Ian Jackson sets new career high as UNC men's basketball finds confidence against Campbell

Flashy. 

That is the word graduate guard RJ Davis would use to describe first-year guard Ian Jackson’s game.

And with a little over two and a half minutes remaining in the second half and his career-high within reach, flashy is exactly how Jackson finished his career night.

With under three minutes remaining and UNC up 92-71, Davis swung the ball to sophomore guard Elliot Cadeau, who saw Jackson cutting from the wing to the basket. He lobbed it up to Jackson, who slammed it through the rim to put an emphasis on UNC's big win. 

In UNC's dominating 97-81 win over Campbell Sunday night, Jackson posted a career-high and led the team with 26 points in his first ever start, just one game after recording a career-high 24 against UCLA. He is the first Tar Heel first-year since Cole Anthony in 2020 and just the tenth player in North Carolina history to score 24 or more points in consecutive games.

“I tried to hide a smile a little bit,” Jackson said. “But it felt amazing to go out there and start and walk through, dap my teammates up and start the game up right for us.” 

Last Monday, head coach Hubert Davis told Jackson that he would start that weekend after deciding to sit junior guard Seth Trimble to rest an upper-body injury before ACC play. 

“I was like, finally,” Cadeau said. “Like finally a starter. It’s what you've been working for your whole life.” 

Jackson is the second first-year starter on the team, along with first-year guard Drake Powell. Sunday night was the first time multiple first-years have started since 2021.

The roommates have been going through the grind together since the summer and Jackson said it was a great feeling to have Davis start them together. 

Coming into this year, the team knew what Jackson could bring. He heats up quickly. He gets out in transition. He knocks down threes. During his time at North Carolina, he has only grown in these qualities, making it hard for opponents to guard him and contributing to his scoring impact for the Tar Heels.

Jackson said his teammates trust his game and his ability to go out there and do what he does. And with a major piece of the team not on the court Sunday, he and other guys stepped up and performed. 

“He’s always been a super confident kid,” RJ Davis said. “So you don’t really got to tell him. One thing I tell him is just stay aggressive at all times. You don’t got to tell him more than once.” 

Despite his shots not falling in the first half — shooting 2-7 from the field and 1-4 from beyond the arc — Jackson remained confident in the work he’s put in. He finally found his rhythm in the second, scoring 18 points on 7-9 shooting and 2-4 from three.

“Confidence level is super high right now,” Jackson said. “I feel like you can see it on the floor, and every game it’s getting higher.”

Jackson's confidence has started to serve as a litmus for UNC as a whole. Following the loss to Florida, in which Jackson scored 11 points and was a major contributor to the comeback effort that ultimately fell short, he knew all it would take was one game for North Carolina to start rolling.

And now, he sees it.

“It’s happening,” Jackson said. “I feel it happening. The team feels it happening. We feel the shift in practice. The energy is changing.” 

And if Jackson — who might rotate in and out of the starting lineup for the remainder of the season — maintains his confidence level, the Tar Heels will have another reliable scoring threat.

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