Ever Wondered What The Offspring of Insane Killers/Cult Leaders End Up Doing?

[FiddySicks]

Apparently Jim Jones had a nice jump shot

From ESPN.com

SAN DIEGO -- It began, softly at first, in the University of San Diego student section. Then it began to build. And build. And build. The sound welled up and began to spill into every corner of the Jenny Craig Pavilion as the game clock tick ? tick ? ticked away. Then it burst.

Ole, Ole, Ole! Ole! Ole!

By the time the chant was over, West Coast Conference powerhouse Gonzaga was left sprawled in the dust. As the last seconds wound down on USD's stunning 69-62 upset of Gonzaga on Monday night -- less than 24 hours after the Toreros slew another WCC giant, Saint Mary's, in double overtime -- you could almost hear another sound.

Pop.

It was the sound of USD freshman guard Trumaine Johnson's two-handed chin-up dunk with seven seconds remaining that sealed the Toreros' invite to the Big Dance.

USD first-year head coach Bill Grier told his team before the WCC tournament began in San Diego that the hometown Toreros were only 120 minutes away from heading to the NCAA tournament.

He lied. It was 130.

And now, with San Diego earning the automatic bid and No. 22 Gonzaga and Saint Mary's hoping for at-large bids, the WCC could have three teams dancing for the first time. No small feat for a conference that hasn't had two teams in the NCAA tournament since 2005.

"I think it would be a travesty if the WCC didn't get three teams into the tournament," Grier said. "Gonzaga is a lock with their strength of schedule and being ranked in the Top 25, and I feel the same way about Saint Mary's. Their résumés present themselves in a very favorable light to the committee."

As the host team and third seed, USD wasn't exactly a Cinderella sleeper. In fact, up until eight minutes remaining in Sunday night's game with Saint Mary's, the Toreros looked more like a comatose Sleeping Beauty, trailing by as many as 17 points. That's when diminutive junior point guard Brandon Johnson and junior forward Gyno Pomare slung USD's tournament hopes over their shoulders, combining for 50 points and willing the Toreros into the championship match.

The fact that Toreros fans stormed the court after USD beat the Gaels -- in a semifinal game -- seemed to smack of the team's inexperience in do-or-die situations. Indeed, Gonzaga came into the championship game carrying the swagger that comes with having won eight of the past nine conference tournament titles, including four straight. The Bulldogs faithful -- GU fans travel well and the Kennel Club made up roughly half of the 5,100-person capacity crowd -- boasted similar confidence, chanting "This is our house!" and flashing signs that said "Fluke vs. Dynasty" and "Tourney is full, wish you could come."

It began to look like prophecy early on when the calm, confident Bulldogs forced USD into three shot-clock violations in the game's first five minutes. But after spending the first 10 minutes looking like the blind leading the deaf, while falling behind 13-6 in the process, the Toreros finally began to come to with Pomare cleaning the glass and leading USD to a 12-2 advantage in second-chance points in the first half.

It didn't hurt that USD had a veritable Rosetta stone for deciphering the Zags' decade of WCC dominance either. Before arriving in San Diego last March, Grier spent 16 years at Gonzaga, including the past eight as Mark Few's top assistant.

"I have been trying to convince this team all year that they can beat Gonzaga," an exhausted Grier said at the postgame news conference. "I stressed that today wasn't about getting into the [NCAA] tournament but about stepping up to the next level."

Mission accomplished. Brandon Johnson, the tournament MVP, and Pomare again carried USD on the way to a 30-27 halftime lead. But it was clear that playing three games in three days (after trouncing Pepperdine in the quarterfinals and outlasting Saint Mary's in the double-overtime semis) was taking its toll, especially on Johnson, who played all 50 minutes against the Gaels.

"We believed in ourselves tonight," he said. "When we first got out there, I had a lot of defenders on me. But as we got down the homestretch, we continued to fight."

That's when the other Johnson (Trumaine) and the rest of the Toreros stepped up. Brandon Johnson finished with nine points, all in the first half, and he and Pomare (14 points and 10 boards) were on the bench when USD made its move. Trumaine Johnson (who finished with 10 points) nailed a 3-pointer from the corner. Freshman Rob Jones hit a jumper to tie the game at 43-43.

And when USD sophomore De'Jon Jackson snaked the offensive rebound and kicked it out to freshman walk-on Devin Ginty, who drained a 3 from the left side with 11:27 to play, the Toreros never trailed again.

