George Washington University Athletics
Maceo with his mom, Felisha, and dad, David, after his AAU team City Rocks won the Boo Williams Invitational in 2015
Born to Ball
10/11/2018 3:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball, My GW: Celebrating our Stories
The son of star athletes, Maceo Jack learned the importance of passion, energy and competitiveness from his parents
For Maceo Jack, it was a day he'd waited for all his life. For his mother, not so much.
Felisha Legette-Jack, a former Syracuse basketball star turned college coach, won every 1-on-1 battle with her son – and there were many – over the first 15 years of his life.
Most of the games, whether in the family driveway or practice gyms at Indiana and Buffalo, weren't even close. If she could beat young Maceo 10-1, she was going to do it, using her size advantage and a well-rehearsed arsenal of post moves to show him how far he had left to go. Sometimes, there were tears.
Mom was undefeated until that fateful day her budding Division I prospect son finally flipped the script with a narrow victory.
"I went in my room and punched my pillow a little bit like 'What the heck happened?'" Legette-Jack remembered with a chuckle. "I'm not one of those people that's going to celebrate you because you beat me, but I was also prideful because it meant my son was getting better.
He just beat somebody. He didn't just beat a mother. He beat somebody that really plays this game for keeps."
It's hardly a stretch to say Maceo Jack was raised in the game of basketball. He doesn't remember a time when visits to his mother's practices and road trips with her teams weren't a part of his life, and his world has always revolved around the rhythms of hoops season.
Now a GW sophomore, Jack is well on his way to carving out his own path in the sport. As he tries to build on an encouraging finish to last season, the 6-foot-5 guard has leaned on the lessons long-preached by his mother and a competitiveness that runs in the family to stoke his improvement.
"You've got to go out there like it's your last play every time," Jack said. "That's something I've always taken from her. She still coaches to this day with that type of passion and energy. That's something I'm thinking about when I go on the court every day."
Jack always seemed destined for athletic success. His mother graduated as Syracuse's all-time leader in points and rebounds, while his father, David, played volleyball on the Jamaican National Team and continues to coach that sport.
Jack was born when his mother was on staff at her alma mater, and his earliest memories are when she was an assistant Michigan State. She was a head coach at Hofstra and Indiana before taking over at Buffalo in 2012.
Legette-Jack laughs recalling the days when she couldn't use the horn at practice for fear of startling her toddler playing quietly courtside with his Power Rangers action figures.
For Legette-Jack, it was important to have her son around as much as possible. Growing up, her mother, Thalia Legette, was a single parent who worked long hours as a cook and custodian.
"I had a job that I could include my son, and I just wanted him around me," Legette-Jack said. "It was probably just a little bit selfish."
Jack cherishes those memories, too. The youngster loved bus rides with the team and especially ordering room service at hotels on the road. He took quickly to the game, gleefully hoisting long-range shots during breaks in the action.
Jack's parents were careful not to force him into anything, though. He was 9 years old before he joined his first basketball team at the urging of a friend's father.
Once Jack decided to play, he wanted to be the best. How could he settle for anything less after years of trying to keep up with parents that raced to the top of the stairs or to finish their dinner first?
"Everything's a competition," Jack said. "It doesn't matter what it is. That's just kind of how we live."
That's why Legette-Jack made it clear she wouldn't let her son win at 1-on-1 until he'd earned it.
"Everything we do is about life lessons," Legette-Jack said. "It's not necessarily about the game. We talk about the lessons you can learn."
Those lessons paved the way for Jack's development into a Division I talent. (He chose to focus on hoops, despite two all-conference seasons in high school in his father's sport of volleyball.)
Jack showcased a familiar fire when he spoke up at halftime of a rivalry game as a freshman on the varsity squad and proceeded to lead the team to victory. His combination of size and outside shot polished over years of dedicated drilling attracted the attention of college coaches.
Plus, he's got a basketball mind honed over years of helping his mother navigate the on and off court challenges of running a college program.
"He has a great perspective in my opinion," Legette-Jack said. "I don't talk to him (about those things) just because he's my son. He has great perspectives on how I can look at a problem and make it better."
For a long time, Jack aspired to stay close to home to play his college ball, but he eventually decided it would be best to chart his own path.
GW's Maurice Joseph impressed Jack with a passion and competitiveness that rivaled his parents. The Colonials' head coach got a commitment from Jack after a trip to Buffalo to attend one of the Bulls' games. He enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at Legette-Jack's program and a memorable foosball battle in the family basement on the way to landing a coveted prospect.
"The discipline that comes with being a student-athlete has been instilled within him from day one," Joseph said. "He's a guy who has unbelievable work ethic. He takes care of his body. He takes care of his academics. He's got everything you could want for your program."
