Nearly 30 years ago, when I was covering the UC Irvine basketball beat, I enjoyed getting to know Andy Andreas, a volunteer assistant coach who was convinced he could get the high-scoring Anteaters to play better defense. He quit at the end of the nonconference season after back-to-back losses in which Irvine allowed a combined 255 points.
Long after I forget any other details about that season, I’ll remember what Andreas told me about the question he used to ask himself if undecided as to whether a player was worth recruiting: “If I cloned him four times and sent those five players onto the court, could I win with them?”
That’s a tough standard because so few players meet it. Landen Lucas has done a fine job for Kansas at center, but you can’t win with five of him. Even Frank Mason, such a relentless thorn in any defense’s side, underrated defender and a strong defensive rebounder, doesn’t qualify. National player of the year, yes, but can you win with five of him? No, because he can’t defend a post player.
Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound force on the block, averages 18.9 points and 13 rebounds and shoots .483 on 3-pointers. Close, but teams would apply full-court pressure against five Swanigans.
Villanova’s Josh Hart? Close, but he’s not who
you want defending a low-post scorer.
Josh Jackson. Now you’re talking.
Watching Jackson’s defensive versatility in KU’s most recent late-game domination to pull out another squeaker made me think of Andreas, who by the way was the first man to hire Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, assigning him to the JV team at Cuyahoga Falls High (Ohio) in 1962.
Five Josh Jacksons could win a national title.
Jackson spent much of Saturday’s game guarding Baylor’s 7-foot center, Jo Lual-Acuil, who averages 9.4 points and 6.7 rebounds. He totaled 11 points and two boards Saturday.
On the game’s final possession, Jackson left Lual-Acuil to double-team point guard Manu Lecomte with Frank Mason. Long enough to guard a 7-footer, quick enough to stay in front of a 5-11 guard, Jackson did a great job all afternoon of getting his fingertips on passes and lent timely help defense on the interior. Lucas and Jackson trapped Johnathan Motley late in the game to force a key turnover.
NBA talent judges put great value on being able to guard a wide variety of players because of all the switching NBA defenders are required to do.
Jackson’s just as versatile offensively. His vision makes him a great passer, sometimes too good a passer for teammates to be ready, such as on the game’s opening possession. He drives and dishes and does a nice job of picking apart zones from the high post with precise passes. He blows by defenders on the dribble and has a nice post-up game, knowing just where on the glass to hit with his bank hooks.
He’s terrific starting fastbreaks with outlet passes and even better finishing them by throwing down lobs and is equipped to have the ball in his hands in transition as well.
Jackson’s consistently tuned in and turned up, which leads to a rapid improvement rate because his mind never rests, a big factor in him stuffing the box score across the board.
He’s an easy pick for first-team all-conference honors. Using conference games only is the only fair way to compare players since every team’s nonconference schedule is different.
In Big 12 games, Jackson ranks sixth in the Big 12 in scoring (17.1), tied for sixth in rebounding (7.1), ninth in field-goal percentage (.486), tied for 14th in assists (2.9), tied for sixth in steals (1.9) and 13th in blocked shots (1.0).
