Pittsburgh Sports Report - Something Special by Walter Villa

Only five men's basketball players have had the ultimate honor at Duquesne University of having their uniform numbers retired.

The 6-4 point guard led the Dukes to their first postseason appearance in 15 years.

He led the Dukes to their first 20-win season in 28 years.

He nearly led them to their first NCAA Tournament in 32 years. Picked to finish 12th in the 14-team Atlantic 10, they made it to the league's championship game before losing to Temple 69-64 in the title game.

In the first-round of the NIT-the last game of his college career-he scored 46 points, the most by a Dukes player in 31 years and fourth-best in school history.

Jackson had eight 3-pointers in the game, tying a Dukes record. Virginia Tech won, but no player had scored that many points on the Hokies in 41 years.

Jackson made first-team All A-10, averaging 19.3 points, 5.7 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals. He also challenged for A-10 Player of the Year honors.

He shot 55 percent from the field, exceptional for a guard. He also made 41 percent on 3-pointers and 81 percent on free throws.

He never missed a game in his career, tying the school record with 120 games played.

He set a school record by being named A-10 Player of the Week four times this season and six times in his career.

Jackson broke Norm Nixon's single-season assists record with 194.

For his career, Jackson is third in Duquesne history in assists, 6th in steals, 7th in field-goal percentage and 12th in points.

But perhaps the best thing about Jackson is that as a freshman he survived the worst record (3-24) in Dukes history, and as a sophomore he was one of five Dukes players to survive the infamous on-campus shooting.

"Not one time," Jackson said. "I was committed to Duquesne. I wanted to see us turn it around."

Jackson did just that and is now reaping the rewards, which include being on track to graduate in May with a degree in psychology.

Jackson said he would like to coach one day. But that's later. He was invited to the prestigious Portsmouth Invitational, where many of the top seniors play in hopes of impressing scouts for June's NBA Draft.

Jackson projects as a second-rounder but is realistic enough to know he may go undrafted. And if he has to play in Europe instead of the NBA, he prefers to play in one of their top leagues, in Spain, Italy or Greece.

But no matter what happens in the pros, Duquesne would be smart to honor Jackson with a retired jersey.

The last time the Dukes had such a ceremony was in 2001 to honor Nixon, Chuck Cooper, Sihugo Green, Dick Ricketts and Willie Somerset.

Hopefully soon-maybe in 2011, one decade after the previous ceremony-the Dukes can honor more modern players such as guard Mike James and center Derrick Alston, both veterans of the NBA.

But no one deserves the honor more than Jackson for what he endured and for how he remained committed and how he brought the program back from obscurity.

When he says that he gave "blood, sweat and tears" to Duquesne, that is not a cliche. That is fact.

"That would be more than an honor," he said. "It would be a privilege to see my jersey up in the rafters. I would accept that humbly."