Anthony Jackson had a tough act to follow this season.
Bryan Dougher, Stony Brook’s all-time leading Division-I scorer and a four-year starter for the Seawolves, had graduated, leaving the starting point guard spot open.
Jackson, a junior who had not started a game for Stony Brook before this season, was more than ready for the challenge.
“I’m walking in his shoes, he paved the way for me,” Jackson said. “It’s been bumpy, ups and downs, but as a leader of the team, I’ve got to keep my chin high, keep everybody’s composure high, everybody’s swagger right.”
Jackson, from Columbus, Ohio, is currently second on the team in scoring with 11.2 points per game, and leads the team in three-pointers made with 48. He is also second on the team in minutes per game, with an average of 28.1 minutes, and has started in all but one game he has appeared in.
In addition to his scoring, Jackson has emerged as one of the leaders of the squad. At the start of the season, his teammates voted him as a captain.
“I feel like I’m a vocal leader,” Jackson said. “I try to be the loudest guy on the floor every night; I try to be the loudest guy in practice. That’s my personality of being loud, and leading and getting guys to where they need to be on the floor.”
It is a very different role from the one Jackson played during his first two seasons.
Jackson was a back-up, only making appearances off the bench primarily to give Dougher a rest. He played an average of 12.8 minutes per games over his first two seasons, without any starts. He averaged five points per game over that stretch.
“He’s really improved. He fought for two years behind Bryan and now he took his opportunity to be a starter,” Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. “We lost a great player last year in Bryan Dougher, but he’s come in and taken that role, and we haven’t missed a beat, partly because of his leadership and talent.”
Despite having two years of experience, Jackson knew that he would still have to work hard over the summer and during the pre-season. Pikiell brought in Carson Puriefoy, a top point guard recruit from the New Jersey high school scene, and made it clear the best man would win the starting spot.
The more experienced Jackson won the right to succeed Dougher.
“Coming into the season I knew it was going to be hard work. I had to get coach on my side. He had to trust me with the basketball,” Jackson said. “It was going to be a challenge, with Carson Puriefoy, and I feel that I’ve earned that right to be a starter.”
Jackson made an immediate impact in his first start, hitting three of four three-point attempts and finishing with 13 points in Stony Brook’s season opener at Marist. He hasn’t looked back.
“As a starter, I have to always be ready, the guy to go through adversity early in the game, or adversity in the middle of the game,” Jackson said. “I have to be that leader, that mentally strong guy on the floor.”
However, in a Jan. 9 contest against Binghamton, he suffered a high-ankle sprain in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter.
“I was rehabbing four to five times a day, trying to get back,” Jackson said. “I just couldn’t stand sitting out, it was nerve-wracking.”
Jackson missed three games, with Puriefoy taking over the starting job during that time. The team defeated Hartford and Boston University, but lost to conference rival Vermont 81-73.
Jackson said his ankle is currently at “95 percent” and expects it to be fully healed for the upcoming America East tournament. He wants the ending to this season to be different from his first two years, when the team lost in the championship game and was denied its first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament.
“It’s been a bitter feeling, a bitter taste in my mouth from the past two seasons where we made it to the championship game and didn’t finish the deal,” Jackson said. “This season, I just want to be the first to go to the NCAA tournament, and I’m sure the guys want to as well.”
