By Connor Doyle - Assistant Sports Editor
First-teamers (from left) Tyler McKee, Jason Gentry, Shae Neal, Calen Blessinger and Player of the Year Jacques Wilson (dunking).
In truth, this is just where everyone expected Jacques Wilson to be come the end of the season. There was little question that his talent was unmatched; one could see that last season, when as Century's sixth man he routinely delivered uppercuts to opponents with his ability to dribble penetrate and fill up the scoresheet in a hurry.
But this season was never meant to be a coronation for the 6-foot-1 senior, who was only expected to switch positions - from off-guard to the point - and lead the defending 4A state champs back to the tournament despite watching most of the core he played behind on the 2003-04 squad graduate. No big deal, right?
Well, the kid managed to pull it off, and that's why he's the Journal's 2004-05 Player of the Year.
Jacques finished the season with a stellar stat line - 18.6 points per game, 6.5 rebounds per game, five assists per game, almost three steals per game - despite going through some early-season struggles with a jump shot he and father Louis, who's an assistant coach at Idaho State University, overhauled in the offseason. Jacques stuck with it during the struggles, and finally saw the light in the second half, hitting 47 percent of his three-pointers down the stretch.
Jacques' coach, Cody Shelley, was equally impressed by Wilson's realization his shot needed to get better, and the follow-through that made it happen.
"Playing here forced him to become a better shooter," Shelley said. "The coaches aren't stupid here, and they're going to make you do something you're not used to."
Of course, the jumper wasn't the whole story. Jacques managed to walk the fine line of being the fulcrum of an entire offense in addition to its leading scorer. Of course, it helps to have a basketball sage like Louis watching most of the games from his customary seat high in the bleachers, and offering advice every now and then.
"From time to time we discuss it, if he loses track of what he's supposed to be doing," Louis says. "Any time you're playing (point guard), your job is to make everyone else better. What you have to be careful of when you're a scoring point guard is that you don't get in a position where everyone's watching you play. Cody's done a hell of a job getting him to do that."
Shelley surely had a lot to do with it, but in the end it was Jacques that decided to make this his year. And while the back-to-back state title dream evaporated with a second-round loss in the 4A state tournament, Jacques has every reason to be satisfied with his senior year. He'll be deciding soon on where he'll play college ball - Montana State and ISU already have offers on the table - and he'll walk away from his two seasons at Century as the program's record holder in steals for a season and a career.
"No. 1, I feel fortunate that Jacques was part of our program," Shelley said. "I'm also happy he'll be able to continue on playing basketball at the college level."
Then Shelley capped it off with the greatest compliment a coach could give his best player.
"When Jacques was on," he said, "I think we very well could have beaten the best team in the state."