Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Returning to Mount Pleasant to play former school

By Derek Jackson
Junior, Guard

Derek Jackson at shoot-
around on Wednesday.

We have a game tonight against Central Michigan, which is where my college career started. I played here for two years and haven’t been up here in a long time. It’s kind of weird coming back to play against my old school.

Tonight’s game is definitely one of the dates I had circled back when our schedule came out. There aren’t any bad feelings or anything towards the school, but I definitely want to play well against them and have a good game.

There are only 2 guys I played with who are still on the team—Austin Keel and Zach Saylor. The coaching staff is completely different from when I was here and they brought in a lot of their own players.

But I’m just here to play and help my team get a win. I don’t have any bad feelings for them or anything, but this is a business trip and I want to get a win just like every other game we play.

Last night, we went straight to the arena for some shooting after we got up here. When I first walked in the gym, it felt funny to see the gym and everything setup the way it was when I played here. It took a few seconds for it to click that I was there as part of the visiting team since it was my home court for two years.

I was able to find my spots on the court here I like to shoot from back when I played here. I think me playing here and knowing the court will help me a lot tonight and help our team as well.

We had shootaround this morning back at the arena. When we finished up, I heard a voice call my name and it was Coach Guevara, who is the head women’s coach here. She said didn’t know I was at Kent State and that its good I’m back at home and playing. Then she wished me luck and that was it.

It was cool for her to come talk to me and make me feel welcome, but I don’t know if the crowd tonight will be as nice. One of my teammates I played with came back here last year and he said they booed him. So I don’t know what to expect from the crowd tonight. If they do boo me, I kind of like that and think that I’ll be able to feed off that a little bit.


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