Justin Jackson answers doubt with offseason work for UNC men's basketball

State News PageOne
C Jackson Cowart
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Published 11 hours ago







Justin Jackson is tired of the question.He’s heard it hundreds of times now, each time more persistent than the last. After big wins, after tough losses. At the podium, in the hallway. Everybody wants to know.“Honestly, I feel like I’ve been answering the same thing all year,” he said.




Something’s different — that much is clear. Just a year ago, the North Carolina wing looked like an rangy role player whose budding potential would never blossom. Now, he’s the ACC Player of the Year. All-American honors are a mere formality, as is his spot in the Smith Center rafters. His jump shot is falling, and his draft stock is soaring.










What changed?“Obviously I’ve always said that I’ve worked on my shot and I’ve tried to get better at it,” he said. “But it hasn’t translated. So now whenever it translates, there has to be something.”Jackson’s meteoric rise has left the country confounded, his opponents included. This season, the junior is averaging 18.3 points per game — the highest mark for a Tar Heel since Tyler Hansbrough in 2009 — and shooting a career-high 38.5 percent from deep. He’s only 10 made 3-pointers away from the single-season school record.Is it the speed of his release? What about his footwork? His release point? His arc?“Honestly, I didn’t change anything in my shot,” he said after a Feb. 25 win at Pittsburgh, one of the many stops on his redemption tour.“Everybody’s asking, ‘What did you do to change your shot? What did you do?’ I didn’t do anything but just get reps up.”

But that’s too easy, isn’t it? Surely, he made some sort of fundamental change to his mechanics or maybe to his mentality. But reps don’t make the man. A ...


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