|
|
| Athletics Home |
| News Archive |
| Composite Schedule |
| Basketball Home Games |
| Men's Basketball |
| Men's Cross Country |
| Men's Tennis |
| Women's Basketball |
| Women's Cross Country |
| Women's Tennis |
| Women's Volleyball |
| Recreational Sports |
| Cheerleading |
| Gold Star Dance Team |
| Golden Girls Pom Squad |
ALMA MATER
In the Mississippi Valley,
In the Crescent Bend
Stands our loved and noble Xavier,
Far her praises send.
Refrain:
Wave her colors bear them onward
Gold and white so true
Hail to thee, all hail, dear Xavier
Hail, all hail, X.U.!
Xavier, ever be our guide
And lead us on the way,
Through life's journey, onward, upward
To the eternal day. (Refrain)
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Dannton Jackson
Men's Basketball Head Coach
Xavier University of Louisiana
Office: (504) 520-5448 Fax: (504) 520-7972 E-Mail: djackson@xula.edu
Mail and Shipping: 1 Drexel Drive, Campus Box 92, New Orleans LA 70125
Best Time to Contact Jackson: Weekday mornings
printable version of this page 
|
|
Thanks to the guidance of Dannton Jackson, the longtime
success of the Xavier University of Louisiana men's basketball program has continued
in the 21st century.
Here are some highlights of the Gold Rush through Jackson's
seven seasons as head coach of the Gold Rush:
• Of the 18 seniors to play for Jackson, 17 received
bachelor's degrees from Xavier or are still enrolled at XU.
• Xavier has averaged 21.7 victories per season and
made a school-record four consecutive appearances in the Buffalo Funds-NAIA
Division I National Championship.
• Kelechi Okoroha in 2008-09 became the university's
first ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District selection. Okoroha also was a three-time
Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar.
• Five consecutive 20-game winners.
• Two Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season
co-championships.
Jackson's seven-year record as head coach is 152-75.
He is the only Xavier men's basketball coach to reach the NAIA's national tournament
four times, and his winning percentage of .670 is the third highest
|
|
Dannton Jackson was director of the
New Orleans Hornets Summer Hoops
Clinic in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
|
in the history
of the program, which dates to the 1920s. He ranks fourth at Xavier in career
victories and is tied for second place with his college coach, Denny Alexander,
with five 20-win seasons.
Of the 38 men's basketall coaches to win at least 150 games while
coaching at four-year Louisiana universities, Jackson ranks seventh in
winning percentage.
The XU men in 2009-10 finished 18-13 and recorded
three home victories against ranked opponents, including NCAA Division II's Delta State.
Xavier ranked second in NAIA Division I in field-goal percentage defense at .381
and — for the the third consecutive season — ranked sixth in scoring defense.
The Gold Rush allowed 62 points per game,
The team's community service projects in 2009-10 consisted of
a visit to patients at Children's Hospital, work in the XU cafeteria and feeding
the homeless.
Jackson succeeded Dale Valdery as head coach in June 2002
after four seasons as Valdery's assistant. Jackson was the
associate head coach in 2001-02. Jackson also has served
Xavier as an assistant coach in women's basketball (1993-97), head coach of men's
and women's cross country (1994-96) and interim athletics director in 2004. He also
spent one season (1997-98) as a men's basketball assistant coach at Virginia State
University in Petersburg, Va.
During his four seasons as the women's basketball
assistant, the Gold Nuggets won 83 percent of their games, swept the GCAC regular-season and tournament
championships and won first-round games at the NAIA Division I National Championship
in 1995, 1996 and 1997.
Jackson brought to his current job a thorough understanding
of Xavier and a passion for the men's basketball program.
"Xavier has a proud tradition of winning," Jackson said.
"The basketball program has always tried to develop well-rounded young men.
We get them ready for life, prepare them for the future. We have a high graduation
rate and a family atmosphere. That's how the tradition of Xavier has grown."
Jackson should know. His parents, Joseph (class of 1960)
and Maxine (1958) are Xavier graduates, and his father was a football-track standout
for the Rush. Another Xavier graduate is his uncle, Johnny Crear, who was an award-winning running
back in the 1950s. And Jackson's grandfather, McNeil Berteaux, is a 1923 graduate of Xavier Normal School,
which was founded and operated, like XU, by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
Jackson enrolled at Xavier in the late 1980s after one
season at Cal State Northridge, lettered two seasons in basketball with the
Gold Rush and earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science in 1992.
He added a second Xavier degree, a master of arts in education administration, in 1996.
|
In addition to reaching the national tournament, the 2007-08
Gold Rush finished 24-10, reached the GCAC Tournament final for the first time since
1996, won 75-72 in overtime at NAIA No. 3 LSU-Shreveport and led the conference in
scoring defense.
Jackson's 2008-09 team was 19-12 and won a road exhibition
against NCAA Division I member Alcorn State. The Gold Rush allowed 62.3 points per game,
sixth best in NAIA Division I. And senior point guard Shaun Dumas became the first Xavier
men's basketball player to twice make the NAIA All-America third team or higher.
Hurricane Katrina, the greatest natural disaster in U.S.
history, hit the New Orleans region on August 29, 2005, and soon afterward Xavier
cancelled intercollegiate athletics for 2005-06. Jackson's 2006-07 team was picked
sixth in the GCAC preseason coaches poll, and there were only three returning lettermen from
the 2004-05 season. But after the Gold Rush lost its first four GCAC games, Xavier
won 10 straight in conference for the first time in 20 seasons. The Gold Rush's 82-79
upset of third-ranked Georgetown (Ky.) was Xavier's first victory in the NAIA national
tourney since 1973.
