Texas Ex Jackson in action on WNBA Opening Weekend
June 5, 2009
AUSTIN, Texas -- Former Texas Basketball great Tiffany Jackson will again take to the court this weekend as the 2009 WNBA season tips off. This is the 13th year of play in the WNBA which was founded in 1997. Jackson, a 6-3 power forward, enters her third year with the New York Liberty. Jackson claimed National Freshman of the Year honors at UT and All-America plaudits in her next three years at Texas. The All-Big 12 Conference standout starred at Texas from 2003-07. Jackson is the lone Texas Longhorn in the WNBA for the 2009 season, as Jamie Carey announced her retirement earlier this year. There is an impressive lineage of Texas Exes in the WNBA, as Texas Basketball has produced 15 players and two head coaches who have been members of the WNBA professional league since 1997. During her ‘sophomore’ season in the league last year, Jackson appeared in the Liberty’s first 25 games of the summer before missing the final nine regular-season matchups due to injury. She scored in double figures eight times, led the team in rebounding nine times and points four times. She also collected five or more rebounds in 17 games, and was the team’s leading rebounder (5.7 rpg) before being sidelined by injury. Jackson appeared in all 34 games during her rookie season in 2007. She was the second-leading field goal shooter amongst the league's rookies (.416), behind teammate Jessica Davenport. Jackson turned in a solid postseason as she was the Liberty's leading scorer and rebounder off the bench with 7.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in the three-game series versus the Detroit Shock. In that third game, Jackson came off the bench to notch her first career double-double of 14 points and 10 boards as the Shock needed overtime for a 71-70 win in that decisive game. The WNBA regular season opens Saturday, June 6, with six games (see schedule below). Jackson and the Liberty will open the regular season against Connecticut at 3 p.m. Central on Sunday, June 7.
2009 WNBA Opening Weekend Schedule (all times Central) Saturday, June 6 Detroit at Los Angeles, 1:30 p.m. (ABC TV) Seattle at Sacramento, 3 p.m. Washington at Connecticut, 3 p.m. Indiana at Atlanta, 6 p.m. Chicago at Minnesota, 7 p.m. San Antonio at Phoenix, 9 p.m. Sunday, June 7 |
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