Darnell doubles up

By Gary Bedore     Jan 24, 2008

Go figure

Nick Krug
Kansas forward Darnell Jackson, left, looks to disrupt a pass from Iowa State guard Bryan Petersen. Jackson led the Jayhawks with 21 points and 11 rebounds in their 83-59 victory over the Cyclones on Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

50.0

KU’s field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage

31.1, 21.4

Iowa State’s field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage

7:11

ISU’s assist-to-turnover ratio

22:10

KU’s assist-to-turnover ratio

16

Points scored by both teams combined off turnovers

9

Fast-break points scored by both teams combined

1

Field goals by ISU’s nine non-starters combined in 50 minutes

5

Field goals by KU’s eight non-starters combined in 70 minutes

Danny Manning, who works with Kansas University’s big men every day, likes to kid fun-loving senior power forward Darnell Jackson.

“I tease him all the time: ‘Darnell you ever gonna get a double- double?”’ Manning said Monday night in subbing for Bill Self as guest host on Self’s weekly Hawk Talk radio show.

It took the 6-foot-8, 250-pound Jackson just two days to answer KU assistant coach Manning’s question with a resounding, Yes!

Jackson scored 21 points off 9-of-14 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds in the Jayhawks’ 83-59 rout of Iowa State on Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

The Midwest City, Okla., native’s double-figure points and rebound game was assured when he grabbed his 10th board with 5:49 left.

“I looked at him and smiled,” Jackson said of his interaction with former KU All-American Manning. “He smiled back. He said, ‘Good job, keep it going.”’

Jackson entered Wednesday’s game with four career double-doubles, but none yet his senior season.

He’d come close 12 times in 19 games. His closest calls included a 25-point, nine-board outing at Boston College and 13-rebound, nine-point outing at USC. He also had 17 points and nine boards against Eastern Washington, 17 and eight versus Oklahoma and 13 and nine versus Missouri.

Jackson said several of his teammates have ribbed him about falling just short of double-doubles in his breakout season.

Nobody more than Manning, however.

“Coach Manning … D-Man … he teases me every day. He calls me a ‘trick,”’ Jackson said. “It’s what we always say when somebody gets close to a double-double: ‘You’re a trick. Tonight he was a trick.'”

Trick?

“You know, like you are coming close and tricking somebody,” Jackson said.

KU coach Self – whose big men outrebounded a tall Iowa State team 46-33 and outscored the Cyclones 42-16 in the paint – has been one of those joshing Jackson about his flirtation with double-doubles.

“He’s been at 14 and nine it seems six or seven games,” Self said.

Self, who like everybody else has been most impressed with Jackson the entire season, said the big man broke him up at practice Tuesday.

“Yesterday I went nuts on our guys for a few minutes just because I hadn’t gone nuts in a long time,” Self said of erupting after some sloppy play the day before a game.

“We weren’t executing like we should. One thing led to another, and I got mad at ’em. I got such a kick out of Darnell. He just looked at me and started smiling like he knew exactly what I was doing, just trying to get their attention.

“He is just kind of enjoying everything. I couldn’t get under his skin right now even if I tried,” Self added.

“I’ve tried several times. It’s water off his back. You can see the development. Two years ago he’d be saying, ‘The man’s crazy.’ Now it’s like, ‘C’mon guys, can’t you figure it out?”’

Jackson scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds the first half in helping KU to a 42-32 lead after 20 minutes.

Russell Robinson hit a driving one-hander from eight feet and, after getting hacked, knocked in the foul shot, and Darrell Arthur followed with a bucket as KU opened a 15-point lead four minutes into the second half. KU held a 20-point lead six minutes in and cruised home to its 19th victory in 19 tries and fourth in league play. ISU fell to 12-7, 2-2.

Jackson had everybody smiling with 10:59 left when he drilled a deep two, thrusting his hands in the air in asking the refs to deem it a three.

“I was kind of disappointed,” said Jackson, who has two threes this year in four tries. “But everybody told me I had two feet on the line. I’m glad I stepped up and knocked the shot down.”

He wasn’t the only hero Wednesday. Brandon Rush tied a career high with six assists and hit three threes for 11 points. Arthur had 16 points after a slow start, while Robinson had 11 points and four assists and Mario Chalmers 10 points and six assists.

But again it was Jackson who had 16,300 fans buzzing with his stellar play.

“It hasn’t sunk in at all,” he said of emerging as a possible first-team all-league player. “I always tell my mom, ‘Can you believe it?’ She says, ‘No, I can’t believe it.’ It’s just happening out of the blue. I don’t know why it’s happening, but it is.”

KU next will meet Nebraska at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

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