very positive person. She’s never really down. Worried? Yes. But she’s taught me you’re wasting time by being worried, down or sad,” Alleyne said. “Why not have a positive outlook on everything?”
Williamson admires her daughter’s punctuality and responsibility, balancing basketball and school during her high school years.
“I would be lagging, gaging, she would be like ‘Mom, we have to be on time.’ It came to the point where she would walk home from school,” Williamson said. “She always had that responsibility.”
During Alleyne’s freshman season, the Ducks went 4-27. The wheels fell off. Instead of getting down, Alleyne found inspiration and positivity in the moment.
“You have to keep finding hope to keep going on,” Alleyne said. “I think we’ve done so much better with that. Being a team that fights and can come back, it’s given us so much positive outlook.”
One time, Williamson fell asleep when she was scheduled to pick up Alleyne from school. She awoke surprised to see Alleyne home, after making the 30 minute walk as a 16-year-old.
“I was overwhelmed,” Williamson said. “I almost cried. To see how mature she was, walking home from school, on her own.”
Alleyne’s roommate freshman year — Devyn Galland, now at St. Mary’s College in the Bay Area after transferring from Oregon — says that Alleyne has kept in contact with her through the years. They text, Snapchat and FaceTime, always keeping a positive outlook on life. Alleyne visited Galland in Washington last summer, which she said was long overdue.
“Jill was always a great encourager on and off the court,” Galland said in an email. “If you had a rough game or even a rough day she would do her best to pick you up.”
Galland remembers a time she was down and Alleyne left her a pack of Oreos on her dorm room bed. Alleyne said Galland is like her sister.
“She tries her best and often succeeds in showing that everyone matters,” she said.
Galland joined Alleyne in former coach Paul Westhead’s 2011 recruiting class. Alleyne said it took a little for the pair to warm up to each other, but they quickly became close.
“It’s very important to me to still have that relationship with her because she was my first roommate ever, and I love her a lot,” Alleyne said.
It’s that mentality that led to success. Win or lose, Alleyne will likely address the media after Thursday’s game against Washington State in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament.
People she won’t know will ask her poignant questions about the game.
There’s no doubt she will be positive.
It’s the only way she knows.
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne