Tuesday Night Bites: Trayce Jackson-Davis

 Last year, Iowa’s Luka Garza was a consensus first team All-American, finishing first in some Player of the Year voter circles, and second to current Knick Obi Toppin in the others. This year, he somehow drove his game further up. Garza is a physical monster at 6’11 265, yet this year, he branched out behind the arc well, with his 46.2% clip from downtown helped contribute to his 26.9 PPG.

Ayo Donsunmu of Illinois also upped the ante, going from 16.6 to 21.7 points per game. The scoring guard can get hot like nobody else in all of college basketball, dropping 30+ points thrice, along with 27 and 28 respectively against hoops powerhouses Ohio and North Carolina A&T. 

Yet, the Big Ten player who impressed me above all came from Bloomington, Indiana. (Or Greenwood if you’re gonna make me refer to his HS career over his college one. Or Long Beach, CA if we’re talking birthplace.) He plays his home games in Assembly Hall, a building filled with success and chairs chucked by the great Bob Knight.

His name is Trayce Jackson-Davis. 

TJD (you know he’s good when he developed an acronym before even entering the NBA!) was the Emperor of Rome in high school, so to speak, despite not committing arson or playing violin: he was the best player in the most hoop-crazed state of Indiana. Since 2006, 10 winners of the Indiana Mr. Basketball award have heard their name called by the NBA commissioner, or Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum - a man known by all NBA2K aficionados. Jackson-Davis joined Oscar Robertson, among other legends in the lore/Wikipedia page of the prestigious award.

In his freshman campaign, TJD did not fail. That being said, it was no Wilt Chamberlain stat line. 13.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, and nearly 2 blocks were nothing to be mad about, right? Correct, but after seeing his sophomore numbers, he might’ve been going easy on his beastly Big Ten opponents during his third team all conference freshman run.

The stat sheet states a 7 point increase in output on the scoreboard. That’s nice and all, but it doesn’t tell the entire story. TJD’s strength and power inside means that once he catches it inside, you might as well run over and help the scorer put two points on the board. That’s probably better than sitting in the post and possibly giving Jackson-Davis an and-one. He’s also very proficient at drawing fouls, departing on a long weekend trip to The Free Throw Line approximately 9 times per game. 

For a taste of Jackson-Davis’ inside brawn on the offensive end, watch his highlight reel vs Stanford, where he embarrassed strong defenders like Oscar Da Silva at the Maui Invitational in Asheville, North Carolina. 

He doesn’t just contribute in one painted area. Jackson-Davis comes through at both rims, as this video compiles many of his best freshman moments keeping points off the board. 

Now, let’s get to some of the little things he does well. All of these come, not cherry-picked from almost 2 seasons of basketball, but just from Sunday’s game against Rutgers, where the Hoosiers lost, and TJD merely posted a 13 and 7 stat line.

As we can see, defenses have established a healthy, smart fear of Jackson-Davis’ post presence, with TJD boasting physicality like few other players. Here, he harnesses that fear. On a screen, teammate Aljani Durham gets as open as Don Lemon is openly black. Why does he fire a jumper with no contest? Because the defense was preoccupied with Jackson-Davis’ post presence, they didn’t want to switch on the screen. Guard Geo Baker of Rutgers must bend over backwards, run around in a circle, and press his nose 10 times to get around the screen, and big man Myles Johnson doesn’t dare step out on the perimeter and leave Baker home alone with the guy who puts BIG in Big Ten. Cash in 2 points for Durham and a screen assist for the IU star.

It’s easy to forget about a player for just a few seconds in a game lasting 40 minutes. For 99.23% of the game, they treat him like a star WR, doing anything and everything to contain him. However, for those 0.77% plays, when he might get in a mismatch against a slot corner, Trayce Jackson-Davis will take advantage. Here, Rutgers falls asleep for a second, and remembers it for an hour. For the Assembly Hall rims, it might be more like an hour. 

Fairness seems like something we can strive for in sports. Not with Trayce scoring tres on this 3 point play. Just wanted to remind everyone that this dude is 6’9 245. The Scarlet Knights put the aforementioned Myles Johnson on him, one of the best rim protectors in the conference with over 2 blocks per game. However, that doesn’t account for TJD’s athleticism and speed. He beats Johnson on a dribble move, and goes downhill, looking like an agile guard like James Harden. Sure, it’s probably unfair that college hoops coaches get paid millions of dollars. However, it seems just a little bit correct when you remember they have to solve the TJD crisis, 10x harder than fixing the national budget. I mean… what do you want to do about this?

You saw the interior defense earlier. With his size, Jackson-Davis can spike a basketball like he’s Misty May-Treanor. (Not sure if Misty May-Treanor is good at spiking basketballs, as she is at hitting volleyballs,  but the point still stands.) Despite his supposed size limitations on the perimeter, he still manages to lock up smaller, niftier players. Here, on a crucial possession, TJD gets switched onto Ron Harper Jr, the best player wearing a red jersey.  Through all of Harper’s speedy moves and attempts to get by, the Indiana star stays in front throughout, and lands a great contest.

I’m excited to see how TJD can perhaps translate into the pros. The league currently desires stretch bigs. While Jackson-Davis may not comply with the current shooting revolution, he certainly brings the switchability that scouts look for. With his pro-style game, I wouldn’t scoff at taking a flyer on IU’s best player. Hopefully, an NBA team sees the same promise, and we get to see him fight it out with the best at the next level.