University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Repeat Performance
January 22, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
WINSTON-SALEM—Later this year, we may look back and identify Wednesday night as the exact moment Justin Jackson stopped being a freshman and started being a Carolina basketball player.
Not just any moment of his 17-point, three-rebound, two-steal, 6-of-8 shooting night. But this exact point in the game, with Carolina holding a 15-point lead on the road at Wake Forest.
Jackson set a screen in the paint and then popped out to the top of the key. He caught the ball there on a pass from Marcus Paige and found Kennedy Meeks on his right, where Meeks was setting a screen. For just a second, Jackson looked confused, as if he thought Meeks was going to roll to the basket. But the big man just created some traffic, and Jackson's man, Darius Leonard, backed up a step to allow for the possibility that Meeks was going to the rim. Leonard thought that's what was going to happen. Jackson plainly thought that's what was going to happen. “Go, K!” the freshman barked.
But Meeks didn't go. So Jackson regathered himself, glanced at the goal, and did what he's been doing ever since he first picked up a basketball: fired a deadeye three-pointer that swished through, stretching the advantage to 18 points. It was the kind of instinctive play—the set broke down, what should I do, I'm open, this is a good shot for me, let's do it—the rookie wouldn't have made a month ago.
“At the beginning of the season, I thought too much,” Jackson said. “I tried not to mess up. Now, I'm just playing. If the shot is open, I take it. If not, I pass the ball or set a screen, whatever I need to do.”
The Texas native's offense was a nice bonus when he scored 16 points on Sunday at the Smith Center against Virginia Tech. But the 17 against Wake Forest marked the first time he's scored in double digits in back to back games against Atlantic Coast Conference competition.
Carolina is now 9-0 when he scores in double figures. It's one thing to be able to have one good game against a league opponent. It's quite another to be able to repeat that performance three days later.
“He's turning the corner,” said Marcus Paige. “He's getting comfortable. He's finding his spots on the floor. His midrange game is working, and he's starting to knock down outside shots. He's more active and starting to figure everything out.”
Remember, it wasn't that Jackson was having trouble finding shots when he began the season 40-for-83 from the field and 4–for-22 from the three-point line. Multiple times, he got a good look at the rim, but then watched the ball bounce off the rim. Now, those shots are starting to go in, and he's shooting a blistering 59.7 percent from the field over the last eight games.
Take a look at his offense on Wednesday against the Deacs:
He started with a lightning fast move inside the Wake defense, catching a pass from Paige around the ACC logo in the paint, turning, and dropping through a one-handed righty push shot. It happened so quickly that two Wake defenders didn't have time to react before the long-armed Jackson had already released the ball. It really wasn't a shot you would practice. It was a shot you would only take out of necessity, out of a feel for the defense and the floor spacing.
A minute later, Jackson ran the wing hard after a UNC defensive rebound and eventually drew a foul in transition and sank a free throw. A hard dribble drive resulted in two more free throws.
Then came his best bucket of the night, as he drove left on Madison Jones, stopped, hung in the air, and sank another midrange jumper. On TV, it wasn't immediately obvious just what a good play it was. From floor level, though, Jones was leaning on Jackson's right shoulder all the way down the paint. So Jackson simply kept the ball in his left hand until the precise moment he was able to loft it at the rim, switched to the right to keep it away from a block attempt by Cornelius Hudson, and scored.
It wasn't a freshman move. It was more of an old man move.
“That came from when I was younger,” Jackson said. “So I had to find ways to score. I wasn't the strongest guy, so I learned I had to get separation somehow.”
But sometimes he just outruns them. That's what he did on his first basket in the second half. After a Wake Forest miss, Jackson ran the floor hard again—see a pattern?—and caught a pass around 30 feet from the rim. He navigated through traffic, around two Deacon defenders, and scooped the ball off the backboard for two more points. Later, again in transition, he would go from the three-point line to the elbow in one dribble and drop through another midrange hoop.
So, let's see: we've got Jackson scoring off the dribble, we've got him scoring in transition, we've got him knocking down a perimeter jumper. That's a description of a player who is a pain for opponents to guard, of a player who is figuring out how to create scoring opportunities for himself. He's not perfect--Jackson drew the ire of Roy Williams at one point for failing to make the easy play--but he sure does seem to have a Joseph Forte-ish understanding for the best way to get the ball to the rim in scoring situations.
What do you know? On the same night two teams actually combined to play a watchable game featuring an uptempo pace and a combined 158 points (it was the first time two teams combined for at least 150 points in an ACC game in over a week), Jackson also proved the midrange game is not dead.
“Tonight, I didn't have to force anything,” Jackson said. “I just played off everyone else and let the game come to me.”
