Jackson’s Return to Cal No Sentimental Journey

Sean Jackson returns to Berkeley this week, when the UC Irvine basketball team plays California on Saturday.

Jackson spent two tumultuous seasons with the Golden Bears, amid an NCAA investigation and a coaching change, before transferring to Irvine a year ago. But Jackson won’t come to town bearing any ill will.

“My mind is not there anymore,” Jackson said. “I don’t think about it anymore. I don’t compare teams. I’m at Irvine.”

Still . . .

“It should be funny,” Jackson said. “Last year we were playing Pacific and when [former Irvine player] Clay McKnight was introduced, all the fans booed. I looked at one of our coaches and said, ‘I hope they don’t do that to me in Berkeley next year.’ ”

He may go unnoticed. Jackson played in 17 games for the Golden Bears as a sophomore and 22 games as a freshman.

After he was released from his scholarship, Irvine assistant coach Todd Lee called.

“The question was never, ‘Why does Sean Jackson want to go to Irvine?’ ” Jackson said. “It was, ‘Why does Irvine want Sean Jackson?’ It wasn’t like I had a lot of options.”

The 6-foot-5 Jackson has made an impact, especially on defense. He had a key steal, stripping the ball from 7-3 Brad Millard, in a recent 67-59 victory over St. Mary’s.

On offense, Jackson appears a little rusty after sitting out almost two years. He is averaging nine points, but is shooting 31%. Still, there have been flashes that his long-range skills are merely dormant.

Jackson sank six of seven three-point attempts against Oklahoma and finished with 18 points. He also had a team-high seven rebounds in the victory over St. Mary’s.

AWARD-WINNING RECRUIT

Abby Miller, a senior at Henderson (Nev.) Green Valley High School who has signed to attend UC Irvine, was the female winner of the Wendy’s Heisman Trophy on Friday. It is awarded to the top high school students based on athletic and academic accomplishments.

The next day, Miller finished 14th in the Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. It was the third time in four years she has qualified for the national championships and her time of 17 minutes 43 seconds was 40 seconds faster than she ran last season. Miller finished 10th as a junior and third as a freshman.

TITANS FEELING BETTER

The 68-44 victory for the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team over San Jose State Saturday was encouraging to Titan Coach Bob Hawking, who has watched his team win only two of seven games.

“I think we saw some improvement,” Hawking said. “But we’re still a long way from where we want to be. We’ll be a different team in March than we are now.”

Hawking was pleased by the way his team took control in the first half against the Spartans (3-4), a team that beat Fullerton, 84-59, last year in San Jose.

“San Jose State isn’t a bad team,” Hawking said. “They beat Santa Barbara, and they played Cal a good game this season.”

Fullerton will be idle for more than a week. The players will be taking final exams this week, and the team will resume play Dec. 21 at home against Patten College of Oakland.

Center Matt Caldwell missed the St. Mary’s game Nov. 30 with a sprained ankle. Freshman forward Dan Thompson has been sidelined twice with a stress fracture in his right foot, but played 12 minutes Saturday. Starting point guard Kenroy Jarrett and forward Josh Fischer also were below par for recent games because of the flu.

DIFFERENT ROLES

When UCLA plays at Cal State Fullerton in women’s basketball Friday night, it will be a matchup of coaches who played in college for the opposing team.

Titan Coach Denise Curry is the all-time leading career scorer at UCLA (1977-81), and Bruin Coach Kathy Ricks Olivier played for the Titans for two seasons (1977-79) before finishing her playing career at Nevada Las Vegas. Olivier also played at Valencia High.

UCLA is 4-2 and ranked eighth nationally. The Titans are 0-6.

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Staff Writer Lon Eubanks contributed to this story.