Memory Lane: Welcome, Mr. Jordan

EACH WEEK, WE'LL TAKE A LOOK BACK AT A MEMORABLE MOMENT IN ILLINI HISTORY, THANKS TO THE WORDS OF THE NEWS-GAZETTE

This week: Jeff Jordan joins the Illini, and brings along his famous father

Date: June 20, 2007

Headline: Name and game: Jordan brings stellar credentials — and famous father — to campus

By PAUL KLEE

CHAMPAIGN — It was the weekend, and Quinton Watkins had plans to sleep in. The Illinois freshman, a guard on the basketball team, was still beat from the long trip from his home in southern California.

His roommate at Illini Tower, a residence hall on campus, had not yet arrived.

"The night before he came, I slept in the dorm," Watkins said Tuesday. "In the morning, I heard something rumbling around in the living room. I didn't know who it was. I woke up and opened the door.

"It was Michael Jordan standing there."

(So, how was your first weekend at college?)

"It was kind of like I was starstruck," Watkins said. "I just looked at him and said, 'Hi, I'm Quinton.' I didn't know what else to say."

Upon hearing the tale, the roommate had a good laugh.

"It was the first time I met Q, when my dad was in there. He was the first person Q saw, I think," Jeff Jordan said. "Q was a little shocked at first. We talked about it later and he told me how nervous he was."

What is old hat for Michael Jordan's eldest son is brand new to the Illinois basketball program.

Jeff Jordan is a 6-foot-1, 180-pound freshman guard from Loyola Academy in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette. He turned down numerous midmajor scholarship offers to be a walk-on with the Illini. His arrival prior to summer classes, when his mom, Juanita Jordan, and dad helped him move in, brought an unparalleled level of celebrity to the program.

Roommates went speechless. Girls giggled. He was college basketball's only walk-on whose name rolled across ESPN's Bottomline when he committed to a college. There has been pointing and whispering, too, when the 18-year-old walked down Green Street on his way to lunch.

"I was on Jeffrey's team at Nike camp. So I met him (Michael Jordan) then," said Bill Cole, a freshman forward from Peoria Richwoods. "But still, every time you see him it's like, 'Wow.'

"He walked into the apartment when I was sitting there with Jeff," Cole said. "It was like there was a frog in my throat. I didn't really have much to say to him. So it was kind of embarrassing."

For all the hullabaloo and incessant attention, it is stunning how Jeff Jordan maintains.

He does more than maintain, really. If he is not the most well-spoken Illini - an honor arguably bestowed on Brian Randle, a fifth-year senior - Jordan already is inching toward the title.

He offers a firm handshake and uses it often. Questions about his father receive an interested look, as though it was something he had not heard before.

Sure, like asking a weatherman what it's going to be like tomorrow.

"My parents made it as normal as possible. I had great parents that led me on the right path," Jordan said. "They pretty much left it (the choice of colleges) up to me. Academics, of course, came first. She (his mom) knew that Illinois had a good reputation for academics, and that was most important to her. For them, it was just about doing what I felt was best. There was no push for North Carolina or anything."

College coaches are allowed minimal contact with players during the summer, and Jordan, who averaged about 15 points as a senior, was not on the recruiting lists of many Big Ten schools. (Penn State and Northwestern had shown interest.) So the Illinois staff still is learning of the freshman's strengths and weaknesses.

What has stood out to coach Bruce Weber, though, has little to do with Jordan's playing abilities.

"What I have heard, from the AAU people to the high school people that have been around him, the most amazing thing is how good of a kid he is," Weber said. "He is very stable and levelheaded. He's got a great personality. Growing up, when your dad is the best player maybe ever and a fixture in Illinois and Chicago athletics, a kid could easily get disillusioned on life. He has a pretty good perspective."

Jordan, who will turn 19 on Nov. 18, one day before Illinois plays in the Maui Invitational, offered another perspective as he peered over the court at the Illinois practice facility.

"Coming out here playing with these guys, it kind of keeps you levelheaded," he said.

Why Illinois?

It was down to Valparaiso and Illinois for Jordan. In the Mid-Continent Conference, Jordan would have been a scholarship player and the league's highest-profile recruit. He opted for a greater challenge, where the fight for minutes appears to be an uphill battle against more highly regarded players.

"When I came on my unofficial visit, I just felt comfortable with all the guys," he said. "I came in here and played and I was able to keep up. I went up there and I talked to Coach Weber, and he said, 'Hey, we think you can play here.' That was pretty much all that I needed to hear."

"Jeff's a great player," Randle said. "Otherwise he wouldn't be here."

There are perks on the periphery for Illinois, too, though how beneficial and far-reaching they are is yet to be seen.

Current college prospects were not yet LeBron James fans, but Michael Jordan fans. Iman Shumpert, a guard from Oak Park-River Forest rated by Scout.com the nation's 15th-best prospect in the 2008 recruiting class, took an unofficial visit to campus last weekend. He stayed with Jordan and Watkins.

"Jeff's a great guy," Shumpert said during his visit. "He's just a normal guy. I had a lot of fun with Jeff and Q."

Jordan wore No. 32 in high school. (You can do the math.) He chose No. 13 at Illinois.

"It's my mom's birthday," he said of June 13. "I wanted to change numbers, and I thought it would be a new beginning."

And in a way, that may be what this venture is all about.

"He's not trying to be the next Michael Jordan or anything," freshman guard Demetri McCamey said. "He's just going to play as hard as he can play and do what he does, not what somebody else does."

Let's see if we can get this right: Jesus walked on water. Jordan walked on air. Jeff is walking to class.

"I think some people get too caught up in the fact he is Michael Jordan's son," Randle said. "He is making a name for himself. This is about Jeffrey, not Michael. We recruited him for what he is. That's what we're excited about."

Still, Google "Jeffrey Jordan" and three of the first four entries include "the son of."

Who knows, that could change over four years at Illinois. He has the athletic gifts to crack the playing rotation down the road, and Weber said Jordan is known as a hard worker, always a plus.

But for now, if you see him, please, call him Jeff.

"Most people call me Jeff," he said. "Some people call me Jeffrey. Jeff is good."

Will he or won't he?

Inquiring minds want to know: Should Illinois fans expect Michael Jordan next season at the Assembly Hall?

"Every once in a while he'll come down. He'll come down for a couple games, most likely," said son Jeff Jordan, a freshman guard at Illinois. "He'll just pop in and check in and see how I'm doing."

Jordan laughed and added, "I'm sure he won't give me any notice or anything, he'll just pop in to see how I'm doing."

It would be a rare visit from Michael Jordan at the Assembly Hall. He played there once with the Chicago Bulls, in an exhibition game Oct. 24, 1989.

Randle, for one, already has heard the question 1,000 times.

"Whether Michael is going to be at our games or not, it shouldn't matter with Jeffrey," Randle said. "People ask me all the time: 'Is he going to be there? Is he not going to be there?' I don't know, man."

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