Gonzaga point guard (and WCC regular-season MVP) Jeremy Pargo did his best to rally the Zags en route to a game-high 22 points, but every Gonzaga comeback was met with a USD rebuttal.

"We lost some guys on the defensive end and gave up some shots that were pretty much H-O-R-S-E shots," Pargo said. "They knocked down shots and gave a great stretch run, and we couldn't recover from it."

The Toreros, after making only one 3-point attempt in the first half, went 4-for-9 in the second frame, sticking dagger after dagger into each Bulldogs response. Gonzaga, meanwhile, went 0-for-9 from beyond the arc, the first time the Zags didn't hit a 3 in a game since January 1993, a stretch of 491 games. But where USD hurt the Zags the most was on the boards, racking up 16 offensive rebounds (and 17 second-chance points) and ultimately outrebounding Gonzaga by a 38-25 margin.

It begged the question whether GU had the drive to win with an NCAA bid already locked down.

"Rebounding is 5 percent technique and 95 percent desire, and they just had more desire," Few said after the game. "They did a great job of beating us to every ball, making plays and I think that was the difference."

Few insisted that the lapse won't carry over for a team that's on the verge of making it's 10th straight tournament appearance.

"We've succumbed to human nature a little bit," he acknowledged. "You try to play off of pride, [but] it's not like our guys didn't play hard today.

"Now, we are in a do-or-die situation."

It's a scenario that is familiar to Grier. This will be his ninth trip to the NCAAs and the game with Gonzaga was his 14th WCC championship game with Mark Few. Only this time, Grier was on the opposite side. Grier insisted that "it's not about me and him, it's about two programs and these kids." And yet he admitted that he didn't sleep a wink Sunday night due to his excitement after the dramatic, draining victory over Saint Mary's.

"I am so fired up for this team and their opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament," Grier said. "I keep telling them that there is nothing greater than playing in that tournament."

Now the Toreros can find out for themselves.

The question has been asked more than once of Rob Jones by well-meaning but obviously history-challenged inquirers. Essentially, it is: Where were you when family patron Jim Jones led more than 900 of his cult followers in the infamous mass suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid at Jonestown, Guyana?

The answer Rob said he has given, with a touch of understandable incredulity, is: "He's my grandfather. I'd have to be like 35 years old now to have been alive then."

Rob Jones is 18. The same age his father, Jim Jones Jr. ? the first African-American child in the state of Indiana to be adopted by Caucasian parents ? was on Nov. 18, 1978, when the tragic events occurred in the remote, jungle outpost built by Jim Jones Sr. and his People's Temple church after leaving San Francisco.

Jim Jr., who was playing in a basketball tournament in Georgetown, Guyana, lost his first wife and unborn child that day. Rob is one of three sons from a second marriage and a new life. A 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward, Rob has come to USD to play basketball.

He has come as one of the most highly regarded USD recruits in many years, arriving as a celebrated two-sport star out of Riordan High in San Francisco.

He is here with no intention of disassociation from the family history, but with every intention of continuing to write a new, far more positive chapter.

The basketball connection ? the sport that saved the father is the passion for the son ? seems obvious. But Jim Jr. says that for a long time he was too close to the picture to see it himself.

"I never thought in terms that basketball saved me until just recently," he said. "Through 28 years you kind of wonder why you were spared. People have told me, and I've kind of adopted (this view), that it was by the grace of God.

"I am somewhat in awe that Rob has a deep passion for and commitment to basketball. But I look at it as this is what he wants. Maybe, deep within him is the thought that, 'What saved my father is something that I'm going to be great at,' but I don't know.

"Life presents interesting tales, and sometimes you stop asking why and just start accepting the bounty of blessings of it."

Says Rob: "That's the funny part. How basketball kind of saved his life and has made a pathway for my life. Basketball has really been a key part of our life. Without basketball, I wouldn't be alive today."

It's the sport to which he has gravitated ? although it's not necessarily the one he's best built to play.

"In size and body type, Rob's a stereotypical tight end and everybody told him his ticket was football," Jim Jr. says. "I don't know what has made him so focused on basketball and such a hard worker, but it is deep.

"It may be from our family legacy, but I don't know that for sure. What's great is that Rob keeps up the family name. And it's not splashed across the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle in association with death and tragedy. That may seem very trivial, but it makes a father feel good."

