Dec. 14, 2000

by STEVEN MARCUS Newsday

Sherry Jordan is an emerging basketball star. Her father's name is Michael Jordan. Right away, that makes people take notice of the freshman forward at the University at Stony Brook.

"People say to me, 'Are you related to Michael Jordan?' and I'll say, 'Yeah, he's my father,'" she said. "They'll say, 'Oh really, is that the Michael Jordan or somebody random.'" She doesn't like her father being referred to as random, so she'll say the real Michael Jordan is her dad, the one who played professional basketball is the other one.

This Jordan does have an autograph from that Jordan. "His cousin was one of my teachers in high school," she said. "She got him to send me a picture of him and he signed it." This Jordan certainly has the game befitting the name. She has totally dominated in the first half of her first college season. Through nine games, the 5-11 forward leads the Seawolves (7-2) with a 20.2-point average and 9.1 rebounds. She quickly erased the sting of losing Julie Szabo, last year's freshman sensation who transferred with teammate Cortney Ray to Division II South Carolina-Aiken.

"She [Jordan] can do a lot of things that our 'star' last year couldn't do," coach Trish Roberts said. After Szabo's departure, Roberts might have been reluctant to crown another freshman a star, but she has no other designation for Jordan, saying: "She can handle the ball, penetrate, shoot the three. She's an excellent passer and makes everybody around her better." Best of all, Roberts believes Jordan will be at Stony Brook all four years.

"She's not going anywhere," the coach said.

Roberts discovered Jordan at Clarkston (Ga.) High School, where Roberts was teaching health and physical education before arriving at Stony Brook to begin the Division I program last season. "I saw a young lady who didn't know how good she was and how good she could be," Roberts said.

Roberts, a former Olympian and All-America at Tennessee, worked with Jordan and the two forged a friendship that enabled Roberts to recruit Jordan away from North Carolina, Georgia, Memphis and Kentucky. "I told her she could come and help build something here and stamp her name in it," Roberts said.

That enticed Jordan, who said: "I liked taking the chance. I could have gone to a name school, but I liked the idea of rebuilding, I think that's more fun." With Szabo gone, Stony Brook was hoping Jordan could replace some of the 21 points a game Szabo had averaged. "We all knew she was really, really good but we weren't expecting her to be this good," junior center and captain Jill George said. "She's amazing. She can play any position on the court and be fine in that position." No one is concerned about the freshman thinking she's all that in her first season. "She's one of the least cocky players I ever played with who has that much ability," George said. "I think being pumped up by so many other people, she doesn't have to do it for us." Jordan is likely to rewrite the Stony Brook women's basketball record book by the time she's a senior, yet her goal in basketball is going over the top in a different manner. She wants to dunk. "I'm getting very close," she said. "I can get the rim. I think I need to get those shoes, I don't know what they are called." Are they named Air Jordan?