Talk to him after a game or practice and Jerome Tillman comes off quiet and reserved, but the Tillman the Bobcats see is the one that jokes at practice and the one that serves as one of Ohio’s most outspoken leaders.
He’ll be the first to applaud a teammate for a strong inside pass and he’s quick to pump up the crowd in The Convo when he knows his team needs a lift.
“He’s really vocal and it comes from his upbringing,” coach Tim O’Shea said. “His father was the Dean of Education at Central State and he brought Jerome up to take the lead — and he does.”
Tillman smiles when he thinks of the things his father taught him. “Now I know what he was always trying to tell me,” he says, admitting that as a kid he often didn’t understand his dad’s lessons. He didn’t always understand what his dad was talking about.
Jerome Tillman Sr. wanted his oldest son to be strong, hard working and independent. Those traits have served Tillman well throughout his college career, but never more, he said, than when they helped him cope with his father’s death in the spring of 2006.
Tillman’s father had been fighting an ongoing battle with colon cancer through his freshman year at Ohio, but despite his worsening condition, he asked Tillman to stay in Athens and focus on school.
“At times I just wanted to be at home but I knew he wouldn’t want me to go,” Tillman said. “He’d say that (school) is where I needed to be. He told me: ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Just focus on basketball and school.’ ”
Some times were harder to be away than others, Tillman said, but when his mom or younger brother and sister would call him from their home in Beavercreek, Ohio, he did his best to offer support and comfort.
“I just couldn’t let them see me struggle with it,” Tillman explained, “because then they might struggle more. I wanted to be strong for my whole family. That’s what my dad wanted.”
Tillman calls his father’s death the toughest time of his life, but it’s something that nearly two years later he understands made him stronger, which is what his dad wanted in the first place.
He’s in the middle of another successful season on the court for the Bobcats, averaging 14.3 points and 7.5 rebounds in 31.9 minutes per game. Tillman’s won the Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week Award for two consecutive weeks, but his focus is still the same — just keep working hard.
Tillman’s excited for tomorrow’s game against Ball State when Ohio students and their dads pack The Convo because his mother, Florence, will be in attendance.
“Of course I wish he was up here in the stands with her,” Tillman said. “He wouldn’t really be screaming or yelling, he’d just have this certain look on his face like he’s expecting something more from me and I miss that. In the back of my mind, though, I know he’s with me.”
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