Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 25, 1993 TAG: 9301250289
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
BLAME IT ON THEIR BROTHERS
VIRGINIA TECH FRESHMEN Jim Jackson and Shawn Smith, with different styles on the basketball court, both have made an impact with the Hokies. Both also say it was a brother that helped them reach their level of success.\ Barely two months into their Virginia Tech careers, Jim Jackson and Shawn Smith wear their labels like the price tag on a Minnie Pearl hat.Jackson is intense.
Smith is big.
Both can play basketball, and they are two reasons the Hokies, 6-5 after Saturday's game at Old Dominion, haven't dipped below .500 this year. Last season, the Hokies never got above .500 en route to a 10-18 finish.
Coach Bill Foster has said the skinny, 6-foot-5 Jackson hustles more than any player he's coached in 25-plus years. And Smith, 6-6 and 260 pounds, was called a "poor man's Adrian Dantley" by North Carolina coach Dean Smith.
Jackson and Smith were teammates last year at Fork Union Military Academy near Charlottesville. Each traces his on-court characteristics to his brother.
For Jackson, it's his twin, David. They competed in everything from toys to TV shows to high-school grade-point averages.
"Stupid stuff," Jackson says with a quick head-shake.
The twins' first basketball goal in their Janesville, Wis., home was a Fisher-Price unit positioned in the middle of their custom-made twin-bed crib, Jackson's mother said. They'd tussle over the ball.
The boys' mom, divorced, remarried and living in Greensboro, N.C., never tried to quell the quarrels.
"No," Susan Welsh said. "It was pointless."
Not that she didn't have the normal parental anxieties. She had Jim and David put in different grade-school classes - to avoid confrontations - but still couldn't stop herself from going to school one day to ask the first-grade teacher if the boys were behaving.
They were, but the separate classrooms probably was the reason.
"We competed so much, we'd just get tired of it. When we'd fight, it was when we were one-on-one and we'd just get sick of each other," Jackson said. "But in the game, it was totally different. We were like a unit."
They played on the same team from age six until they left Fork Union last year. David went to UNC Asheville, and that gave the twins a new perspective.
Once, Jim learned that he and David had changed their bedsheets the same day. Another time, Jim had just taken a shower and called David, who had just walked out of the shower. And one day, David called his Mom at work - a rare occurrence - and was told David had just done the same thing.
"This year has really been a growing up year for both of us," Jim said. "We've both missed each other a lot. My phone bill is just crazy; I'm still trying to pay it."
Smith and his brother had a teacher-student relationship. Smith said he tried to pattern his game after J.R. Reid and Charles Barkley, but the real influence came from 32-year-old William, who played at Southeastern Junior College near Wilmington, N.C.
"He plays just like I do," Smith said of his brother. "A lot of ball fakes, lot of pump fakes; we both played against people a lot taller than we were. [He] worked with me the most."
Smith, from Gastonia, N.C., had other helpers, too - notably Ervin L. Worthy Sr., father of the NBA's James Worthy, pastor of Fancy Hill Baptist Church near High Shoal and a general do-gooder in Gastonia.
Worthy took interest in Smith when he realized Smith was a college prospect, and counseled him on everything from how to deal with recruiters to keeping God in his life.
There were even times, said Smith's father, James, that Smith would bump into Worthy in town and Worthy would model a pump-fake or a drop-step to the youngster, right there on the sidewalk.
Worthy didn't limit his advice to the physical.
"I'd say, `Always be cool,' " Worthy said. "If they call a foul, don't rebut. That goes against you all the way."
Small worry; Smith, full of "yes, sirs," may be Tech's most polite athlete. Worthy's technical advice may have helped Smith the most - especially for a kid who weighed as much as 280 pounds in high school and who had an astonishing growth spurt, stretching from 5-9 to 6-4 between his freshman and sophomore years in high school.
Smith had knee problems, and James Smith said his son saw a Gastonia doctor regularly to make sure he was growing normally. His basketball didn't suffer much.
"I was telling him he needs to work on his speed and footwork," Worthy said. "I noticed he was a little heavy and plump."
James Smith said his son isn't a big eater, just big-boned; the younger Smith admits his worst habit was the late-night, just-before-bed snack.
Foster has urged Smith to lose weight, but hasn't yet said, "or else." He wants Smith to want to slim down; so far, it's working. Smith said he's cut out the midnight snack, and he's a regular on the exercise bike.
The only dissuader: Smith's playing well despite his extra pounds. He averages 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds - both second on the team - and has a Hokie-high 54.8 field-goal shooting percentage.
"No one really pushed me hard in high school to lose weight," Smith said. "It was, `As long as he can play, it's fine.' I thank Coach Foster for pushing me to the limit. In high school I was like a big baby just because I could play, yes, sir."
He got to Fork Union and said he lost about 40 pounds during coach Fletcher Arritt's preseason workouts. He entered Tech at around 270 and is at 260 now.
"Coach knows as the year goes on, it's going to start wearing on my body," Smith said. "I think I'm going to be best weighing 250-255."
Jackson doesn't have weight problems but may win the most-bruised award. Already this year, he's leapt over team benches and press row several times in search of loose balls.
His mother sighs.
"When he goes over the table and disappears," she said, "as soon as I see his head come up, I know he's OK."
Jackson is obsessed with the little things.
"Every possession of basketball is so important," he said. "You lose by a couple of points, you look back and say, `If we'd gotten that loose ball . . . "
Jackson is averaging 9.4 points and 4.5 rebounds and has hit a team-best 13 3-pointers, although his overall shooting percentage is down to 34.5 percent.
"I'm not scared to go on the floor and get a loose ball, take a shot or make a pass," Jackson said. "But I've got to learn the total package of the game, and not get lackadaisical [on offense]. I should be more aggressive [in the second half]. But I'm not worried about scoring, as long as we get a win."