Mo Williams aims for JSU’s first SWAC Championship victory since 2007

JACKSON, Mississippi (WLBT) – The third year under head basketball coach Mo Williams has officially begun for the Jackson State men’s basketball program.

The NBA champion has assembled an experienced roster from the portal and youth from local high schoolsCoach Williams said 10-12 players could get playing time in the 2024-25 season.

That’s depth the Tigers have arguably lacked during his tenure thus far. All that talent may be needed to accomplish something Jackson State hasn’t done since 2007 — win a SWAC Tournament Championship and qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

This was the goal of Coach Williams and JSU, who were expected to earn the fourth seed in the SWAC.

“I’m excited about this team,” Williams said Monday. “We’re excited, especially these two guys (Daeshun Ruffin Juan Reyna III) and them teaming up and competing with each other. Romel Mansel is backobviously, and adding Shannon Grant (who was named) to the first team before the season was huge for us. We’re a deep team this year, you know, I’ve said that over and over again. We’ve got 10 to 12 guys that can compete for minutes. So, our practices have been really good. We’re really looking forward to building on that. And we have one goal in mind, and that one goal is to win the SWAC Championship and go to the NCAA tournament.

“(We) haven’t been able to do that since we’ve been in the tournament since 2007, and now we want to be the next team to do it,” Williams continued. “Obviously, we talk about championships all the time at Jackson State, and me and basketball, we haven’t won one in a while. Our mentality is totally underdog.”

The weight of that goal will be carried by JSU’s deep backcourt, headlined by transfer Juan Reyna III and Capitals forward Daeshun Ruffin, whom Coach Williams calls the best in the conference and one of the best in the country.

(TO READ: Star Jackson State player makes full recovery ahead of upcoming season)

Reyna said the chemistry with the team is good and he has special feelings for the upcoming year.

Coach Williams said he understands they have a tough road ahead and JSU needs to get the victory.

“They picked us fourth. They gave us fourth, but we want to win,” Coach Williams said. “We didn’t win that. You want to win what you want, right? I mean, at the end of the day, we want to win. We want to know we have a team, but we have to go out and perform and do that, and it starts in practice. It starts with preparation. It starts with our discipline, our accountability, our attention to detail.”

Jackson State will begin the regular season with 13 games, starting with a road trip to Houston on Nov. 4.

The Tigers will host a friendly against Belhaven at the Lee E. Williams Athletic Center on Oct. 24 and travel to Hattiesburg to play Southern Miss in a preseason game on Oct. 28. Fans are welcome to attend.

Click Here To view the full regular season schedule.

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