Imagine having your parents split up before you are five. Your sister stays with your dad in New York City while you and your two brothers move away with your mother to Baltimore. You move back to New York to live with your dad when you are 10 and within a few months you are robbed at gunpoint for a bag of groceries. Because you go to school in Harlem, you almost expect this and don’t even tell your dad about it. Two years later, you are robbed again, this time with a knife in your face. When you get to high school, you start off the year with “Freshman Friday,” where all of the upper classmen beat up the freshmen. Shortly after reaching high school, one of your friends from junior high is killed by a sniper in front of the school. This is not the biography of a prisoner at Attica. This is the resume’ of a student at the University of Dayton.If Al McGuire were still alive he would label him an “aircraft carrier.”

He came to UD weighing 276 pounds and standing 6’ 7″ tall. Those are the kind of statistics that Oliver Purnell has been searching for since he became the head coach at the University of Dayton. This was a guy that could bang bodies with anybody suiting up for Xavier, Temple, or UMass. He was excited about coming to play Division I basketball in the Atlantic-10. Then his dream came crashing to earth. He was knocked to the floor during a practice and his knee was forced to bend in a fashion God never intended.Jason Osborne survived the streets of New York City, but couldn’t withstand the basketball court at the UD Arena. The young man, who had resisted the temptations of street gangs while growing up, now had to face the uncertainty of a knee operation even before his initial season began. But Jason is not the kind of man that will let the little things in life bother him. When asked about what is was like to be robbed at gunpoint when you are in the fifth grade, he responded, “It’s a normal thing in New York City, just a part of growing up.”Although life for Jason growing up was not like many of us saw on TV with Father Knows Best, the Donna Reed Show, or Cosby, he still appreciated what he had.

“There were times as a kid, my friends would talk about their parents and I would be jealous,” he admits. “I got to see my mom a lot when I lived with my dad. The times that I got to spend with her, I appreciated it more.”
The journey through school was often an adventure for Osborne. Admittedly not a very good student in his early years, distractions abounded both in the classroom and out.

“In junior high school nobody really cared about school,” Osborne says. “The teachers got no respect. There were some students that tried to get ahead, but for the most part it was very juvenile.” Outside the classroom, the threat of gangs always persisted, as he was both a potential target and recruit. “Being the biggest kid, they all thought that I would be good in a gang. I stayed out because of what they did and what they had to go through.”

Knowing the inner city as he did, Jason’s father knew that for his son to succeed, some changes had to be made. Those came when it was time for him to enter high school. He could dunk the ball in the seventh grade and stood 6’ 2″ in the eighth, but there were more important things than basketball. “When I got to high school my grades improved because the environment changed. It was in a bad neighborhood, but it was a Catholic all-boys school. It was very strict and they didn’t allow you to slip up — especially since I was there to play basketball. It took some adjusting. My father thought the all-boy environment would be good for me. It allowed me to focus on my studies.” As his grades improved, so did his basketball skills. Rice High School was not only known for its discipline, but also for its basketball teams.”When I played in New York, it was a small school, but we were ranked number two in the nation my junior year. My school was a basketball factory. Felipe Lopez [St. John’s, NBA first round draft pick] Andre Barrett [Seton Hall, McDonald’s All-American] and Kenny Satterfield [Cincinnati, McDonald’s All-American] went there. I averaged 10 points and 10.6 rebounds as a power forward.”Although his grades and his basketball skills were improving, his relationship with his father began to deteriorate. Jason was seventeen years old and like most kids his age, had all the answers.

“My father and I were not getting along very well so my mother thought that I would be in a better situation if I moved back to Baltimore. It was difficult to leave and go there. When I first went, I was very upset with my parents. I thought that I could work things out with my dad.” In Baltimore, he started catching the eyes of recruiters from a number of schools across the country. The letters trickled in during his junior year, but after an extensive summer of AAU tournaments as far away as Hawaii, the trickle became a deluge.

