CINCINNATI — Everything old is new again. More than two decades after Jermaine Tate transferred from Ohio State to play for the Bearcats at the height of the Bob Huggins era, he’s now going through a similar experience with his son Jalen, a graduate transfer from Northern Kentucky. And it might all end at the same destination.
Advertisement
A heart condition sidelined Tate for nearly two full years after starring as a double-digit scorer for a season-and-a-half at Ohio State. It ultimately led to his move to UC, suiting up in the Bearcats’ iconic Jordan uniforms for the second half of the 1998-99 season and the historic 1999-2000 campaign. The 6-foot-9 forward accepted more of a supporting role with the Bearcats, but was still a vital piece on an absolutely stacked roster that featured Kenyon Martin, Pete Mickeal, DerMarr Johnson, Kenny Satterfield, Steve Logan, Ryan Fletcher, Leonard Stokes and Donald Little.
Tate settled back in the Columbus area after years of playing professionally overseas. He now works as a probation officer in domestic violence cases, in addition to raising quite the collection of ballplayers. His oldest son Jae’Sean, played at Ohio State, his daughter Jada plays at Tiffin University, and his youngest daughter Jocelyn is a standout at Pickerington Central High School.
And after playing under John Brannen at NKU, Jalen recently entered the transfer portal and is in search of a new home for his final season of collegiate eligibility, with UC one of his potential suitors.
The Athletic Cincinnati caught up with Jermaine to reminisce about his playing days with Huggins and the Bearcats — including the time he nearly ruined an epic comeback — and discuss what’s next for Jalen.
You had a really strong start to your college career at Ohio State before it was discovered you had a heart condition. What happened with that?
We were playing at Iowa and I was having trouble just breathing coming down the court a couple times, and I’d never had a problem with anything like that. It wasn’t any pain, it was just uncomfortable. So I checked out of the game, eventually got some tests done and the doctor said I had a weak heart muscle. So I sat out for about six months, going to the doctor every week, and when they did another test on me, the doctor didn’t find anything. And I’m like, “Ok, if you haven’t found anything, why can’t I play?” There were no signs or anything.
Advertisement
On top of that, our coach at the time, Randy Ayers, got fired, so they brought in a new coaching staff, and the doctors are still telling me I can’t play. So that’s when everything really started to open up in terms of me possibly moving forward away from Ohio State.
Did you have any prior connection to UC? How did you land there?
A lot of friends I grew up with were going to UC as regular students, and a good friend of mine who I played AAU with, Johnny Carson, was on the team as well. But I’ll be honest with you — we played up in Cleveland the previous year against Kentucky at the Rock-N-Roll Shootout or whatever it was called, and Cincinnati played right after us against Western Kentucky. This was before I was even thinking about transferring or anything like that, but I remember telling one of my teammates, “If I ever transfer, I want to go to one of these two schools.” Either Kentucky or Cincinnati. I just liked the presence, the confidence that the coaches had, and then after seeing both of them play up close, I knew that’s where I would want to be, to be able to defend like that and have teams fear you just on the defensive end.
So you sat out the end of the 1996-97 season with the heart condition, transferred to Cincinnati in January 1998, and were finally eligible to play again in January 1999. That was basically the height of UC basketball under Huggins — a few years removed from the Final Four, Danny Fortson just left, and the team is bridging the gap with Brannen, Patterson, Levett, Mickeal, Martin. What was it like to enter the program at that point?
It was great for the fact that I was no longer the most athletic person on my team. (laughs) But just from me sitting out for two years — looking back, I didn’t understand this at the time, but it was like having to learn how to play all over again. Just physically. I wasn’t even allowed to walk up stairs. And I didn’t have the confidence I had in my first two years at Ohio State.
Everyone talks about how intense Huggins was, especially in practice. What do you remember?
The competition from players 1 through 13 or 14 was definitely there. The practices, once we got done stretching, it was 2 hours and 50 minutes of straight-through intensity. There was never a dull moment. Even the guys who weren’t as good or were maybe younger and hadn’t developed yet — Donald Little, Aaron McGhee — they were really good players and could have been starters on most teams.
You were also there to witness the last couple of years of Kenyon Martin.
I think he just really matured in a lot of ways. He learned from Danny Fortson, Bobby Brannen and he took notes. All the stories I heard about them, he kind of grew into that mold and that mindset, and he knew exactly what Huggins wanted out of him.
Advertisement
Then when he went to the Olympics (USA Basketball Men’s World University Games) during the summer of 1999, and I think he realized all the other college guys he had seen on TV weren’t as great as he thought they were. When in actuality he was just better than they were. But his confidence just took off. When he came back from that before his senior season, he was a totally different player after that summer.
After averaging double-figure points over two years at Ohio State, Tate took more of a supporting role during his two seasons with the Bearcats, averaging 4.5 points and 4.6 rebounds a game. (Craig Jones / Allsport)Your senior season, you are on the top-ranked team in the country, with the best player in college basketball, the presumptive title favorite — did you know coming into that year how special it was going to be?
