UW coach Jackson goes extra mile

SEATTLE – Soon after taking her new job in Seattle, Tia Jackson flew to Los Angeles. Then she caught a long connecting flight to Auckland, New Zealand.

After 17 hours of traveling, Washington’s women’s basketball coach headed from the airport to the Auckland home of Jess McCormack. Jackson chatted and looked around town with the 6-foot-5 center and member of New Zealand’s national basketball team. Then, Jackson hopped the first of two return flights home.

Going the extra mile? Jackson went 14,912 of them for a nine-hour visit – with a prospect who had already signed with the Huskies.

“It showed her commitment. To go around the world? Just an amazing coach,” McCormack said as Washington prepares to begin its first season with Jackson.

A 1995 graduate of Iowa who has never been a head coach, Jackson made the long trip to reassure McCormack. Washington had fired coach June Daugherty, who had recruited the promising teen, in March following 11 seasons and nine postseason appearances at UW.

“The most unexpected thing was having to recruit my own players all over again,” said Jackson, known as a whiz recruiter in her previous two stints at Duke and UCLA.

All six of the freshmen in Daugherty’s heralded recruiting class stayed.

Jackson, 35, is here and Daugherty is now at Washington State because UW athletic director Todd Turner said Washington’s program lacked “buzz” following a one-and-done appearance in the NCAA tournament in March. UW gave Jackson a five-year contract with an annual base salary of $180,000, plus incentives that could push the pay to more than $300,000 per year.