Final Four helps family block out wave of tragedy

By PATRICK REUSSE, Star Tribune

Last update: April 7, 2008 - 7:02 AM

SAN ANTONIO — Kansas reached tonight's national title game with an upset victory over North Carolina on Saturday night. Darnell Jackson, the Jayhawks' senior center, received a cell phone call later from his mother, Shawn.

"She tried to talk, but all she did was cry for 15 minutes," he said. "I couldn't understand a word she said."

There was an obvious explanation. The Jackson family has been through considerable tragedy, including a car crash on May 29, 2005, that badly injured Darnell's mother and killed his grandmother. The driver of the other car was 18 and drunk.

Shawn Jackson was left with a mangled right arm and a crushed right ankle.

While his mother was in the hospital, Jackson had two younger siblings at home in Oklahoma City. "No food, no money and the electricity about to be cut off," Darnell said Sunday. "It was a terrible situation."

The family situation remained so precarious that during the 2006-07 season Jackson packed his bags and left Lawrence, Kan. Coach Bill Self went to Oklahoma City and, with the help of Darnell's mother, convinced Darnell to return to school and to the team.

There's an entire litany of death -- including his absentee father being killed by Oklahoma City police when Darnell was an eighth-grader -- that has struck this family.

In February, a cousin was shot and killed, on the same day that teammate Rodrick Stewart's adopted brother was murdered.

"Rod and I are like brothers ourselves," Jackson said Sunday. "We've been close since our first year. We're always supporting each other."

Shawn Jackson was in attendance for Saturday's game and will be in the Alamodome for her son's last college game.

An Aldrich buzz

Cole Aldrich's huge first half against North Carolina still was a topic of conversation during Sunday's media session. Asked about the zeal with which the freshman from Bloomington went after North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, Jackson said:

"That's what we have seen from him every day in practice. He goes for every rebound and tries to block every shot. He's going to have a great career with Kansas."

Coach Bill Self offered the same opinion. "We think Cole is going to be great," he said. "That's a pretty big stage and he came in, and for a period of time he was the best performer in the game.

"Our fans have seen it from Day 1. He's had some games where he's played four minutes and some games where he's played 17. Last night, we needed him to play that many minutes. He played great."

Friend for 20 years

There's a character on the periphery of big-time college basketball called Walter Wesley. He carried the nickname "Worldwide Wes." He has been alleged to be in a position to deliver players to a program -- and, specifically, to coach John Calipari and Memphis.

Calipari was asked about Wesley on Sunday and didn't deny a relationship.

"He's my friend for 20 years," Calipari said. "Do our players know him? Yeah, they know him. Did they know him before they came [to Memphis]? Maybe two of them.

"I have a team of 13 players. Two of them knew him before they came."

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