I think we always knew how good we were. We felt like we were really good the year before, and we lost Melvin Levett but brought in Kenny Satterfield and DerMarr Johnson, two McDonald’s All-Americans. And guys like Donald Little, they got better. Steve Logan coming back after a pretty good freshman season. So I’ll be honest, we thought we were going to be a lot better, yeah. We knew what we had.
Logan is interesting because he’s a young contributor on those teams, then becomes the older guy on the squads with Leonard Stokes and Jason Maxiell and Field Williams and obviously blossomed into an All-American. What do you remember about him as a freshman?
You know, when he came in he was kind of chubby. He had the track record — Mr. Basketball in Ohio and all that — but first things first, Huggs told him he had to lose some weight or he would never play. Then we had a really good, physical, defensive guard in Michael Horton, who was a senior during Steve’s freshman year, and Michael tended to run a lot of guys off because he was so physical, and they really couldn’t handle it. But Steve was the complete opposite. He never backed down, played his butt off. It was hard to keep him off the court.
Did Logan always have that rainbow jump shot?
Oh yeah. I think that was him just growing up and being short his whole life. He perfected that shot. I tell people all the time, to this day — Steve and I played together in the league two years ago — guys can’t block his shot now, and they couldn’t back then. Kenyon and I would always try, but it was tough. He can get that shot off over anyone.
There is that legendary DePaul game from your senior year, where you guys are down 10 with less than four minutes left and Kenyon basically brings you back single-handedly before DerMarr hits the game-winner. What do you remember from that game?
It’s crazy. Pete (Mickeal) didn’t play, they were absolutely destroying us. At some point, Huggs put Kenyon at small forward, and he couldn’t miss a shot. I remember Quentin Richardson looking at me and asking if Kenyon was like this every day in practice. I was like, “He always puts on a good show, but we’re experiencing this just like you.” I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. He was making everything.
We had played at Houston a couple weeks earlier, and I’ll never forget, we were sitting in our hotel room after the win, and we were watching highlights of guys like Stromile Swift and some other dudes. And Kenyon knew he was playing well and all that stuff, but I just looked at him and I was like, “I’m gonna be all the way honest with you, man. You’re gonna be the No. 1 pick in the draft. I don’t think you even know it, but it’s true.”
The legend of the DePaul game is that during the under-4-minute timeout, Huggins said something to the effect of, “If any of you MFers shoot the ball before Kenyon touches it, I’m pulling your scholarship.” That true?
Yup. Yup. Yeah. And if you watch, when I steal the ball on the last play, I almost travel, because after I steal it, I’m like, “Where he at?”
Advertisement
So you were thinking about it even in that moment?
Heck yeah. I was ahead of everyone, and I look up and I’m about to give the ball up, and instead, I stop and basically hand it off to Kenyon, and then he got it to DerMarr and DerMarr hit the shot. I’m telling you, I was looking for him.
You didn’t actually think Huggs would pull your scholarship, did you?
No, we knew he wasn’t going to pull our scholarships … but, I mean, he was mad enough that we had to respect the threat.
I hate to bring it up because it’s still so painful here, but what do you remember about Kenyon’s injury in the conference tournament?
We were all devastated. And I felt like I was one of the closer guys to him on the team. As a whole, even Huggs, I don’t think we ever recovered from it the way we should have.
But thinking back, we had like 32 plays and probably only ran four all season. Because nobody could stop them. There wasn’t anything special. We had to get Kenyon open, but we ran the same four plays the whole season, and it was that simple. No one could guard him. So I think we went into the tournament trying to make adjustments, and we should have just stuck with what we do. But when you have a guy that dominant, it’s tough to recover mentally.
How often do you still get asked about it?
Oh, all the time. It’s such a big what if?
You had a really strong first couple of seasons at Ohio State, but that changed a bit when you came to Cincinnati. You became more of a role player. That kind of transition doesn’t happen as often in college basketball anymore. Did you like that, or did you regret not going somewhere you could have been more of a focus?
I tell people this all the time, and I don’t think Huggs gets enough credit: Huggins taught me how to play basketball. I feel like I was a good listener, and every conversation he had with every position in practice — especially that semester when I wasn’t playing — I listened. So I learned all five positions on the court so I could understand what each person was doing and why they were doing it, and it slowed down the whole game of basketball for me.
It’s weird. I realized that, no matter how good I was playing at Ohio State, I had no idea what I was doing.
Advertisement
The only part I regret is accepting a lesser role on offense. But I figured we had enough scorers, and I had already proven I could do it. I didn’t do that defensively or with setting screens or whatever, but I never really brought that level of focus to the offensive end. I just didn’t do it, unless I was needed, if Kenyon got in foul trouble or something like that. So I regret selling myself short on that.
Tate was a vital member and regular starter on the historic 1999-2000 Bearcats squad alongside Player of the Year Kenyon Martin. (Jake Herrle / Associated Press)It’s wild looking back at that roster though. Satterfield was one of the best freshmen in the country, and either he is coming off the bench or Logan is, a future All-American. And then it’s either you or Ryan Fletcher starting and the other coming off the bench. Donald Little and Leonard Stokes are freshmen — you just don’t see many college teams stacked like that anymore.
