5 best NBA Draft prospects in the NCAA Tournament

3. Josh Jackson

Josh Jackson might be listed as a 6-foot-8 forward for the Jayhawks, but Jackson has a game more tailored to playing with the basketball in his hands than on the wing. Jackson has been excellent in his first season with Kansas. He’s meshed well with the two leaders of the team (Frank Mason III and Devonte Graham) and has shown that he has the ability to affect the game in multiple ways.

Despite their lack of size, both Mason and Graham are highly-effective and highly-efficient scorers. Both can play on or off the ball and have the ability to score at the rim or further away from it. That’s where Jackson’s skills come in handy. Jackson is a terrific athlete, but his feel for the game is a grade above most freshmen. Jackson has the requisite talent to run an offense and be able to create open or easy looks for his teammates. His size helps as he is able to see over defenders and zip passes into tight windows before the defense is able to close them off.

Jackson is also a handful to deal with in the paint. He has the combination of size, length and athleticism that makes him capable of finishing over, around, under, and through defenders at the rim. Mistime a block attempt and the defense will find themselves on the latest Jackson poster. Jackson’s comfort handling the ball helps here as it’s hard for a defender to keep the Kansas freshman in front of them. Usually, the defenders he faces off against have one of his three “S” traits (size, skill and speed), but it’s rare that he is matched up against another player that combines them all together like he does.

Though he may play with a guard’s game and understanding, Jackson is more than capable as a defender and a rebounder. The Jayhawks will often use Jackson as the main defender on the opposing team’s best player and he has taken that task head on as a freshman. He finished the regular season as the team’s second-highest rebounder, his 7.2 rebounds per game trailed only Landen Lucas’ 8.4,

Like Fox, Jackson isn’t the biggest of threats from the perimeter. His form looks a lot worse off than Fox’s, but Jackson is a streakier shooter (37.7 percent on 3-pointers entering the NCAA Tournament) and once he hits a few from beyond the arc he could be well on his way to having a great shooting night. Jackson’s lack of an outside threat is what has caused him to have the style of play that he does. He needs the ball in his hand to be effective because without it teams can largely ignore him.

A bigger issue for Jackson is some of the news he has made off the court in Lawrence in just one year. He was suspended for the team’s quarterfinal round loss to TCU in the Big 12 Tournament in relation to an ongoing investigation into vehicle vandalism. Jackson’s name has been attached to a couple other incidents at Kansas and NBA teams will surely do their research to find out just what exactly the Jayhawk has and has not done. In sports, the best ability is availability. While injuries have not been a problem for Jackson, getting suspended is hardly anything to ignore.