![]() Jackson is also way more dangerous when he’s eating up that space. He did make four 3s in the first game, but when surrounded by much better shooters and efficient low-post monsters like Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan, the Huskies have better options. In the Xavier games, Jackson took the bait. If he’s near Jackson and sees his man is sagging, he knows to run his way. It takes a shooter with a quick release to pull this off, but the Huskies have their own version of Steph Curry in Jordan Hawkins, who is averaging four made 3s per game in the tournament. The key is timing and making sure you’re set once you hand it off so not to get an offensive foul called, and Jackson has it down. Because his man is sagging off, there’s no one to help if Jackson makes contact with the shooter’s defender. It’s like a dribble handoff with a screen added in, shielding off the shooter’s defender. When Jackson sees space, he dribbles toward a shooter. “It sorts of makes them pay for being off him so much.” “That kept our offense moving and didn’t get us stagnant,” Moore said. Instead of settling for jumpers the defense wanted Jackson to take, Connecticut coach Dan Hurley encouraged him to “pass a get,” a dribble-handoff concept that has been exceptionally effective for Draymond Green. He still has that space and the offense usually has an advantage. Instead of throwing to the roller on a short roll, they use Jackson as an outlet and it’s just as advantageous as giving it to a guy who can make plays out of the short roll. The Huskies also have done a really smart thing in their pick-and-roll packages. The speed of which he gets it out of his hands plus the velocity of his passes makes it really hard for defenders to catch up. When he cuts to the free-throw line, he looks like he already knows where he’s going with the ball. When he’s cutting to the basket, his size helps him because he can get lobs over outstretched arms. It was an uncomfortable existence.īut now he’s either cutting to the basket or cutting to the free-throw line, ready to make a read either way. Most college players aren’t able to catch the ball on the move and quickly make a read and a decision, especially players who are 6-foot-6 with elite speed.Įarlier in the season Jackson was spacing out to the 3-point line when he was getting ignored, and when the ball ended up in his hands, it would stop. This is where Jackson is like a cheat code. In this film room, I’ll show you the creative ways the Huskies have turned the dork into a deadly weapon. ![]() ![]() Jackson is UConn’s maestro and one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in this tournament, and he does it barely shooting the ball. That’s a higher efficiency than any offense in college basketball this season. And with Jackson on the floor, UConn is scoring 1.22 points per possession in four tourney games, per. He’s averaged just 7.8 points but with a solid 53.4 effective FG percentage. Jackson has been one of the best (and most efficient) players in this NCAA Tournament, racking up 31 assists and with only six turnovers. The junior wing has arguably been Connecticut’s most valuable player since. Since then, Connecticut is 13-2 and the latest loss to Marquette in the Big East tournament was on a day when Jackson fouled out in only 15 minutes on the floor. The Huskies scored 55 points in the second half that day and still lost the game, 82-79, but they had unlocked a better version of Jackson. ![]() “That sort of organized his mind and gave him a little more of an individual offensive game plan.” “He was looking for answers,” Moore said. 25, Jackson actually started to figure out ways he could be successful as “the dork,” whether it was screening, cutting, dribble handoffs or using the clear sight lines he had to pick the defense apart with his passing.Ĭonnecticut’s coaches had shown him spots where he could attack on film and examples of players in the NBA, like Draymond Green, using the strategy against the defense. Jackson attempted 12 3-pointers in the first game against Xavier and started 0-of-6 from the field in the second meeting - the two games bookending that six-of-eight losing streak. When he’s challenged, his natural instinct is to prove somebody wrong.” They were reminding him, being vocal about daring him to shoot, and there’s not a more competitive dude in the country. ![]() “It was sort of a shock to his system,” Connecticut assistant coach Tom Moore told The Athletic this week. “They were talking too. In January, it was hard to turn down shots like this: “I think earlier on I was taking it personal a lot and looking at it like disrespect and to prove them wrong,” Jackson said on Saturday, fresh off nearly putting up a triple-double (eight points, nine rebounds and 10 assists) in an Elite Eight win over Gonzaga, which tried to replicate the Xavier strategy. ![]()
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