Basketball Transfer Takes Lead

Basketball Transfer Takes Lead

BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff
Nov. 19, 1998

Senior co-captain Jason Skaer entered Rice last year, but as a basketball transfer he was required by NCAA rules to sit out the entire season. It killed him to sit in his street clothes and watch the Owls suffer through a disappointing season. Immediately after each home game, he would change into his sweats and return to Autry Court to shoot hoops.

His main reason for taking shooting practice was to “work off the energy and rage I had built up inside.” He hated to see his team lose and not be able to contribute.

“Basketball for me is an extreme passion,” says the 6-foot-7-inch forward. Skaer describes himself as a player who “thrives on making the big play. Last year there were so many close games in which I could have made a difference.”

As a freshman, he was the second man off the bench on an Oklahoma State team that made it to the NCAA Final Four, and throughout his career he’s helped lead many of his teams to championship seasons.

The Deer Park High School graduate played three years at Oklahoma State, and, after realizing that he wasn’t going to be the offensive focus he felt he deserved to be, he decided to transfer to Rice.

He picked Rice because he has known and admired Coach Willis Wilson since junior high school. He also thought it would be “a great opportunity” and says “the academics are great.” He was recruited by Rice when he was in high school and participated annually in Wilson’s summer camps.

Wilson likes the big forward’s range: “He can shoot deep with great accuracy, and inside the three-point line he’s a very rugged basketball player.”

Since this is Skaer’s first and only season to play for Rice, he feels it’s now or never if he’s going to show fans and NBA scouts what he’s about.

In Skaer’s young career he’s already had a chance to go up against some great basketball players–the greatest, in fact.

Two summers ago he worked as a counselor at Michael Jordan’s basketball camp. Skaer got to play a few games against Jordan and, since they’re the same height and both forwards, they’d guard each other.

Skaer said it was intimidating at first, knowing he was head-to-head with the greatest player of all time–“He’s almost like a mythical figure”–but after a while “it got to be a blast. He’s a pretty competitive guy. He always wants to win, and so do I. There was some trash talking.”

His Final Four experience was also incredible. “It was the first time I’ve been truly nervous,” he says. “It was almost like an out-of-body experience.”

During his stint at Oklahoma State, he became friendly with Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who had learned that Skaer was being groomed for a Rhodes Scholarship. Last summer Skaer joined Wilson and Owl teammates Mike Wilks and T.J. McKenzie and six other Division I men’s basketball players on a tour of mainland China, where they were treated like celebrities. At a shopping mall, thousands of people lined up to get their autographs.

The China trip made Skaer appreciate America–American food in particular. “At some restaurants there would be live animals out front–chickens, snakes and turtles. Things you’d see on a farm,” he says. He relied on bread, peanut butter, candy, bottled water and soda that trip.

Skaer says he is “excited and impressed by the amount of chemistry the [Rice] team has already been able to build,” and describes Wilson as a personable coach who is “always willing to teach. You respect him, but he’s one of the guys.” Skaer says he shares with teammates the same struggle to balance athletics and scholastics.

Skaer also finds time for the piano, an instrument he’s played for 15 years. He’s taking private lessons from Shepherd School of Music doctoral student Renato Fabbro. Skaer enjoys playing classical music and jazz. Playing piano, he says, is “a good outlet, and it impresses the girls, too.”

Skaer has been shooting hoops since age 5. His father Mike Skaer, an English teacher and freshman basketball coach at Deer Park High School, never pushed his son. “He let the game come to me,” Jason says. Mike Skaer played basketball at Rice from ’68-’70.

Skaer’s dream is to play in the NBA. If that doesn’t happen, he says he’ll probably go to law school or business school.

Wilson admires Skaer’s intense on-court attitude: “He enjoys the heat of the battle. He has a genuine passion for the game, a great work ethic, and those things are contagious.”

Along with basketball and piano, another of Skaer’s great loves is watching pro wrestling. His favorite wrestler is “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, “not your model citizen,” Skaer says. “He’s mean and kind of a jerk. He has a Texas tough man attitude. Nobody likes to wrestle him.” When Skaer wears a Steve Austin T-shirt to the weight room, he’ll get razzed by his teammates.

When it’s game time, Skaer says he’ll assume a Stone Cold Steve-like attitude. “I’m a pretty tough guy on the court. I have a high expectation of myself and the team, and I’m not afraid to let it be known.”