Tom Keegan: Jackson doesn’t fall far from Apples’ tree

By Tom Keegan     Jun 7, 2016

Richard Gwin
Josh Jackson's mother, Apples Jones, makes some video of her son during drills at Bill Self's basketball camp on Tuesday, June 7, 2016.

If Josh Jackson, the nation’s No. 1 recruit, can bring to the Kansas University basketball team in his one season what his mother brought to UTEP in her one year in El Paso, he will make Allen Fieldhouse rock even louder, predicts someone who would know.

A descendant of a long line of East Tennessee mountain preachers, basketball lifer Jason Conner, now head women’s basketball coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, was an assistant coach at UTEP when Shenita “Apples” Waddell pumped life into the Miners in the 1992-93 season.

Then Apples Waddell, now Apples Jones, led UTEP in scoring (15.1 points) and blocked shots and ranked second in assists and steals. She also led the team in fearless, relentless effort, according to Conner, who did not realize that his former player had a famous son.

“She was a warrior, a winner, period, plain and simple,” Conner said by phone from Perkinston, Miss. “Apples was a lot of fun to coach and made everybody better.”

Jackson’s mother, recruited to UTEP from Allen County Community College, was instrumental in a quick turn-around from rock bottom to a winning record.

“When we got there (in 1990), we had one desk in a corner office in the sports information area of the old Memorial gym,” Conner said. “We couldn’t even go in the locker room at halftime because our locker room was the girls’ P.E. intramural locker room. Girls were constantly coming in from racquetball or swimming or whatever. There would be 30 people in the gymnasium for those games. We had a senior women’s administrator, a shot-clock operator, a bookkeeper, a statistician, and then there would be 25 guys waiting for us to finish so they could play intramural basketball.”

It was even grimmer on the scoreboard than in the stands and locker room.

“We played Lamar at Lamar and I don’t think we got it across halfcourt but maybe a dozen times,” Conner said. “Our point guard was from Dallas, Texas, and she scored not one, but two baskets at Lamar’s end.”

Two years later, with Jones leading the way, the Miners were playing in a bigger building, setting attendance records on the way to an 18-10 season.

“Apples and her sister, Peaches, played in the South Detroit Police Athletic League,” Conner said. “You’re tough if you’re standing out in that league. I saw her in a juco jamboree and she stood out.”

A google of “Apples Waddell” brought up a UTEP publication in which Conner highlighted Waddell’s competitive nature and ability to cover anyone from a point guard through a center. The remarks were strikingly similar to those Jackson’s former coaches have made about him.

“She was so long and so strong and stubborn enough to go guard a point guard if we needed it and then go rap on a 6-2 or 3 post player, just throw her body at things,” Conner said. “She epitomized the effort that needs to be given to be a champion and I don’t think you can coach that stuff.”

Clearly, the son has not fallen far from Apples’ tree.

“She was the straw that stirred the drink on both ends of the floor, in the locker room, in practice and in the games,” Conner said. “She was a warrior at a time when women weren’t supposed to be warriors. She had a toughness about her that you didn’t see a lot at that time. She would get injured, stay in the game and not even tell anyone she was hurt.”

As a player, Waddell was greater than the sum of her parts, according to Conner.

“She wasn’t the greatest shooter, wasn’t the biggest kid, she just got it done. She made her teammates better, just a winner,” Conner said.

If Jackson takes after his mother, Conner predicted, his enormous talent will rank second to the intangibles he brings to the Jayhawks.

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