By Jack Davis
As fever for March Madness swept across the country and sports fans filled out millions of brackets, two former Wolverine basketball players had an especially invested interest in the annual NCAA basketball playoffs.
Renaldo Woolridge â08 plays for the University of Tennessee and Jon Jacques â06 plays for Cornell University; both teams advanced to the third round of tournament play.
Woolridge has not yet played in a tournament game but averaged 3.5 points and 3 rebounds per game during the regular season, including a 14-point 8-rebound performance in Tennesseeâs upset victory over then top team Kentucky.
Jacques, a senior, starts at forward for Cornell and scored six points while adding four rebounds and two steals in the Big Redâs 78-65 upset win over Temple.
Against Wisconsin, Jacques scored nine points while grabbing two boards, dishing out two assists and nabbing two steals in 16 mintues of play. During the regular season Jacques averaged 16.4 minutes a game, scoring 6.9 points per game while grabbing 2.6 rebounds.
Jacques has detailed the rigors of his season and his tournament experience all year on the Quad Blog at NewYorkTimes.com.
Jacques has been blogging since Cornell arrived in Jacksonville, Florida for their first round game. Jacques detailed the police escort the team was given to and from practices and games and all the other amenities the team has received.
“After speeding forward and successfully warding off any oncoming traffic, the forward motor cop would basically park in the middle of the road or intersection and let the bus pass while the other cop zoomed forward to restart the cycle. I have never felt more safe or pampered on a bus ride,” Jacques said in his post.
In his most recent blog post, Jacques talked about the Big Redâs win over Temple.
“Our goal was to advance in the N.C.A.A. tournament and while we accomplished that, weâre not done yet,” he said in the post.