The hurricane closed Xavier during the fall 2005
semester and forced thousands to evacuate the region, but Jackson said he was
fortunate to be mentored during that time by two of America's top college coaches,
John Calipari (then of Memphis, now at Kentucky) and Rick Barnes of Texas. Jackson evacuated to Memphis
and spent considerable time at Memphis team practices —
"Coach Calipari kept the basketball thing alive. He opened up his entire program to me,"
Jackson said — and Barnes and his assistant, Russell Springmann, sent Jackson packages
of practice tapes and manuals to replace storm-damaged Xavier materials.
"Coach Calipari, Coach Barnes and Coach Springmann kept
me close to the game," Jackson said. "I'll always be appreciative of what those guys did."
In addition to his Xavier accomplishments, Jackson
was a summer coach for an Adidas-sponsored youth team, the New Orleans Jazz,
and he designs individual training regimens for local NBA players during their offseason.
He also directed the Michael Jordan Basketball
Camp in New Orleans, and 2010 is his third consecutive year as director of the New Orleans
Hornets Summer Hoops Clinic.
Two of Jackson's Jazz players — New Orleanians DJ Augustin
(Texas/Charlotte Bobcats) and Shan Foster (Vanderbilt/Dallas Mavericks) —
were NBA draft picks in 2008. Another of Jackson's Jazz players, Brandon Bass,
has played five NBA seasons, including 2009-10 with the Orlando Magic.
Others Jackson coached with the Jazz included Glen "Big Baby" Davis of
the Boston Celtics, Mo Williams of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Garrett Temple of
the San Antonio Spurs and Tasmin Mitchell, a 2010-11 NBA candidate who scored nearly
2,000 career points at LSU.
Jackson was born April 14, 1970, in Los Angeles and grew
up there. He is a graduate of Sherman Oaks CES, a high school in suburban Reseda, Calif.
Louisiana men's college basketball coaches
who produced the most 20-game winners
at their current school:
7 Chad McDowell, LSU-Shreveport
5 Dannton Jackson, Xavier
3 Gene Rushing, Louisiana College
2 Mike McConathy, Northwestern State
1 Trent Johnson, LSU
1 J.P. Piper, Nicholls State
1 Kerry Rupp, Louisiana Tech
|
|
|
Jackson vs.
1-0 Albany State
3-0 Arkansas Baptist
0-1 Arkansas-Monticello
12-3 Belhaven
1-0 Brewton-Parker
0-1 California Baptist
2-0 Carver Bible
1-0 Central Baptist
1-0 Claflin
4-0 Clark Atlanta
1-0 Concordia (Ala.)
0-1 Concordia (Calif.)
1-0 Delta State
12-2 Dillard
1-0 Evergreen
0-2 Faulkner
1-0 Florida Memorial
1-0 Georgetown (Ky.)
4-0 Huston-Tillotson
0-1 Jarvis Christian
3-11 LSU-Shreveport
13-2 Loyola
0-1 Martin Methodist
0-1 MidAmerica Nazarene
8-9 Mobile
0-1 Montana St.-Northern
|
|
1-1 Morehouse
0-1 Nicholls State
0-1 Northwestern Okla.
1-0 Nyack
0-1 Oklahoma Baptist
6-0 Paul Quinn
3-0 Philander Smith
0-1 Robert Morris (Chicago)
0-1 St. Thomas (Fla.)
0-1 San Diego Christian
1-0 Savannah Art
11-4 SUNO
1-0 Southern Polytechnic
1-0 Spalding
9-8 Spring Hill
4-1 Stillman
1-0 Texas A&M Internat'l
0-1 Texas A&M-Kingsville
7-1 Texas College
1-0 Texas Wesleyan
7-7 Tougaloo
0-1 Tuskegee
3-0 Webber International
3-0 Wesley (Miss.)
2-0 West Alabama
10-4 Wiley
10-5 William Carey
|
|
|
Dannton Jackson's deceased father,
Joseph Jackson,
was a football and track standout
for the Gold Rush and graduated
from Xavier in 1960. Dannton's
mother, Maxine Jackson, earned
her Xavier degree in 1958.
|
|
|
Dannton Jackson's record as head coach of Xavier men's basketball |
|
| |
—All Games— |
—GCAC Games— |
|
| Season |
W |
L |
Pct. |
|
W |
L |
Pct. |
Rank |
GCAC Tournament |
NAIA Tournament |
Final NAIA Poll |
| 2002-03 |
22 |
12 |
.647 |
|
9 |
7 |
.563 |
tie-3rd |
1-1, Semifinals |
— |
RV (tie-37th) |
| 2003-04 |
23 |
8 |
.742 |
|
13 |
5 |
.722 |
tie-1st |
0-1, Quarterfinals |
1st Round |
22nd |
| 2004-05 |
24 |
10 |
.706 |
|
13 |
5 |
.722 |
3rd |
1-1, Semifinals |
1st Round |
RV (26th) |
| 2005-06 |
no team due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina |
| 2006-07 |
22 |
10 |
.688 |
|
13 |
5 |
.722 |
tie-1st |
1-1, Semifinals |
Sweet 16 |
RV (tie-27th) |
| 2007-08 |
24 |
10 |
.706 |
|
12 |
6 |
.667 |
3rd |
2-1, 2nd Place |
1st Round |
RV (28th) |
| 2008-09 |
19 |
12 |
.613 |
|
11 |
7 |
.611 |
tie-4th |
0-1, Quarterfinals |
— |
— |
| 2009-10 |
18 |
13 |
.581 |
|
9 |
9 |
.500 |
6th |
0-1, Quarterfinals |
— |
— |
| 7 Years |
152 |
75 |
.670 |
|
80 |
44 |
.645 |
2 titles |
5-7 |
4 trips, 1-4 record |
final top 25: 1 time |
|
|
|
