The month of March is supposed to be a college basketball player’s Nirvana, when lifelong dreams can become reality. The last four years, it has been nothing but sadness —not madness —for Jordan Aaron.
Five years ago last Saturday, his mother Norma Aaron passed away at the age of 57, succumbing to lung cancer.
“It’s a rough month for me,” The Bronx product said in a phone interview.
This March, however, hasn’t been tinged with such heartbreak. Instead, it’s been full of thrilling moments, a Horizon League title and NCAA Tournament berth for Aaron and the University of Milwaukee — picked to finish last in its conference — and redemption, after the senior and Panthers’ leading scorer served a four-game suspension to end the regular season.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever been,” said the former Wings Academy star guard who landed at Milwaukee following a junior-college stint. “This is so surreal for me. Growing up in The Bronx, it’s something that you dream about doing.
“It’s a bittersweet type of feeling. I know if she was here, she would be so happy. This has made my family so happy.”
Indeed, his father Joseph Joye said he has rented a van to drive to Buffalo with several close friends and family on Thursday to see No. 15 Milwaukee meet second-seeded Villanova in a second-round East region contest. Joye’s East Bronx home was filled for each of Aaron’s game during the Horizon League Tournament.
“It’s been total March Madness,” Joye said with a chuckle. “It’s been like a roller-coaster. In my neighborhood, everybody has been in my house watching all the games. Everybody’s sitting in here sharing the moment.”
In the living room of Joye’s home dangles a large poster of the dynamic 5-foot-11 Aaron in his basketball jersey holding a trophy from junior college on one side and a photo of him at Wings in the other. In the middle is a photo of his mother, an office worker and foster parent who Aaron described as his everything — friend, advisor, teacher and his biggest fan — photoshopped in the middle.
“It’s been a light shining on that picture ever since March started,” Joye said. “It seems like his mother is looking over everybody, especially shining over him and the family.”
Prior to the championship game, Aaron asked Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter to speak to his teammates. Wanting to share a story with “my brothers,” as he called them, and relieve their nerves, Aaron spoke about his loving mother.
“The month of March is a real tough month for me,” he told them. “On the 15th of March, five years ago, I lost my mother to cancer, y’all. I feel like she’s been with us this whole ride in March. She got us through a lot.
“And I just need my brothers to bring this home for her, please.
“Please.”
It galvanized the underdog Panthers, who built an early lead over host Wright State and never looked back.
“Everyone had this focus that you couldn’t break,” senior Mitch Roelke recalled. “We were all ready to go, we were trying to get it done for him.”
When Jeter suspended Jordan for the final four regular-season games for breaking undisclosed team rules, the coach was stunned by the reaction. No arguing, no complaining. Aaron apologized immediately, and never once talked about what he was losing. It was about his teammates, his friends, his family, what he did to them.
He became even more of a leader during that time, Roelke said, text-messaging encouraging thoughts to his teammates before games, becoming the Panthers’ lead cheerleader. Upon his return, he promised his teammates he would do everything in his power to get them deep into March.
Aaron backed up those big words in a memorable Horizon League conference tournament, leading fifth-seeded Milwaukee to three upsets in a row. He averaged 22 points per game in the tournament, including a brilliant 28-point effort in a dramatic overtime win over Green Bay, the top seed, and conference Player of the Year Keifer Sykes.
“I haven’t seen him play that well that many games in a row,” Roelke said. “The focus he has right now is insane, and everybody’s feeding off it, too.”
Aaron has an explanation for it, and it’s not the suspension. It’s not him making the most out of his final college games. It’s his mother’s memory pushing him forward.
“I feel her out there with me,” he said.