Darnell Jackson, whose numbers are slightly better as a starter than a reliever, says he relishes both roles equally.
“My confidence is the same. I’m just having fun,” Kansas University’s 6-foot-8, 250-pound senior power forward said after scoring 11 points and grabbing eight rebounds in Saturday’s 88-51 rout of Ohio at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.
Jackson, who is shooting 64 percent on the season, has averaged 11.6 points and 8.4 rebounds the past five games as a starter. Prior to that, he contributed 10.8 points and 5.6 boards as first big man off the bench.
“What I try to do is play hard and rebound, try to make no mistakes while I’m out there,” said Jackson, a perfect 5-of-5 from the field versus Ohio.
He has shot 78.9 percent (15 of 19) in his last three games.
He has pulled down eight or more rebounds in each of his last four games and now ranks eighth in the Big 12 in rebounding at 7.0 boards per contest.
“All the guards are getting the big guys the ball. That’s their job,” Jackson said, crediting the backcourt players for much of his offensive success. “Our job is to make it easier on the guards to throw it to us inside. We can’t stand flat-footed. We’ve got to move our feet. When they get us the ball our job is to make a move and finish the play.
“If teams dive down on us, we throw it out to our guards who knock down the threes.”
Jackson and KU’s other three big men – Darrell Arthur, Sasha Kaun and Cole Aldrich – have been sizzling of late.
“Their numbers were good against Ohio, 39 and 27, and against DePaul, 41 and 28,” KU coach Bill Self said of combined points and rebounds versus the Bobcats and in an 84-66 rout of DePaul’s Blue Demons.
“If we can get close to that type production, we’ll be hard to guard. The biggest stat with big guys : you look at rebounds and strong post ups. We’ve had it the last two games.”
Arthur, who had no rebounds but 13 points versus DePaul, totaled 14 points and eight boards Saturday. Kaun has had 23 points and 12 boards the past two games, while Aldrich has scored 12 points with seven boards in 18 minutes over the two games.
KU’s big men helped the Jayhawks outrebound Ohio, 46-27. That’s the same Ohio team that outboarded Maryland, 37-27, in Wednesday’s big 61-55 road victory.
“Coach told us they had two post men who board their (butts) off,” Arthur said. “We tried to box them out as hard as we could. They were smaller. We had to go after it.”
The Jayhawks won by a sizable margin for the third straight game. KU has beaten Eastern Washington, DePaul and Ohio by 38, 18 and 37 points respectively.
“You’ve got to jump on teams from the tip and don’t let up,” Jackson said. “They were frustrated and pushing in the first half. We ran the score up and tried to come out the second half and do the same thing. They tried to slow it down. We kept fighting. Whoever we put in kept fighting and pushed the score up.”
KU has shown killer instinct lately, demonstrating the ability to “squash ’em with a sledgehammer,” Arthur said.
“That’s ‘Shady’s’ saying,” Self said of Arthur. “Mine is ‘foot on the throat.'”
KU (10-0) will travel to Georgia Tech for a 6 p.m. (Central time) game Tuesday.
The Yellowjackets, who will be playing their first game in 13 days, have defeated Tennessee State, Charlotte, Notre Dame and Georgia State and lost to UNC Greensboro, Winthrop, Indiana and Vanderbilt.
Georgia Tech will be playing its first game with Ra’Sean Dickey, a 6-9 senior from Clio, S.C., who was academically ineligible first semester. Dickey, who started 23 games last year, was Tech’s fourth-leading scorer (8.1 points per game) and second leading rebounder (5.3 per game) while tying for the team lead in field goal percentage (59.6 pct.).
“Georgia Tech is very good. They have their best player eligible for the second semester – Ra’Sean Dickey – who is a big load inside,” Self said. “And Miami (Ohio) : our fans won’t know this, but everybody tells me they are really, really good. We need to keep getting better and hopefully we can finish up pre-Christmas on a good note.”
KU will meet 4-4 Miami at noon Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse, then break for Christmas and not play again until Dec. 29 versus Yale.
