North Carolina State University Athletics
Quentin Jackson Q&A
5/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
May 11, 2006
Quentin Jackson, recently named NC State's Director of Basketball Operations under new Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe, was the point guard on the 1987 NC State team that won the ACC Championship by beating North Carolina in the finals at Landover, Md.
He received a degree in communications in 1991 and for the last seven years has been a sales representative for Xerox in Raleigh. He's also been an active basketball coach in the area, as the head coach of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh from 1997-99 and as the founder of the Raleigh Elite AAU program.
The Severna Park, Md., native followed Lowe as the point guard at both NC State and at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., where both played for legendary prep coach Morgan Wootten.
Jackson talked with Tim Peeler of www.gopack.com about his new duties for the Wolfpack.
QUESTION: When did you start talking to Coach Lowe about being a part of his staff?
JACKSON: Once he officially became a candidate, he gave me a call. He said `Let's talk about possibilities, the what-ifs.' The thing I told Sidney is that I am a DeMatha High guy, an NC State guy, just let me know what I can do to help.
QUESTION: What was your relationship with Sidney like before that? JACKSON: I wore his jersey number when I played at State. They won the national championship when I was a junior at DeMatha and coming up I was a big-time fan of Sidney and Dereck Whittenburg. They would come back to Coach Wootten's Metropolitan basketball camp and we worked it. We created relationships then, going back to 1982 or '83. That's how long we have known one another.
QUESTION: How much did you know new Wolfpack assistants Monte Towe and Larry Harris?
JACKSON: Monte I know from being a history guy with NC State. Larry, I have been an acquaintance of ever since he got here. He was always reaching out. That is who gave me tickets when I needed to come to a game. He always made sure guys were taken care of. That is why I am glad he is still here.
QUESTION: Can you talk about you AAU contacts through your experiences with the Raleigh Elite and your high school contacts through coaching Cardinal Gibbons High School?
JACKSON: I am more of the operations guy. When you look at my tasks, there is not a whole lot to do with the on-the-court basketball. That was just my way of giving back to the game. At DeMatha, we were taught to give back. There was no strategy about getting to coaching. My motivation was to get the kids in Raleigh a chance to play.
QUESTION: What are your responsibilities now that you are here? JACKSON: There are a lot of them. The main thing is the scheduling. Being a liaison between athletics and academics. I have an advantage because I played here and graduated from here. I know what it takes for kids to come on board. I know what it takes to get a degree. Anything from traveling, coordinating kids when they come on campus for recruiting visits, making sure kids go to study hall, making sure they are taking the right classes so they are working towards a degree, coordinating Coach Lowe's camps. Anything you can think of when the kid is not on the court or when Coach Lowe is not on the court.
QUESTION: In terms of scheduling, what do you and Coach Lowe believe in? JACKSON: We want to be as competitive as we can possibly be. We want to play the top teams in the country, because that is what we did when we played. It puts you in a different environment from a competitive standpoint, outside our conference. I think you have to have a good balance of teams from big conferences and small conferences. I don't want to schedule him out of a job, so there has to be some balance. You have to challenge teams to reach their potential.
QUESTION: How much of next season's schedule is already complete?
JACKSON: Probably about 95 percent of it. Being a forward-thinker, I am thinking about 2007-2008.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