“Once they started, they came fast,” he says. “I ended up with trash bags full. At first I would open every one. When I realized that they were sending them to kids all over, I stopped and just threw them in the bag. Providence, Michigan, Villanova, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech all recruited me pretty hard.”
Although the quality of basketball was not to the level that he experienced in New York, Jason excelled at Towson Catholic High School in Baltimore. He averaged 13 points and 14 rebounds per game despite playing out of position as a center. The second leading scorer on the team, Jason began to find a jump shot in his arsenal and felt as comfortable facing the basket as he had before backing his way in. Jason continued to mature not only on the court, but also within the family,

“Everything that my father talked about when I was growing up, I use now. My dad and I are now really close. I think at the time I was a little big-headed and thought that I knew more than he did. Now when I look back, I realize that he was right.” With his game intact and his closeness to both parents restored, it was time to select a college. College was not always something that Jason had considered.

“I probably would not have gone to college if it weren’t for basketball,” he says. “I would probably be working with my dad, who is a construction worker.” Jason relied on both parents a great deal in making his decision on where to go to school. It wasn’t just the quality of the basketball program that concerned them, but the quality of the overall experience. When he visited UD, it didn’t take Jason long to feel at home.”UD really got me during my visit. There was a lot of unity. It felt like a family. I really liked the idea of 13,000 fans coming out for every game. Coach Smith and I talk a lot. He was very big in my decision in coming to UD. He talked to me a lot before and after I signed. He made sure that I was doing the things that I needed to do. That was big for me.”
When he arrived on campus, the coaches were not particularly pleased with what they found. Jason did not play AAU basketball during the summer and ate too many of the wrong foods. UD had signed a wide body, but this one had shown up full of cargo. When he reached campus, Jason tipped the scales at 276 pounds. He immediately began to work with Todd Forcier, the Basketball Strength and Conditioning Coach. A program was put in place to build upper body strength, reduce weight and body fat, and improve stamina.

After a good deal of work by both Todd and Jason, the scales now show 250 pounds. “I’ve been working with a lot of weights, both upper body and lower body,” Osborne says. “I’ve also been doing a lot of running — no long distance running — just sprints. I generally do 17’s, which are 17 times the width of the court. I try to eat more foods high in protein like chicken breasts, egg whites, and a lot more vegetables.” However, it wasn’t long after fall practice started that the season took a turn for the worse. “We were doing a clinic for high school coaches when I injured my knee. We were performing a drill and Sean [Finn] was pushed and fell on my leg and pushed it outwards.” There had been no talk of red-shirting for the season up to that point. At first there was some hope that surgery would not be needed. After some time and a lack of movement in the healing process, surgery was performed. Soon after he returned to the court a second injury occurred. “The latest surgery was caused by an injury that I received when I first came back from the knee surgery. We didn’t think it was serious — my shoulder just popped out of place. Recently it happened again and it was worse. After an MRI, we found that something needed to be done.” What was once a suspicion was now a reality: Jason would be redshirting.”We didn’t talk about redshirting before the season started. If I had known that I was going to be redshirted when I was recruited, I probably would not have come. But at the same time, I think that it has been the best thing for me. I came in overweight and it has given me the opportunity to get my weight down and get in shape. It has also given me the opportunity to learn more about the game and I know what I need to do next year in order to help the team,” he says.

It is this type of attitude that has driven Jason his whole life. He has had to deal with situations that most of us have been spared, yet he never lets it get him down. He now looks forward to how he can use this experience for his and the team’s betterment. Even before the season started, he was happy to do whatever was needed. “Before the season started, I really wanted to get myself in shape and do whatever was needed to help the team. If that meant playing a lot of minutes, I would have done that. If that meant being a practice player, I would have done that as well.”

Most fans have not had the opportunity to see Jason with a basketball in his hands. I asked him what we could expect to see next year. “I really consider myself a power forward, despite the fact that I was playing center my senior year. I am a banger down low. I’ll do the dirty work. I’ll rebound and post up. What I have been working on lately is my jump shot. I want to be able to have a 17-footer. I have also been working on my ball handling. Most people think that someone my size can’t handle the ball, but I hope to surprise some people next year. I would compare myself to Nate Green with respect to speed. Our games are similar, but I tend to step off the block and face up to the basket more. My free throw shooting was not very good last year. That is one of the things that Coach Purnell has really worked with me on. That was not one of my strong points when I got here.”Next year we will hopefully find another Keith Waleskowski on our hands. A year of sitting on the bench can affect players in different ways. Keith used it to his advantage and Jason has used KW as an inspiration. Only time will tell, but the thought of having to make both ends of a one-and-one to win the game must pale in comparison to having the barrel of a handgun shoved in your face.