UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, March 10, 1997
11B
Tamecka
Continued from Page 4B
"I'd just feel so shallow if I get Kodak All-American and we don't go anywhere. I don't even want it."
Kansas, some people thought it wouldn't last long. How could an East Coast kid make it in the Heartland?
"A lot of people around here thought she might go out there and be back in a year," says Rich Haley, who covered Dixon's high school career for the Home News & Tribune in East Brunswick, N.J.
Dixon almost followed suit.
Many others had done it before Dixon — gone to a school far from Jersey, become unhappy and transferred back home to Rutgers or St. John's or somewhere else.
She found herself thinking about transferring throughout her freshman year. She had gone to Kansas as a slashing, scoring off guard. Yes, coach Marian Washington had mentioned something during the recruiting process about playing point guard. But that was just talk, right?
Wrong.
Washington moved Dixon to point guard before she ever played a college game and started her at that position in her first game.
At first, the change was good. It meant more playting time for Dixon on a veteran ball club. Then the reality hit.
"When I started to realize what it takes to be a point guard," she says, "I was like 'Fold up.'"
She fought the change. Hard.
And Washington remembers
Dixon's struggle.
"Hated it. Got frustrated. Head went down," Washington says. "I was constantly pulling her off the floor."
Being frustrated was more than just adjusting to point guard.
"I'm expected to come in here and do great things like I did in high school, and I couldn't do anything." Dixon says. "I was really depressed my freshman year, dreading games and practice."
She averaged 6.8 points and 4.2 rebounds her freshman year, which is nothing to scoff at for a first-year player. However, the numbers were light years from the 28.1 points and 13.6 rebounds that she had as a high school senior.
Dixon talked about her problems with a small group of people — her parents, some of the coaches, and team veterans Angela Aycock and Charisse Sampson. In the end, Dixon based her decision to stay on one reason, the same reason she had picked Kansas in the first place — Marian Washington.
"I couldn't see myself playing for another coach," Dixon says. "I would feel like I let her down. I talked to her and decided to stick it out and come with a different attitude the next year."
After a summer of working with her father, Dixon was becoming a point guard.
That fact became evident against UConn in 1994. Dixon showed up Rebecca Lobo, Jennifer Rizzotti and even Angela Aycock, scoring a thencareer-high 30 points.
"Up until UConn, she had showed spurts of greatness but then she wouldn't have a great game," Bowers says. "But UConn, it was the turning point of her college career." "I thought he was beautiful."
"It was beautiful."
Dixon's father should know. He watched the game from his seat a few rows behind the bench. From there, he could easily coach her, too.
And Dixon could easily hear him.
"It does not matter how many people are at the game. I still hear him say, 'Go straight up,' Dixon says. "Anything he says I can pick up."
With a connection between father and daughter that borders on telepathy, it's no surprise Dixon went home last summer to work on her game. She and Bowers ran drills, jogged miles, lifted weights and primed for Dixon's senior season.
They focused most on her jump shot.
"We'd pick a spot, and she'd have to go up and land on that same spot," Bowers says. "When she started to see it go, she got some confidence. I told her, 'If somebody leaves you unguarded, you're just going to feel it. They doomed.'"
The summer was about more than her jump shot. She and her father had one last opportunity to prepare for the college basketball season and a chance to impress the scouts.
They knew that with a good senior
season, Dixon might be one of the new stars in the women's professional leagues — the ABL and the WNBA.
Even though Dixon appears to be well on her way to landing a professional contract in the United States, she hasn't thought a lot about what comes after her Kansas career. She wants to focus on making a run at the national championship.
She'll worry about herself later.
"After we get our team goals accomplished, if you want to say that I helped to do this, then honor me," Dixon says. "I'd just feel so shallow if I get Kodak All-American and we don't go anywhere. I don't even want it."
No matter how the season ends for Dixon, she already has the attention of many people, including some sports agents. They have sent her mail and even followed her on campus trying to get to sign with them.
