Pact mentality for Philly boys Jardine and Jackson, now at Syracuse

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Antonio "Scoop" Jardine and Rick Jackson were freshmen at St. John Neumann High when they announced they were going to play basketball at the same college.

Jardine said their coach, Carl Arrigale, "looked at us like we were crazy." That's because Arrigale knew that Jardine's and Jackson's ninth-grade naivete would be replaced by the reality that package deals are a rarity in big-time college basketball.

"It was a nice idea, something to shoot for, but I thought finding a team that liked both of them and needed both of them would be a stretch," Arrigale said. "I didn't discourage it, but I also told them to be prepared if it didn't happen."

But to Jardine and Jackson, it made perfect sense. They had grown up in the same South Philadelphia neighborhood, where they became best friends and spent most of their down time at Jardine's grandmother's house.

And they were always on the same team, from pickup games in the neighborhood to AAU with the Philly Ball Hawks to a national powerhouse known as Ss. Neumann-Goretti by their sophomore year.

"[Jackson] was a person I really know, and he knows me, so to not go to school together would have been really different," Jardine said.

Six years after declaring their "pact," Jardine and Jackson don't look so crazy anymore. They're teammates and key players for a Syracuse University team that's fighting Villanova for the Big East Conference regular-season title, and perhaps a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The No. 4 Orange (26-2, 13-2 Big East) will host the No. 7 Wildcats (23-4, 12-3) at 9 p.m. tomorrow in the Carrier Dome in front of what is expected to be an NCAA-record crowd of more than 34,000.

"Just to play against a team like Villanova, we know a lot of those guys and we played against a lot of those guys already," Jardine said. "We'll be talking about this 20 years from now."

Jardine, a diehard Wildcats fan who regularly attended Villanova's camps, came out of high school as one of the nation's most coveted point guards. He was heavily recruited by several schools, including Villanova and Syracuse.

Jackson, meanwhile, was a late bloomer who grew 4 inches in high school. While Villanova wanted Jardine and was cool to Jackson, St. Joseph's wanted Jackson but didn't need Jardine because the Hawks had enough guards, Arrigale said.

Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins initially was interested in Jardine, then fell in love with Jackson's potential. Hopkins said he would have gladly taken either one, or both.

But technically, they didn't go to Syracuse as a package deal. Jardine committed first, while Jackson was getting late looks from Connecticut, Georgetown and other big-time schools, Arrigale said. But Jackson didn't visit any of those schools and committed to Syracuse a few days after Jardine.

"I told him to wait a little bit, and I think he took it wrong for a day or 2, like I didn't want him to go to Syracuse," Arrigale said. "But he already had a good relationship with [Hopkins], and with Scoop at Syracuse they would be there for each other."

When Jackson was asked if he would have gone to another school if he thought it was a better fit, he smiled and said it never came to that because he thought Syracuse, with or without Jardine, was his best choice.

"I just liked it a lot," Jackson said. "A lot of people in the Dome, and I liked the coaches. Coach [Jim] Boeheim is a Hall of Fame coach; what's not to like about that?"

Jackson, a 6-9, 240-pound power forward, entered Syracuse's starting lineup last season as a sophomore. He's a self-proclaimed "trash man," grabbing rebounds, blocking shots and happily banging around with the big boys.

Jackson has started all 28 games this season. He's averaging 10.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and leads the Orange with 58 blocks. He scored a career-high 28 points on 13-for-17 shooting in Syracuse's 99-85 win over Providence on Tuesday.

"He's a beast," Jardine said. "He believes he's going to make that right play and that's what you need, a person like Rick who's got a lot of confidence."

The 6-2, 190-pound Jardine is still a sophomore because he redshirted last season while recovering from a stress fracture in his left shin. The injury was a blessing in disguise for Jardine, who used the time off to focus on what he needed to do to be successful in Division I.

As the Orange's sixth man this season, Jardine is averaging 7.7 points and is tied with Andy Rautins for the team lead in assists with 130.

"Scoop helps the team a lot," Jackson said. "Being a sixth man, he does a lot of good things for us out there as far as coming off the bench and giving us a spark."

Jardine started 10 games as a freshman 2 years ago. This season, he has watched freshman Brandon Triche start every game at the point. Jardine has willingly accepted his role because he understands how fortunate he is to play at Syracuse with his best friend.

"Knowing where we came from to perform at the highest level at a school like Syracuse, it's a dream, man," Jardine said. "To come from South Philly, you know how hard it is down there, I give ourselves a lot of credit."

Jardine and Jackson didn't fully understand it when they were in ninth grade, but they now know how unlikely it is that two friends from their neighborhood would not only go to college, but play together on a national championship-caliber team.

"A lot of people there that followed us in high school appreciate what we did, making it out of our neighborhood and going to college," Jackson said. "A lot of black people in our neighborhood don't go to college, and they're proud of us and we appreciate that."