Jett Montgomery has 'neon green' light to shoot as Independence makes TSSAA basketball semifinals
MURFREESBORO – Jett Montgomery took his first shot in his first TSSAA BlueCross Boys Basketball State Championships game a minute into Independence's Class 4A with Blackman on Wednesday. He missed the rim by a fraction of an inch and heard the chorus of "airball" from Blaze fans.
Montgomery said to himself, "just wait."
Montgomery's second shot didn't miss. His third and fourth didn't either. By the time the game ended he had 24 points and Independence won its second state tournament game in program history with a dominating 66-34 rout of Blackman at Middle Tennessee State's Murphy Center.
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"Every game this season I've been the target of attack by the opponent's student section," said Montgomery, who was 10-of-20 from the field in the win. "But my teammates helped me out. They got rebounds and when I missed a shot, they said 'Good shot. Keep shooting.'"
So confident is Independence coach Mark Wilkins in Jett's ability, the 6-foot-1 junior has the green light to lit it rip.
"It's neon green," Wilkins said. "It's as bright as it can get."
The Eagles (32-4) move into the semifinals at 11:30 a.m. Friday and play Memphis East (26-9), a 60-51 winner over defending Class 4A state champion Dobyns-Bennett.
It's the kind of mentality that a shooter needs and what the Eagles will need if they want to play in Saturday's championship. Montgomery has never shied away from the work it takes to have the confidence to keep shooting.
He puts up nearly 800 shots a day during the season and more than that during the spring and summer.
He was born for it.
"I was actually coaching when I was pregnant with Jett when I was coaching middle school basketball in Biloxi, Mississippi," said Jett's mother, DeeDee Montgomery. "We were undefeated. Jett's first few steps were on that middle school court."
Jett's parents were athletes. DeeDee, a native of Meridian, Mississippi, played basketball and softball at William Carey University, a small NAIA school in Hattiesburg Mississippi. His father, Mark, was a three-sport high school star in Picayune and became a four-year starting wide receiver at Southern Miss, playing his freshman season, in 1990, with Brett Favre.
His grandfather Wayne Fortenberry was a longtime basketball coach in Mississippi who also coached Spring Hill girls for a short time last year before resigning for health reasons.
Then Mark and DeeDee moved to Nashville a year after their home in Gulfport, Mississippi, was severely damaged in Hurricane Katrina. They had already made several trips to Nashville working with a sports ministry group.
"We lived about 500 yards from the Gulf of Mexico so we got the brunt of Katrina," Mark said. "But we were ready to move by that point."
Mark wasn't sure if he wanted to push Jett toward athletics until his son, at 5-year-old, began waking his father up in the early morning hours to show him basketball moves. It was apparent that Jett was a self-motivator and desire wasn't going to be an issue.
"I love the game so much I'm not really satisfied," Jett said. "I'm always trying to get better. I don't want to just be a spot-up shooter. The development of my game just continues. It won't stop."
Reach sports writer George Robinson at georgerobinson@theleafchronicle.com and on Twitter @Cville_Sports.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA basketball: Independence, Jett Montgomery reach TSSAA semifinals
