Northwestern University Athletics
Michael Jenkins' Once in a Lifetime Shot
2/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 10, 2005
by Keven Chavez
Pasadena Star News
All Michael Jenkins wanted was a shot. When he finally got it, he delivered.
Jenkins stood in the left corner of the basketball court at Northwestern University, thousands of miles from the courts where he grew up back home in Pasadena. The 5-foot-9 point guard, probably too small to compete in the Mission League in high school, was in the thick of a barnburner in the powerful Big Ten Conference.
With 2.7 seconds left in overtime against nationally ranked Iowa on Jan. 26, the ball wound up in his hands.
Here was a guy with about a thousand times more minutes of practice, taking a daily pounding running the scout team, than in actual games. Here was a guy virtually ignored by his own coaches for three and a half years and certainly ignored by the No. 23 Hawkeyes defense in a two-point game.
And just like so many times before in his days at St. Francis High School, Jenkins didn't hesitate for a second.
He launched a high-arcing 3-pointer. It bounced hard off the far side of the rim, the type of bounce that has no chance of going in. It then bounced high off the front of the rim, another bounce that rarely scores.
"I felt I'd get a shooter's roll. All basketball players feel that way,' Jenkins said.
It rolled in. An unmatchable shot, an all-time winner in a game of horse, and the difference in overtime: Northwestern 75, No. 23 Iowa 74.
It was a long shot that overcame incredible odds to succeed the game-winner and the player.
In 2001, Jenkins was an all-area selection at St. Francis after averaging a West San Gabriel Valley-high 23.4 points a game. But as his peers earned scholarship offers to play college ball, Jenkins was overlooked and left with a quandary. He could play small-college ball, or he could head east to an academic powerhouse and give it a shot against the big boys, with no assurances that he'd ever play organized ball again.
"Growing up, I always played against guys older than me and bigger than me,' Jenkins said in a telephone interview from Evanston, Ill. "I'd play against guys in their 30s when I was 15. I just grew up playing that way.
"I just felt with the people I played against growing up, I was prepared to go to the big schools.'
Said St. Francis coach John Jordan: "I always thought Michael was very good. People were concerned about his size, but he's so strong I never thought that was going to be a concern.'
Still, just like any average guy walking around the Northwestern campus, Jenkins had to enter a general tryout for the men's basketball team. Unlike everyone else, he walked out with a spot on the team as a non-scholarship, walk-on player.
"It was obvious right off the bat,' Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "You could see his basketball IQ; it wasn't even close.'
But a high basketball IQ and a strong work ethic don't guarantee anything in the Big Ten, one of America's strongest basketball conferences. In his freshman season, Jenkins practiced with the team every day, took a full load of classes and earned the reward of a grand total of 19 minutes of playing time and four points scored.
"It takes a lot,' Jenkins said. "You have to be a strong person to do all the practice and some other players get all the work (during games).'
After taking off a season to concentrate on his studies, Jenkins returned to the Wildcats last season. His numbers skyrocketed to 39 total minutes and five total points.
They were the numbers of just another walk-on, a guy too small for the coaches to notice.
"There are not a lot of 5-9 guys walking on in Division I,' Jordan said. "The life of a walk-on is not the easiest thing in the world.'
Said Carmody: "There were so many times I basically ignored him and he never really had a chance. But he stayed with it. He never thought of himself as a walk-on.'
Instead, when the scholarship players worked out in the gym, Jenkins worked out, too. When the scholarship players lifted weights, Jenkins lifted, too.
Then last month before Northwestern's Big Ten opener against Indiana, starting point guard T.J. Parker came down with stomach flu. All that work paid off as Jenkins finally was pressed into action.
"About 30 minutes before the game, coach told me I was going to start,' said Jenkins. "You just have to get ready mentally.'
Jenkins played a career-high 36 minutes and scored eight points as the Wildcats routed Indiana, 73-52.
"Just like going back to high school days,' Jenkins said. "It's better competition and they're just as physical as you are, but it brought out my competitiveness.'
Said Carmody: "He came in the first conference game against Indiana and just played like he's been playing all the time. We didn't miss a beat. We ran the offense better than we had in a while.'
Perhaps most surprisingly, he grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Playing bigger than his body, it's a Michael Jenkins specialty.
"It's one thing to get an opportunity,' Jordan said. "It's another to take advantage of it.'
Jenkins remained in the rotation and provided solid minutes off the bench. Then two weeks ago against Iowa, starting guard Mohamed Hachad fouled out and Parker was in foul trouble, which left Jenkins on the court in crunch time. Jenkins knocked in two 3-pointers in regulation when the Wildcats rallied from 12 points down with 3:27 left to force overtime.
The Wildcats trailed 74-72 with one chance left, but Jenkins was not the first option. But as the Iowa defense crashed down on Vedran Vukusic, the biggest shot of the game was in the hands of the smallest guy on the court.
"Coach set up a good play to get a layup, the defense helped out and I was just wide open in the corner,' Jenkins said. "I told myself, 'If you get the chance, you have to make the shot.''
The player from too far away, the one that was too small, the one that couldn't get a scholarship, the one that couldn't get an opportunity was carried off the court by his fellow Northwestern teammates and students who swarmed the court after his game-winning shot.
"They lifted me up and I got a nice ride,' Jenkins said. "It was great.'
His wild ride continues. Jenkins will graduate this spring with a degree in economics. He's not only earned a spot on the court, but in Northwestern's starting lineup. In his four starts, Jenkins is averaging 6.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and a team- high 1.2 steals, and the Wildcats have earned two of their three conference victories. He's planning to play again next season as he pursues a graduate degree.
It's more than anyone could have expected. Anyone, perhaps, except Michael Jenkins.
"People have underestimated me since I was younger,' he said. "I'm out to prove those people wrong.'