That doesn't mean Jack didn't face the same problems that most newcomers experience in the jump up to the college game.
Last season, Jack appreciated input from his parents as he navigated those bumps in the road. They couldn't make it to many games in person, but they'd FaceTime after almost every one.
Most basketball conversations with his mother start with a reminder: As a mother, her love is unconditional and has nothing to do with basketball, but as a coach, she's going to call it like she sees it.
A particularly frank talk after he didn't play at all in a December win over Princeton sticks out. She told him he was being too timid in his limited chances and needed to show he belonged on the court.
"She was just like 'Listen, you've got to get back to your roots. How you're playing is not you. You've got to get back to who you are and really remember why you came here and why you love this game," Jack said. "That was something I think I needed to hear."
Jack played much better down the stretch. After scoring a total of seven points in his first 13 appearances of the season, the guard recorded seven in 13 minutes at Davidson on Feb. 3.
Over GW's final 10 games, Jack averaged 5.4 points in 12 minutes per game, highlighted by a career-best, 10-point effort in the Atlantic 10 Championship win over Fordham. His improvement, boosted by hitting 8 of 14 3-point attempts, helped the Colonials go 6-4 in those contests.
"It's all a mental thing for me," Jack said. "Because physically I feel like I have the tools to be really successful."
Jack's strong finish coincided with a memorable March for his mother. Buffalo qualified for the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid as a No. 11 seed and proceeded to upset South Florida and Florida State to make its first Sweet Sixteen.
Legette-Jack earned national headlines with her powerful response to a press conference question about the importance of coaching opportunities for minorities like herself.
"It was awesome because I know those are feelings that she carries with her every day," said Jack, who was able to attend Buffalo's MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament games. "It was good to see her on that platform being able to let people know who she really is and what she believes."
Jack has worked hard throughout the offseason to make sure he picks up where he left off. He's added eight pounds of muscle thanks to a full summer in the weight room, and he's focused on improving his ballhandling in order to be more of a factor in running the offense.
What Jack didn't do was take the court against Felisha during his two weeks at home before the start of the school year. He appreciates all she continues to do for him as a mother and basketball mentor, but he doesn't have anything left to prove in their head-to-head battles.
"She's the one who wants to play me now," Jack said with a laugh. "I used to be asking to play her, and now it's completely flipped. She wants to play me, and I never let her beat me anymore."
Felisha Legette-Jack, a former Syracuse basketball star turned college coach, won every 1-on-1 battle with her son – and there were many – over the first 15 years of his life.
Most of the games, whether in the family driveway or practice gyms at Indiana and Buffalo, weren't even close. If she could beat young Maceo 10-1, she was going to do it, using her size advantage and a well-rehearsed arsenal of post moves to show him how far he had left to go. Sometimes, there were tears.
Mom was undefeated until that fateful day her budding Division I prospect son finally flipped the script with a narrow victory.
"I went in my room and punched my pillow a little bit like 'What the heck happened?'" Legette-Jack remembered with a chuckle. "I'm not one of those people that's going to celebrate you because you beat me, but I was also prideful because it meant my son was getting better.
He just beat somebody. He didn't just beat a mother. He beat somebody that really plays this game for keeps."
It's hardly a stretch to say Maceo Jack was raised in the game of basketball. He doesn't remember a time when visits to his mother's practices and road trips with her teams weren't a part of his life, and his world has always revolved around the rhythms of hoops season.
Now a GW sophomore, Jack is well on his way to carving out his own path in the sport. As he tries to build on an encouraging finish to last season, the 6-foot-5 guard has leaned on the lessons long-preached by his mother and a competitiveness that runs in the family to stoke his improvement.
"You've got to go out there like it's your last play every time," Jack said. "That's something I've always taken from her. She still coaches to this day with that type of passion and energy. That's something I'm thinking about when I go on the court every day."
Jack always seemed destined for athletic success. His mother graduated as Syracuse's all-time leader in points and rebounds, while his father, David, played volleyball on the Jamaican National Team and continues to coach that sport.
Jack was born when his mother was on staff at her alma mater, and his earliest memories are when she was an assistant Michigan State. She was a head coach at Hofstra and Indiana before taking over at Buffalo in 2012.
Legette-Jack laughs recalling the days when she couldn't use the horn at practice for fear of startling her toddler playing quietly courtside with his Power Rangers action figures.
For Legette-Jack, it was important to have her son around as much as possible. Growing up, her mother, Thalia Legette, was a single parent who worked long hours as a cook and custodian.
"I had a job that I could include my son, and I just wanted him around me," Legette-Jack said. "It was probably just a little bit selfish."
