University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Jackson Gets Angry
February 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
There was plenty to talk about in a happy and relieved Carolina locker room on Tuesday night.
The Tar Heels had survived a weird road trip. The team bus had gotten lost on the way to shootaround, turning a 10-minute drive into a 30-minute excursion. A Boston College team that was winless in the ACC unexpectedly showed up draining three-pointers, and Eli Carter was doing his very best Tyrese Rice impression. And then Roy Williams suffered a vertigo attack, leaving the court with 14:35 remaining.
(Actual conversation that took place in a Conte Forum hallway at the next media timeout: Frazzled looking BC usher: “Are you looking for that guy who was just walked off the court?” Me: “Uh, Roy Williams? Yes, I'm looking for that guy.” Usher: “I think he went to the lobby.”)
But after the 68-65 win, the topic in the Carolina locker room was none of the above. Instead, it was Justin Jackson. Or, more accurately, angry Justin Jackson.
“Did you see him?” Nate Britt asked his teammates. “He was staring that guy down!”
“Staring him down?” Joel Berry II said. “He wasn't staring at him. He was talking junk to him!”
Jackson was in the shower at the time, and in his absence, his teammates agreed they had never seen the typically mild-mannered sophomore so chatty. It was as if they had just seen a unicorn, or something even more unbelievable, like a sunny and warm February day in Boston.
Booted from the starting lineup for the first time this season, Jackson had his best performance in calendar year 2016 and one of the best in his Carolina career. He made nine of his 11 field goal attempts and did it in a variety of ways, mixing floaters with midrange jumpers and even tossing in a pair of three-pointers, matching his three-point output for the entire rest of the ACC season combined.
And he did it all—especially after scoring on a curl to the hoop early in the second half—with a very un-Jackson-like snarl, with most of his chirping reserved for Boston College's Darryl Hicks. After taking a hard off-the-ball foul around the 16-minute mark, Jackson proceeded to score seven straight points over Hicks while providing running commentary. It was a little unsettling, like watching Brice Johnson softly lay it up and then sprint back on defense.
“It wasn't anything he said,” Jackson said. “He was trying to play physical and it got to the point that it wasn't just a basketball type of physical, he was trying to beat me up. It got me fired up.”
The results were electric. After a Steve Robinson timeout with 7:33 remaining and Carolina down by seven, Jackson's four points were part of ten straight points from the sophomore class, eventually turning into a 10-1 run that gave the Tar Heels the lead. Jackson scored 13 of his eventual 20 points in the second half.
It made him into the go-to player with the game in the balance. With his team holding a two-point lead and under a minute to play, Robinson called a set for Jackson, who smoothly came around a Theo Pinson screen, took a couple hard dribbles, and elevated to swish a tough angled jumper.
Now the challenge becomes sustaining that type of production. It was around this time last year that Jackson caught fire, scoring in double figures in 11 of Carolina's final 12 games. The Tar Heels hope they have 16 games left in this season, and they'll need the Chestnut Hill version of Jackson to get that far. When he's in a rhythm offensively, he's a big matchup problem, and he consistently runs the floor hard and creates opportunities in transition.
“We decided not to start him today, and he responded the way you'd like a guy to respond,” Robinson said on Tuesday. “He competed, he played hard, he was involved, and he got his shot to go.”
