For all of the comparisons between Kansas freshman Josh Jackson and former one-and-done KU star Andrew Wiggins — those you’ve heard and those still yet to come — the one that struck me as the most impressive and most telling about the kind of player Jackson is came from Kansas coach Bill Self at Tuesday’s Big 12 Media Day in Kansas City.
Talking about Jackson’s maturity, which Self says Jackson owes his mother, Apples Jones, the 14th-year Kansas coach was asked how Jackson has responded — and how he thinks he will respond against real opponents — when players have gone right at him in an attempt to test and see just how talented the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit really is.
It’s something that inevitably happens with all of the top freshmen each year. And it comes as much from teammates in the early going as it does opponents in the heart of the season.
Self loves it and believes Jackson will, too.
> “I think he’s coming in here about as
> mature and about as worldly as any kid
> that we’ve ever had,” Self said. “He’s
> well beyond his years for a college
> freshman. And even though he’s had so
> many things written about him, he
> doesn’t act spoiled. He acts like a
> guy that wants to prove as opposed to
> a guy that thinks he’s already
> arrived.”
Although practice is barely two weeks old and Self’s Jayhawks have begun to spend as much time preparing for opponents as they have testing each other, the KU coach has seen enough to drum up a prediction for what Jackson will do when Indiana’s James Blackmon Jr. or Duke’s Grayson Allen (both juniors) go at him on the offensive end and find some success in a couple of weeks.
> “He’s the type of kid, I think,” Self
> began, “that could have somebody score
> two straight baskets on him and his
> way of getting back at him is to make
> sure our team has a good possession on
> the other end, as opposed to going
> back and shooting the ball and trying
> to get it back himself. I don’t think
> a lot of kids get that. I think he
> does.”
That, at least in Self’s eyes, is why Jackson is among the most competitive players he’s ever coached. Being competitive is about more than being willing to take the shots, soak up the spotlight and become the face of the team. It also is about being the smartest player you can be and digging in on defense and doing as many little things as possible to help your team win a game.
Jackson is ready, willing and able to do all of the above and, perhaps most impressively, wants to do it against the best players college basketball has to offer. A few of those players are on his own team. And that’s one of the big reasons Jackson picked Kansas in the first place. Rather than having to wait for the big challenges to pop up on his schedule, Jackson gets to encounter them each and every day.
And, so far, he has more than held his own, according to Self.
> “I don’t know that you respond every
> single time that somebody goes at
> you,” Self said. “But if he doesn’t
> respond, then it’s in the minority. He
> is a competitive dude that likes when
> somebody else is good because now he
> can test himself against the best. He
> enjoys that.”
>
> “I think, in his mind, whether or not
> he plays better from a points (and)
> production standpoint, I think he’ll
> do more to fight for his team if he
> feels like he’s being challenged each
> and every day.”
As for all of the attention Jackson already has received and is sure to get from opponents on the floor during the upcoming season, Self said Jackson’s maturity and demeanor make him well equipped to handle that, as well.
> “Apples did an unbelievable job,” Self
> said. “Granted, there’s still some
> things that are gonna happen with him
> that he hasn’t seen yet and he’s gonna
> feel some pressures that he’s never
> experienced yet, but his mother has
> done an unbelievable job preparing him
> for this moment. It’s something
> they’ve talked about a lot.”
>
> “Wiggs was mature, too,” he continued.
> “But Wiggs was different in that he
> didn’t need the attention, but he also
> didn’t want the attention. Josh, to
> me, doesn’t need it, but he doesn’t
> mind it.”