Jack cherishes those memories, too. The youngster loved bus rides with the team and especially ordering room service at hotels on the road. He took quickly to the game, gleefully hoisting long-range shots during breaks in the action.
Jack's parents were careful not to force him into anything, though. He was 9 years old before he joined his first basketball team at the urging of a friend's father.
Once Jack decided to play, he wanted to be the best. How could he settle for anything less after years of trying to keep up with parents that raced to the top of the stairs or to finish their dinner first?
"Everything's a competition," Jack said. "It doesn't matter what it is. That's just kind of how we live."
That's why Legette-Jack made it clear she wouldn't let her son win at 1-on-1 until he'd earned it.
"Everything we do is about life lessons," Legette-Jack said. "It's not necessarily about the game. We talk about the lessons you can learn."
Those lessons paved the way for Jack's development into a Division I talent. (He chose to focus on hoops, despite two all-conference seasons in high school in his father's sport of volleyball.)
Jack showcased a familiar fire when he spoke up at halftime of a rivalry game as a freshman on the varsity squad and proceeded to lead the team to victory. His combination of size and outside shot polished over years of dedicated drilling attracted the attention of college coaches.
Plus, he's got a basketball mind honed over years of helping his mother navigate the on and off court challenges of running a college program.
"He has a great perspective in my opinion," Legette-Jack said. "I don't talk to him (about those things) just because he's my son. He has great perspectives on how I can look at a problem and make it better."
For a long time, Jack aspired to stay close to home to play his college ball, but he eventually decided it would be best to chart his own path.
GW's Maurice Joseph impressed Jack with a passion and competitiveness that rivaled his parents. The Colonials' head coach got a commitment from Jack after a trip to Buffalo to attend one of the Bulls' games. He enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at Legette-Jack's program and a memorable foosball battle in the family basement on the way to landing a coveted prospect.
"The discipline that comes with being a student-athlete has been instilled within him from day one," Joseph said. "He's a guy who has unbelievable work ethic. He takes care of his body. He takes care of his academics. He's got everything you could want for your program."
That doesn't mean Jack didn't face the same problems that most newcomers experience in the jump up to the college game.
Last season, Jack appreciated input from his parents as he navigated those bumps in the road. They couldn't make it to many games in person, but they'd FaceTime after almost every one.
Most basketball conversations with his mother start with a reminder: As a mother, her love is unconditional and has nothing to do with basketball, but as a coach, she's going to call it like she sees it.
A particularly frank talk after he didn't play at all in a December win over Princeton sticks out. She told him he was being too timid in his limited chances and needed to show he belonged on the court.
"She was just like 'Listen, you've got to get back to your roots. How you're playing is not you. You've got to get back to who you are and really remember why you came here and why you love this game," Jack said. "That was something I think I needed to hear."
Jack played much better down the stretch. After scoring a total of seven points in his first 13 appearances of the season, the guard recorded seven in 13 minutes at Davidson on Feb. 3.
Over GW's final 10 games, Jack averaged 5.4 points in 12 minutes per game, highlighted by a career-best, 10-point effort in the Atlantic 10 Championship win over Fordham. His improvement, boosted by hitting 8 of 14 3-point attempts, helped the Colonials go 6-4 in those contests.
"It's all a mental thing for me," Jack said. "Because physically I feel like I have the tools to be really successful."
Jack's strong finish coincided with a memorable March for his mother. Buffalo qualified for the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid as a No. 11 seed and proceeded to upset South Florida and Florida State to make its first Sweet Sixteen.
Legette-Jack earned national headlines with her powerful response to a press conference question about the importance of coaching opportunities for minorities like herself.
"It was awesome because I know those are feelings that she carries with her every day," said Jack, who was able to attend Buffalo's MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament games. "It was good to see her on that platform being able to let people know who she really is and what she believes."
Jack has worked hard throughout the offseason to make sure he picks up where he left off. He's added eight pounds of muscle thanks to a full summer in the weight room, and he's focused on improving his ballhandling in order to be more of a factor in running the offense.
What Jack didn't do was take the court against Felisha during his two weeks at home before the start of the school year. He appreciates all she continues to do for him as a mother and basketball mentor, but he doesn't have anything left to prove in their head-to-head battles.
"She's the one who wants to play me now," Jack said with a laugh. "I used to be asking to play her, and now it's completely flipped. She wants to play me, and I never let her beat me anymore."
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballGW Men's Basketball vs. St. Bonaventure (Post-Game Press Conference)
Thursday, March 05
GW Men's Basketball vs. Dayton (Post-Game Press Conference)
Saturday, February 28
GW Men's Basketball vs George Mason (Post-Game Press Conference)
Saturday, February 14
GW Men's Basketball vs. Rhode Island (Post-Game Press Conference)
Wednesday, February 11