"They offered me a contract," Dixon says. "Coach and I had talked about it before. I just turned and walked away."
Tamecka Dixon is back on the court after a full morning of classes. The Jayhawks don't have practice this afternoon, but Dixon is in Allen Field House anyway.
She can't miss a day and can't let down. Someone else might be out there practicing, getting better than her.
Her father told her that.
Assistant coach Maggie Mahood snares the ball after each shot and passes it back to Dixon. They talk and laugh about everything from practice last night to the new speaker system in the locker room.
The lights high in Allen Field House hum softly and at times drown out the sound of the basketball hitting the floor and ripping through the nylon net.
Dixon crosses her dribble over once, then again. It's as if she can still hear Boo in the stands.
'Find your spot!'
She stops.
"Go straight up!"
"You're not even sweatin'!"
The basketball finds the heart of the net.
Jacque
The legend's legends: redoing a math problem eight times as a freshman; making daily to-do lists; living on fish, spinach and Fig Newtons.
Continued from Page 5B
Vaughn: "To watch Stackhouse and players like Joe Smith of Maryland, Bryant Reeves of Oklahoma State and Jacque Vaughn of Kansas is such a relief from the showboating and trash talking that is ruining basketball."
Here's what another Sports Illustrated reader wrote: "Jacque Vaughn is a true role model. It's good to see that not every scholarship athlete wings it through college."
Here is who Jacque Vaughn said was the person in history he would like to converse with: Arthur Ashe.
Here is the honor that Jacque Vaughn was bequeathed last spring: The Arthur Ashe Jr. Award, given for athletic and academic success.
Here are some Jacque Vaughn legends. He studies on Friday nights. He rewrites his English papers seven or eight times. As a freshman, he redd a math problem eight times. He turns off the ignition in his car at night, returns three or four times to make sure the lights are off.
He checks his luggage about five times before road games to make sure he packed his jersey. He reads Maya Angelou and Slyvia Plath before games. His diet revolves
around fish, spinach and Fig Newtons. He studies in different positions for different classes. He once wanted to watch a Kansas-Louisville basketball game in high school on television, but he had to study for a physics test. He makes daily lists. He makes game plans detailing what he must do. Roy Williams drove around campus during the Michigan State football game that was widely attended and one light was on at Ajayhawker Towers...then freshman Jacque Vaughn was studying.
Here is the peace and quiet that Jacque Vaughn has gotten since leaving the bright light and big city of Los Angeles: Kansas Sports Information Director Dean Buchan said that during the NCAA tournament Vaughn gets 10 interviews requests a day.
Here's how many interview requests Jacque Vaughn granted from the time of his wrist injury and Kansas Basketball media day on Oct. 16: Zero.
Here's how many fans, on an average, wait outside Kansas' locker room on home and away games: About 200.
Here's why: "He knew he wasn't playing and he didn't want to detract from the team." Buchan said.
Here are the similarities that Jacque Vaughn and roommate Scot
Pollard share: Ahhh, hmmm..their birthdays are one day apart. They both play basketball.
Here is who Jacque Vaughn and Pollard are compared to: The Odd Couple.
Here is the car that Jacque Vaughn drives: a Volkswagen Jetta.
Here is the car that Pollard drives: 1969 green Cadillac convertible he calls Marvin Martian.
Here is who Scot Pollard selected to be the best man in his wedding on May 10: Jacque Vaughn.
Here is how Jacque Vaughn's Senior Day speech ended: with tears and a hug for Roy Williams.
Here is Jacque Vaughn's advice to children: Read Philippians 4:13 in your Bible.
Here's how Pollard's Senior Day speech ended; with a cartwheel.
Here is what Philippians 4:13 says:
"I can do all things in him who strengthens me."
Here is how Jacque Vaughn responded when asked if his career at Kansas would look back in regret if he never went to the Final Four..
"The book isn't closed and I still have a chance to write that last chapter of winning a national championship."
Is the great apartment search getting a little old? Let your search end here!
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