Justin Jackson gets aggressive in 68-53 win over Virginia Tech

There is little else that springs as much terror in the eyes of a college kid as the prospect of free time deprived. Hubert Davis knows this — knows it with so much certitude, that he wielded it with enough fright to jolt the freshman swingman on the North Carolina men’s basketball team out of a rebounding slumber.

Justin Jackson had, in UNC’s 81-79 win Wednesday against N.C. State, as many rebounds as assistant coach Davis, whose ineligible posterior remained seated on the UNC sideline. Zilch. “For a 6’8” wing,” Jackson said Sunday night, “that’s terrible.”

So terrible, Davis decided, that Jackson needed incentive to hit the glass with authority. Get five or more rebounds Sunday against unranked Virginia Tech, Davis told him. Otherwise, he’d spend a precious weekend night babysitting Davis’ three kids, Elijah, Bobbie Grace and Micah.

No. 15 UNC (14-4, 4-1 ACC) would brush aside VT, 68-53, in a nondescript game that the annals of college basketball will overlook. But Jackson will remember, for sure, how he skirted an unwanted visit to the Davis household.

He scored a team-high 16 points, added four assists and two blocks — and yes, grabbed seven merciful rebounds.

“I’m off the hook for today,” he said, the relief palpable in his voice and gaze.

His teammates and coaches, though, want nothing more than for Jackson to remain on the hook. For if Jackson, a man of equal size and finesse, can approach every game with the same decisive verve he brought to the floor Sunday, UNC’s middleweight offense will gain a little more punch.

And his team will remind Jackson of this — and keep reminding him — for however long it takes.

“I’ve told him he’s gotta be more aggressive,” Coach Roy Williams said.

“We just need him to keep doing that so it will open it up for everyone else,” junior forward Brice Johnson said.

“It’s not necessarily something we’ve done in practice, like ‘Make Justin shoot the ball more,’” junior guard Marcus Paige said. “But he’s gotten more comfortable, and we’re still pushing him to stay aggressive.”

But basketball doesn’t caress promising talent and lay it carefully at stardom’s feet. It delivers pause and doubt to the doorsteps of even the most gifted players. Jackson, a heralded recruit, felt the vice tighten earlier this season.

He would get a pass with nothing but open floor and opportunity before him, and he would fire the pass right back to its original sender. “Dude,” sophomore forward Isaiah Hicks would say. “You’re open.”

“I was thinking too much,” Jackson said. “That was the biggest thing for me: I went out there and tried not to mess up, which in basketball and the college level, you can’t do that.”

He would spot his All-American teammate Paige from the corner of his eye. Jackson said he’d do anything to get him the ball, set a screen for him, find any reason to elevate deference over initiative. It happens, Paige said. A young player will turn to a player with more pedigree and expect he’ll do it all. But there are times when the natural order of things shifts, and a veteran can lean on a rookie.

“Someone as good as him needs to go ahead and assert himself, and I think he’s starting to figure that out,” Paige said.

Take a 4 1/2 minute stretch during Sunday’s first half. VT (8-9, 0-4) was content to play its zone and turn the hardwood into a quagmire. It was Jackson who hardened the mud and pushed UNC through the slog. He found J.P. Tokoto on an alley-oop, then fired another pinpoint feed to Johnson underneath the rim on the next possession. He would race down the floor minutes later to snuff out Shane Henry’s breakaway jam with a block, punctuating an opening half in which he led all players with 10 points. And to Davis’s delight, only Johnson had more first-half rebounds than Jackson’s fistful.

The swingman was everything his teammates and coaches wanted him to be — ready and likely to attack.

“I’m feeling more and more comfortable,” Jackson said. “That just comes with time. I’m ready.”

Just not for babysitting.

“You know, I love kids, but babysitting — I could definitely be doing something else,” Jackson said.

Like hauling in rebounds, for one. Hubert Davis will make sure of it.

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