He had taken three shots and missed two, one an ill-advised three-pointer from the right wing when a drive was the right play.

Jackson missed his first two free throws and when he went to the line to attempt two more, it must have been the look on his face that triggered the sound of the unmistakeable voice of the late, great member of The Band, Rick Danko, banging loudly in my head, easily drowning out all the other voices, if only temporarily: “See the man with the stage fright, just standing up there to give it all his might. He got caught in the spotlight.”

And the spotlight was winning. Jackson again missed both freebies.

False alarm. The nerves quickly faded, never to return, and Rivals’ No. 1-ranked high school player from the Class of 2016 introduced himself to the nation late Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

Maybe the wise decision he made with the ball in his hands in the left corner freed his mind and let his instincts soar to the surface. He looked as if he contemplated putting up a three-pointer with his unorthodox form. Instead, he drove the baseline and no defender had a shot at stopping him. He kept going past the hoop and dropped in a reverse layup, which started a string of six consecutive made buckets, a streak he takes into Friday night’s game in Allen Fieldhouse versus Siena.

The refs tagged Jackson with a couple of questionable whistles on his way to a 15-point night in 18 minutes before fouling out, but it wasn’t the referee’s fault he slapped the ball out of a Duke player’s hands several seconds after a stop in play. That technical foul cost him some floor time and might have cost his team the victory if not for Frank Mason’s latest late-game heroics.

“Without being negative at all, he can’t let his emotions get the best of him, and he’s a pretty emotional guy, and he’s got to be able to contain that a little bit better,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of Jackson. “If he hadn’t gotten that technical, he wouldn’t have been in foul trouble for something silly, knocking the ball out of the guy’s hand for no reason. But he’s a heck of a talent. He got in a little rhythm and certainly put us on his back for a period of time.”

That stretch came at the start of the second half. Jackson scored 11 second-half points in just eight minutes, time enough to show that Kansas has three perimeter players capable of putting defenses in serious retreat mode. Lagerald Vick is on his way to becoming a fourth.

Jackson’s long limbs enable him to cover big chunks of the floor in a hurry and he’s super fast with the ball, handles it well, knows how to get to the hoop and will draw fouls at a high rate. At the other end, he moves his feet so well advancing and retreating and laterally, a nice complement to long arms that disrupt plays in so many ways.

The technical he drew didn’t cost Kansas the game, yet still will have a positive impact on Jackson, a smart, eager-to-please teenager. Self talks a lot about toughness, but doesn’t always mean in a rugged, physical sense. Often, he’s referencing the ability to concentrate well enough when exhausted and when facing adversity to continue to make smart, disciplined plays.

“Sometimes thinking they really want to win and really competing hard is counter-productive when they kind of lose focus,” Self said. “Keeping focused and thinking next play is part of competing and I think he has to learn that, but certainly he’s got some God-given talent.”

When Jackson misses a shot, his form is so unusual that watching him clank one can trick your mind into thinking you just watched two or three misses. He missed just two shots from the field Tuesday night and most who watched probably can remember both. He also showed why anticipation over his college choice created such a stir.