The 6-foot-8 wing joined North Carolina advertised as a three-dimensional scoring threat — a gangly nightmare for defenses who could hit from any spot on the floor.
“When I watched him in high school ... it doesn’t look like he ever took a shot, and he ends up with 20,” Sean May, director of player personnel, said. “He just understands how the play of the ball tends to find him.”
For most of Jackson’s first two seasons, that ability hasn’t quite translated.
He shot 28.1 percent from deep this season after shooting 30.4 percent his rookie year. He’s averaged 11.5 points per game through two seasons. But thanks to heady play, Jackson locked up a spot in the starting five early in his first season for UNC.
He maintained his stranglehold on the spot until his worst shooting game of this year — a 1-for-7, five-point outing in a road loss to Notre Dame. Before UNC’s next game against Boston College, Coach Roy Williams told the slumping Jackson he wouldn’t be starting.
Jackson responded with his best shooting game of the year. He scored 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting and scored in double digits in 13 of the next 14 games.
“He may have lost some confidence, it may have just been his shot wasn’t falling, but he stayed with it,” May said.
“He was very persistent, continued to get his work in, and I think that hard work has paid off because now when you watch him, he just plays and good things happen.”
