Nia Jackson does not want to do this interview. She looks down at the surgical scar on her left knee, and the discomfort is palpable. After all, it’s a difficult endeavor to discuss a lost season, a disappointing event.
The redshirt freshman from Seattle was pegged by the Oregon coaching staff as a possible starter for the 2008-09 season at the point guard position. Coming into camp in August, as the team prepared for a 10-day exhibition tour of Italy, Jackson was excited about playing basketball again. She had sprained the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee last February and had missed the final 13 games of her freshman season. This season would be a year for redemption.
“I was so excited for this year,” Jackson said. “I really had a basketball mentality to be in the gym, working on my game, working with the coaches.”
Her coaches were equally excited. They knew what Jackson could bring to the team.
“Even before her freshman year, what we saw in Nia was something that this program didn’t have,” assistant coach Willette White said. “Her speed, her quickness, her ability to handle the ball, her ability to go coast to coast and score in traffic, even against bigger players – Nia has that in her, and that’s obviously going to be coming out in a year when she gets healthy.”
Out for the season
It’s late in the fourth quarter, and the Ducks are in control. Oregon is in Treviso, Italy on Sept. 4, playing its second exhibition game on the fourth day of the trip, against the Italian club team Giants Basket Marghera. The outcome is no longer in doubt; the Ducks would win the game, 66-40, en route to a four-game sweep during their trip.
The Ducks create a turnover, and Jackson receives the ball around midcourt in a fast break situation. With a Marghera player between her and the basket, attempting to stop her, Jackson executes a forceful jump stop in anticipation of a layup.
“My knee just popped back and tore,” Jackson said.
As she crumpled to the ground, there was little doubt as to the severity of the injury.
“They way she screamed and the way she reacted, we all knew this wasn’t a good situation,” White said.
“What’s funny, and what my teammates laugh about today, is that after I screamed, I laughed,” Jackson said. “It was a laugh like, are you kidding me?”
“I knew exactly what I did at that point. I tore it completely. No doubt in my mind.”
Head coach Bev Smith would later confirm what everyone suspected in a team meeting that night: Jackson had torn the ACL in her left knee. Her season would be over before school even started.
Hurting in paradise
With the team on a tight schedule, Jackson did not receive immediate treatment at an Italian hospital. Trainer Tori Noda stayed in constant communication with team physician Robert Crist, and Jackson received painkillers and wrapping on her swollen knee.
Walking was no longer an option, and Jackson spent the remainder of the trip on crutches. Pain in her left knee prevented her from enjoying many of Italy’s tourist attractions.
“She couldn’t climb to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa with all of us,” said Tatianna Thomas, a fellow sophomore guard and Jackson’s roommate. “She wasn’t able to do some of the stuff she wanted to because she was on crutches.”
“There were some times that she stayed behind, just because she couldn’t keep up,” White said. “Her teammates were great, not letting her feel left out.”
The excitement that Jackson had felt upon embarking for Italy waned significantly, on and off the court.
“Italy’s beautiful, wonderful, but it was just a terrible experience.”
The road of rehabilitation
The Ducks returned to Eugene on Sept. 11, and Jackson received a medical examination two days later. Doctors felt her knee and could instantly tell. Her season was truly over.
Jackson had her scheduled surgery on Sept. 23, as soon as the swelling in her left knee went down. She had never gone under the knife, and the thought scared her.
“There were a lot of positive people around me, keeping me motivated,” she said. “They said, ‘You’re gonna be a stronger person. You’re gonna be more mentally focused.’ I believed them. I just tried to keep a positive outlook on everything.”
The battle of positive thinking was hard-won. Once classes resumed, Jackson struggled with walking around campus for long periods of time. Once practices resumed, she felt like crying because of her inability to join her teammates. She spent six days a week in rehabilitation sessions, working to regain movement in the knee while strengthening the other muscles in her leg.
Then the injuries began.
Senior guard Rita Kollo, a transfer from Oklahoma State who sat out the 2007-08 season under NCAA rules, was lost to a broken right foot in practice. Kollo had only played five games in a Ducks uniform, the four against Italy and an exhibition game against Northwest Christian University. Though coaches optimistically predicted a comeback for the second half of the Pac-10 season, she would be out for the entire season.
“I just cried. It’s the worst thing to have an injury that’s longer than like a month or two months, because the season is not that long,” Jackson said. “When (Rita) went down, I was just like, OK, she’s gonna be back in six to eight weeks, we’re gonna have to have people step up. It was hard to see her go down.”
Oregon players have combined to miss 82 games this season due to injuries. Jackson and Kollo account for 58 of those.
“Her being a senior, and not being able to play last year … it was hard for me,” Jackson said.
Skill development
As her knee became stronger, Jackson began focusing on her basketball skills and conditioning. In practice, when not working on strengthening the knee, she will practice her ball-handling on the sidelines. When her teammates occupy one end of the court, she goes to the other end and works on her shooting.
“I’ve come a long way. I couldn’t even bend and shoot in the beginning,” Jackson said with a laugh. “I’ve been working on my form, trying to talk with (assistant coach) Phil (Brown) about follow-through and keeping my legs straight. I’m putting up a lot of shots.”
Jackson has gained a newfound appreciation for the technicalities of basketball, specifically pertaining to an equilibrium, an alignment of the body.
Her teammates have taken notice. In games, Jackson watches the guards and looks to pick up on tendencies and moves, including “how other teams play,” and she’ll address the timeout huddles with instructions and encouragement. In a season of difficulties – this year’s iteration became the first team in school history to lose 20 games and 10 home games – Jackson’s words and work are welcoming.
“We know she’s not letting the injury beat her,” said Thomas. “She’s attacking the injury, and that just means she’s gonna come back stronger than she was before.”
Jackson sees her role as one of leadership; when something is amiss, she speaks up about it in the huddle. But in practice, she keeps to herself and her rehab efforts.
All things in equilibrium.
“I just want them to do their thing, and me to do my thing,” she said. “They have their job to do out there (in practice).
“I try to be the last priority.”
‘We had big plans for her’
Jackson looks down at her left leg. It’s still not the same size as her right leg, which will come with further rehabilitation. In the coming weeks, Jackson will be fitted with a knee brace and begin more intensive running workouts and cutting on her knee.
Program outsiders have all but universally proclaimed the 2008-09 campaign a lost season. The Oregon coaches see Jackson’s rehabilitation and improvement as something that will readily translate to next year.
“I think mentally she’s ready. I think emotionally she’s ready,” White said. “To sit out a whole year and see what’s kind of happened to this team, and to see where she could
‘ve contributed and where she could’ve been a spark for us, I think that’s been huge for her mentally.
“We had big plans for her. Absolutely, big plans for her.”
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