The Jones boys, Rob and brothers Ryan, now 16, and Ross, 13 ? nicknamed "Little Rob" ? grew up in a three-story, four-bedroom house in Pacifica, right outside San Francisco. Rob's athletic prowess was nurtured at rec-center playgrounds and gyms to start, later at Riordan and with a liberal sprinkling of trips to the University of San Francisco for AAU or pickup games.

He was around 5-10 as a seventh-grader, a head taller than most of the kids in his class, and just kept growing.

Rob scored more than 1,000 points and pulled down more than 1,000 rebounds in his high school career, helping make Riordan a Northern California power in his junior and senior seasons. His senior season, he averaged 17 points and 14 rebounds.

As a tight end in football, his 75 catches in 23 games were school career records. But his dream was to play college basketball. And when his perceived status as a "tweener" ? fitting neither the ideal guard nor forward mold ? apparently precluded the basketball offers he desired from top-tier Pac-10 schools, he turned down football overtures from several major programs to commit to USD in August 2006 and sign a letter of intent last fall.

"I felt it (USD) would be a good fit for me; it was a question of where I wanted to be, locationwise," Rob said. He was on a bus with the Riordan team to a Northern California playoff game at Sacramento High last March, what would turn out to be his final high school basketball game, when he heard USD had fired head coach Brad Holland.

"My parents didn't call me because they didn't want me to worry about it during my game. But all my friends texted me and called me on my cell when they heard about it on ESPN," Rob said. "It was a really awkward moment. I was on the bus, trying to gear up mentally for the game and then this craziness happens."

Jim Jr. said that at first the family was "floored" by news of the firing.

"What surprised me about Rob was he had a real commitment to San Diego," said Jim Jr., who is an account executive for the San Francisco and Hawaii regions for San Diego-based medical technology firm Biosite. "He and Coach Holland got along so well, both being dual athletes. The synergy was there. My impression was that 50 percent of the decision was based on the coach. But Rob clarified it and said it was only one-third. He really loved the school and his teammates. He wanted to be with a group of guys he felt he could depend on and they could depend on him."

Rob said he had thoughts of looking into getting a release from his letter of intent after the firing "because I didn't know who was going to be the new coach for what seemed like a long time."

A phone call and visit from longtime Gonzaga assistant Bill Grier soon after his hiring at USD put those thoughts to rest.

"I've said many times that in my opinion Rob is the best player, coming out of high school anyway, that Coach Holland ever recruited to USD," Grier said this summer. "I knew a lot about him from watching films and seeing him play while I was at Gonzaga. We haven't had a chance to work with him much, but I believe he's going to help us in a lot of ways."

Said Rob: "He wants me to go out my freshman year and have an impact. He says he has no problem starting a freshman if I'm good enough. I'm planning on working hard to improve my game, and I hope to bring a lot of energy to the team."

"I hear Kool-Aid jokes every now and then," Rob said. "You know, 'Don't let him make the Kool-Aid, he's a Jones.' But really, the people who make those jokes are close friends and they know I'm open about it, so I'm not really hurt by it."

Who knows what clever but mean-spirited chants and displays he will have to endure from opposing student sections at Toreros games in his career?

"I'm not too worried about it," Rob said. "It motivates me when the crowd is against you. Kind of an underdog thing. It makes (success) all that much better."

In the gut-wrenching dilemma of when and what to tell their sons about the family history, Jim Jones Jr. and his wife, Erin, chose early and everything.

"My sister didn't tell her children until shortly before she passed away with cancer, just last year," Jim Jr. said. "It was an individual decision and a lot of people had counseled me, or coached me, that it was a whole separate world I didn't need to open up with my kids.

"But I guess Erin and I felt that if they didn't have a stigma about it, and came from the positive side that I came from, they could draw from that and be empowered."

They answered questions in basic terms as they came up, provided details as Rob grew older.

"My dad went through a long time where he struggled with the fact that everyone he knew and loved was gone," Rob said. "I was very young, but I remember it all (the struggles). He went through some tough times and our whole family went through some tough times because of it. He had a wife and a child on the way when it happened. That's hard to let go, but he eventually did.

"Eventually, he wasn't ashamed anymore."

Nine years ago, the family made the 18-hour journey to the Jonestown site.

"I'm glad that it went the way it did, but I could see how it could have gone in an opposite direction," Jim Jr. said. "Rob's at a stage in life now where I can't shelter him from the outside world. And, even though I know this sounds like a dad speaking, I'm constantly amazed at how well he handles it.

"He said: 'You know, Dad, it's only a story to me.' "

[NJTank]

Oh yeah there was an article in SI a few months back, amazing that some of his family survived