STARKVILLE — Alicia Mardis refuses to take the blame.
After all, she was merely playing basketball as an eighth-grader at Coconut Creek High School in Florida when she noticed her sister, Jacaira Allen, watching her. She didn’t realize she was making an impression on a younger sister whose only athletic claim to fame to that point was playing football in the street with the local boys.
From there, the story goes in two directions. Depending on who you want to believe, Mardis either “forced” her sister to play basketball or Allen opted to follow in the footsteps of someone she loves.
Judging from Mardis’ laugh when asked how it happened, the story comes into focus.
“She saw me and said, ‘You’re pretty good. I am going to try it out,’ ” Mardis said. “She tried it out and she liked it and is pretty good at it now. I always knew she was going to be as good as she is now, if not better.”
More than five years later, the example Mardis set or her decision “to force” her sister to play basketball, if you believe Allen, is set to pay dividends for the Mississippi State women’s basketball team. Coming off a program-best 28-win season and a second trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, coach Vic Schaefer and the Bulldogs have added to their arsenal with Allen, a 5-foot-11 1/2 guard from Fort Lauderdale Dillard High in Florida. Rated the No. 77 player in the Class of 2016 by espnW and Dan Olson’s Collegiate Girls Basketball Report and No. 66 by All-Star Girls Report, Allen led Dillard High to a Florida High School Athletic Association Class 5A State title. The championship was Dillard High’s ninth, which is the second most in state history, and fifth in the last six seasons.
Allen did a little of everything for Dillard, averaging in double figures in scoring and rebounding to earn first-team All-State honors in Class 5A and that classification’s Florida Dairy Farmers Miss Basketball award. She hopes to bring the same infectious energy and versatility to Starkville.
“I am very passionate about it, so more energy, better results,” Allen said. “If it does wear off on my teammates, it will be a pretty good result.”
‘Tone-setter’
Allen never imagined being a “tone-setter” for a state championship basketball team, let alone one of the nation’s top recruits. She recalls running around the gym in seventh grade and not knowing how to shoot a ball. She said a coach at the time told her she was going to be special if she decided to play basketball. Soon after that, Allen received a nickname, or at least part of one, that fit perfectly with her growing game. When Coconut Creek High girls basketball coach Max Ruback refused to allow Allen to accept the nickname “prodigy,” he offered her an abbreviated moniker — “Igy” — in an attempt to motivate her to get the rest of the letters to spell out “prodigy.”
Allen modified the nickname to “Iggy” and has worked hard ever since. She hopes one day she will be able to add the other letters so she will be able to spell “prodigy.”
“I am very tough on myself,” Allen said. “I am the type that if we lose the game I blame it on myself. I know it is not my fault, but I blame it on myself because I know I could have done better in this area or that area. I put the blame on myself.”
Allen doesn’t blame her sister for “forcing” her to play basketball. Instead, she looks up to her sister and says they have a great and very close relationship. In fact, Jacaira credits her mother, Susan, her sister, who is a sophomore at Kilgore College in Texas, and Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star LeBron James as her sources of motivation.
“I say thank you to her every day (for introducing her to the game of basketball),” Allen said. “I speak to her every day, and I thank her every day.”
Schaefer likely will have plenty of thank yous for Mardis, too, in the coming years. With guard Dominique Dillingham set to enter her senior season, Schaefer said repeatedly last season that one of the Bulldogs’ biggest challenges will be to find a player who brings as much intensity, determination, and toughness to the court as Dillingham. MSU might have found that player in Allen.
“The thing that strikes you about her is how athletic she is. She is bouncy. She is explosive,” Schaefer said. “She is physical and she is not afraid of contact. While I like her jump shot, I like the other aspects as well. I think the jump shot has gotten a lot better over the course of time.”
Like Dillingham, Schaefer believes Allen isn’t going to be happy unless she is on the court. As a freshman, Dillingham proved that point when she entered the program and earned a starting position. She hasn’t let go of that spot. In limited time working with the players in the offseason, Schaefer feels Allen has a good understanding of what she will need to do and how she will have to play.
‘One of the best’
Miguel Diaz, a co-founder and program director of the Miami Suns, knows Allen will be able to make that adjustment. Diaz watched Allen mature as a player with his Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) travel ball organization, which is one of the nation’s top programs. Former North Carolina great Erlana Larkins and former LSU All-American and WNBA champion Sylvia Fowles are among the standouts to come through the Suns organization.
Diaz didn’t hesitate to offer Allen significant praise when asked about her energy, her work ethic, and her leadership abilities.
“Her energy level was the best in the program, bar none,” Diaz said. “We have had a hard time replacing her intangibles. If she is not the No. 1 hardest player to replace, she will be one of the hardest players to replace.”
Diaz recalled a game the Suns played in a non-EYBL tournament against an in-state team in Daytona, Florida. He said the Suns were leading by 18-20 points in the second half before the team’s coach emptied the bench. Diaz was sitting next to Allen on the bench watching as the Suns’ lead dwindled to six. He then watched as Allen checked herself back into the game.
“What are you doing?” Diaz recalls asking Allen.
“We worked too hard to build this lead up,” Diaz said Allen said.
The Miami Suns won the game by 10 thanks in part to Allen, who Diaz said returned to make three or four impact possessions on both ends of the floor.
“That is a testament to her desire to win and to winning,” Diaz said. “Her energy and her desire to win is the best I have been around.”
Allen said Mardis helped her learn how to set the tone in games. She feels she always has had that “drive” to be a “tone-setter” because she always has aspired to be great, even if she didn’t start playing organized basketball until the eighth grade.
Elevating her game
The late start hasn’t stopped Allen from elevating her game. She said she won’t allow the fact that she is one of two freshmen on an experienced team prevent her from making an impact. In fact, Allen said she already is trying to be heard.
“I see myself motivating the seniors, just as the seniors and juniors will motivate me,” Allen said. “On two occasions, I have done that. (Talking on Tuesday, she referred to Monday and once last week) when juniors and seniors were getting down and not hitting shots and I said, ‘C’mon, you have to set a good example for me so I wouldn’t think it is OK to quit even though we are in pickup.’ ”
Allen said she hasn’t gotten frustrated yet, but after a few minutes it is easy to tell that that won’t always be the case. Allen doesn’t hesitate to tell you that there are “a lot of things I get frustrated with,” which is understandable coming from someone who admits she tries “to perfect everything.”
Mardis has watched Allen’s ups and downs closely the last few years. Coming out of Coconut Creek High, Mardis tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee practicing with the Miami Suns. She had committed to play basketball at Northwestern Ohio, but she said she didn’t like it there and left after nearly a year at the school. Mardis then took a year off from basketball and school to work and to get back into shape. In that time off, Mardis encouraged and pushed her sister to realize her potential. She said she sees things in her sister no one sees, which is part of the reason why she was there for every one of her sister’s practices in the year she took off.
While Mardis continues on her quest to return to the court and to become the first in the family to graduate from college (she has three years left to get a degree to become a physical therapist), she will keep pushing and rooting for Allen. If she has to be known as the player who “forced” Jacaira “Iggy” Allen to play basketball, she will accept that claim to fame because she knows it will serve as motivation for her sister to realize her potential.
“I feel as if these four years of her life are going to be great for her,” Mardis said. “She is always going to get after it, she is always going to be coachable, and she is always going to come into practice with an open mind wanting to get better. One thing I will say about my sister is she is very strong mentally and she knows what she has to do and gets after it. If she has a bad practice or is having a bad day, she will put up more shots to get better. That is why she is where she is now.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.