Mo Williams came to Jackson State to come back to his hometown and coach.
It took ten games in his tenure at the school, but it finally happened on Wednesday night. JSU took on Mississippi State of the SEC and lost 69-59 at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson. But it wasn’t quite the homecoming Williams was expecting.
“Even though it wasn’t at home, this is the first time we’ve been in Jackson all year. This is our tenth game of the year. We’ve been on tour. If you follow us on Instagram, every time we leave Jackson we say we’re back on tour. Because every game is on the road. And we’re on tour.”
Jackson State fell to 1-9 on the season, but his team was competitive with the Power Five squad for most of the game which was witnessed by just over 3,200 fans.
“To have a game in Jackson, I think the guys felt really comfortable and excited for that,” Williams said. “And I get back to our fans. We’ve been on the road for nine straight games, and to come into Jackson, playing a top 20 team in the country and not have the support from our fans, it’s disappointing. Like I said, if this was a football game today, it would be 60k fans in the stadium. “
Williams is a Jackson native who played his college basketball at Alabama before going on to a long NBA career that included a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I’m from Jackson, I got a different mentality – I don’t fear nobody,” Williams said.
Jackson State will hit the road again this week, traveling to Lubbock, TX (Texas Tech), Tuscaloosa, AL (to play Williams’ alma mater) and Nacogdoches, Texas (Stephen F. Austin). It won’t return play again in Jackson until Jan. 7 when it hosts Williams’ former team – Alabama State. Clearly, he’s hoping for more support moving forward.
“I just want to challenge our fans. They had an opportunity to show up today,” he said. “Like I said, I’m disappointed. And we had a chance. Five minutes, six minutes to go…we’re up one, we’re up two…just imagine what our fans would have done for us.”