Chronicling The Past Few Weeks For GG Jackson
Back in July, GG Jackson made a series of shocking moves to most national college basketball pundits for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he chose to de-commit from last season's national runner-ups in the North Carolina Tar Heels and commit to a South Carolina program that had just undergone massive upheaval with its roster and coaching staff. Secondly, Jackson decided to forgo his senior season of high school basketball and enroll at South Carolina a year in advance, a move rarely made by basketball recruits due to the resulting learning curve and a massive leap in competitive intensity.
At the beginning of the season, Jackson seemed to be adjusting well. He averaged 17.2 points per game in conference play and generated some NBA lottery buzz. Since SEC play began, however, things have taken a negative turn in both GG Jackson's stat line and his overall morale and engagement throughout this latest string of games.
There are multiple reasons why this is all happening to Jackson, and let's start with the most obvious point: Jackson is facing much more skilled and physical talent in conference play compared to the first third of the season. This led to him scoring zero points against Tennessee, a potential top-three seed come March, and walking off the court before the alma mater, which is extremely frowned upon by those associated with the program and the school in any capacity, no matter the result of a game.
Secondly, Jackson relies on old moves with which he dominated high school competition but can't utilize these same tools to triumph over Power 6 college basketball players. He's been inconsistent in terms of his willingness to change how he attacks defenders, sometimes being intentional in driving to the paint, which Lamont Paris wants to see, while other times heavily relying on his ball handling and launching deep off-balance jump shots.
This all culminated with his infamous social media rant after the Gamecocks' close loss to Arkansas on February 4. The past few weeks have been a big learning experience for Jackson, and we will see how he handles things moving forward.
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