Right, right. Certainly not guys sticking around and sticking through it. And I gotta credit a guy like Donald Little. I give him the most credit for getting Kenyon better in practice. That’s a tough guy to shoot the ball over, getting physical with him. And if Donald hadn’t gotten in trouble, he probably would have gone on to the NBA. Aaron McGhee, that guy was a problem in practice too.
Any Huggins memories that come to mind?
The craziest thing I remember is a couple years later — Logan’s senior year, Jason Maxiell’s freshman year — the team was struggling, and Huggs wouldn’t let them in the locker room. I thought that was the craziest thing ever. I went and practiced with them a couple times when I came back from playing overseas, and they weren’t allowed to wear practice jerseys or anything. They had these little T-shirts and shorts, I can’t even tell you. (laughs) I just remember Rod Flowers wearing these little shorts. Huggs took everything from them, and he was like, “They don’t deserve it.” And I understood. But it looked crazy for a college team to be doing that stuff.
Even with all the success and notoriety he has, do you feel Huggins is underappreciated as a college coach?
He definitely is, because what he can do — and he showed it at Kansas State, showed it West Virginia — he’s able to adjust to the players that he has. I can’t say any coach in the country can do that like he can. You can coach at Kentucky or Duke or Kansas and just get the most talented players, but Huggs goes to West Virginia and adjusts to those players and a totally different style of play. When I watch them on TV, he’s not running anything we used to run. Not even close. How many college coaches do that? When I was at Ohio State, we had a totally different team than Jim Jackson and them and we were running the same plays. So I give Huggs all the credit. What he taught me, it changed everything. It changed my whole perspective of basketball.
I want to ask about your kids. With Jae’Sean, obviously you were a basketball player and were still playing overseas when he was younger, but from what I remember, he was a pretty good high school football player. Were you surprised when he followed in your footsteps and ended up playing hoops at Ohio State?
I always thought he was going to play football in college. But when he decided, going into his junior year, that he wanted to play basketball at Ohio State and told his football coach he wasn’t gonna play anymore, I was kind of devastated. Well, I shouldn’t say devastated. My feelings were hurt, but it was selfish of me, because I always looked forward to watching him play on Friday nights. And I still have love for football, but everything worked out, and basketball is definitely a healthier sport long term, so we’ll stick to basketball all day.
People in Cincinnati are plenty familiar with your other son Jalen, who played under John Brannen at Northern Kentucky and is now in the transfer portal. After all the success he had at NKU and some of the attention he’s getting now, and obviously with the name and bloodlines he has, are you surprised he wasn’t more highly recruited out of high school?
I was. Because he definitely has a high IQ — he’s a younger kid, about to graduate and he’s only 21. When I was talking to coaches, I kept telling them that they could put weight on him, but being so thin, they didn’t really give him a shot. But I think it’s finally working out. He put on some weight and definitely showed he can handle contact and play through it.
What do you remember about Coach Brannen when he recruited Jalen to NKU?
After what I experienced at Ohio State, with all my kids, I felt like it would have to be someone who I could trust. And that was our main thing — we knew we could trust Brannen. He seemed like he was a man of his word, he didn’t sugarcoat anything. And that was enough for me. We weren’t totally aware of his style of play because he had just gotten the job at NKU. But that was the main thing, he earned our trust.
Advertisement
I realize he’s going to make his own decision, but there’s been a lot of chatter about him rejoining Brannen at UC. Does any part of you want to see him end up a Bearcat?
Yeah, definitely. It would be almost a dream come true for both of my kids to play at both of the schools I played at. Why not?
Wherever he ends up, what do you think he’s looking for?
His main thing is he wants to be playing the point guard position, and just getting an opportunity to play and start and be a piece that a team needs. He doesn’t want to come in and just come off the bench, but come in and be maybe that missing piece that can give you a little bit of everything — rebound, a lot of assists, making the right plays, scoring, just running the team.
Obviously there have been a ton of changes since you were at UC, but it seems like you’re still pretty connected to the UC program.
I am. I went to a couple games this year, but I missed the alumni dinner that Brannen had. I was going to go to that but I actually got a flat tire. (laughs) I still talk to Eugene Land, Steve Logan, Art Long, Kenny Satterfield, Donald Little.
Do you just immediately go back to your playing days?
Oh, we definitely talk about that. Now, we think about how hard we thought that stuff was, and then you think about real life, and it makes you humble. But it definitely prepared us for it.
(Top photo: Jonathan Daniel / Allsport)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kHBpcG5haHxzfJFpZmlsX2WEcL3AZqGeqp2Wtq%2BxjK2YrZ1dpLtutMisZKmkka62r7OMnZiyq12WwW7BwmaYp5xdrLWiwNJmpZ6wpGKzsL6MoaCsZaOku262wKWcp2c%3D