Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Elmarko Jackson BREAKOUT Season Incoming? How Will He Respond from a Season-Ending Injury?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Marco Jackson just might be the game changer that Kansas needs coming into this season. He could provide an athletic burst. He could be much improved from when we last saw him breaking down what he could bring to the table with past history tells us about what McDonald's all Americans have done under Bill Self the longer that they've stayed. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 What is going on Derek Johnson here. This is locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day and thank you every day is catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get podcasts including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcast including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to this show. And on today's edition of the show, we're breaking down on Marco Jackson, why he could be a breakout candidate for this upcoming season. How is he going to respond to that season ending injury from last year? And what past history kind of tells us about Bill Self players when they return for

Starting point is 00:01:01 multiple seasons as former McDonald's All Americans, which obviously the case for El Marco Jackson, we're gonna get into all that on today's episode of the show, which is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. And right now new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins, you can do that over at FanDuel.com. Okay, so El Marco Jackson is a very interesting player because he's not one that had, you know, this great freshman season for Kansas, he obviously played a lot for

Starting point is 00:01:31 Kansas in that first season with KU, but a lot of it was kind of by necessity. That was a very thin team. Obviously, the injury to Kevin McColler, he started 17 games, though. I mean, for most kids, if you were to say they started 17 games, the true freshman at Kansas played in 34 played almost 19 minutes per game you'd be like wow that player was probably you know pretty impressive to do that as a freshman and he probably has super high ceiling especially as a former McDonald's All-American and you know a top 25 recruit in the country and it's not that you know I think people are still relatively high on what Omarco

Starting point is 00:02:03 could become but that season did not go that well, right? I mean, it was four point three points per game in the 18 minutes. It was only twenty seven percent from three. It was only an effective field goal percentage of forty five percent. It was one of the lower P.R.S. of, you know, Bill Self rotation players, so to speak, like I may mention that Quinton Grimes had the lowest PR player efficiency rating of the Bill Self era for any player who

Starting point is 00:02:30 played 20 or more minutes per game. PR only goes back to like 2010. But still, and his was like an eight or something like that. Elmarcos was a 6.6. So by all this, you're like, okay, where are we going to? But I've always liked Elmarco. I like the idea of him. He's a very good athlete. It always just felt like his freshman season. It didn't feel like it was from being incapable. Like you saw him with that dunk he had

Starting point is 00:02:51 in the big 12 turn, it was awesome. It just felt like the game was a little too fast for him and that he was a little sped up and he had to play a bigger role than maybe he was ready for in that first year just because he was thrown into the fire. And I always thought that Elmarco by like year three could be a breakout player for Kansas.

Starting point is 00:03:04 Now, unfortunately, does the injury from last season kind of push that to where really this is like year two, and we start to see more signs of it this year, but the real breakout comes, you know, the following season that's entirely possible too. But I do think it's coming for Omarco Jackson. And I think he is maybe the most fascinating player on the team and trying to figure out the floor and the ceiling. Like the floor and ceiling for Darren Peterson, it feels like the floor is your first team all big 12. The ceiling is your national player of the year.

Starting point is 00:03:32 You know what I mean? Like it's still a really good player either way. Like the floor for Flory is it's still being a good defensive center prospect who just doesn't take another step forward on some of the other things, but he's still valuable in a lot of ways. In a lot of ways, El Marco represents the biggest difference between floor and ceiling because the floor for El Marco is if he is the same guy he was as a freshman or if he's rusty coming off the injury, you know, where is he in the rotation? He's at the back end of it versus the ceiling of El Marco is we know he was a really good defender

Starting point is 00:04:03 his freshman season. That wasn't something that, you know, took long to adjust. He was a good defender. He has the athleticism and obviously coming back from the injury like does that, you know, harping that at all but the ceiling is that athleticism is back. He's a good defender. He's an extra ball handler for you. The shot starts to come around. He's shooting in the low to mid 30% from three. And he actually ends up being one of the five best players on the team. He

Starting point is 00:04:23 ends up being a starter on the team, right? Like there's a wide variety of what could possibly happen here for El Marco Jackson. And so you have a player that again, struggled a bit as a freshman, but played a lot, missed all of last season. Now has to shake the rust off of playing this year, coming off a bad season ending injury.

Starting point is 00:04:41 And so you do just have the question of like, normally, like I always think of Wayne Seldon. Wayne Seldon wasn't the most efficient players first two years of Kansas former McDonald's, American broke down your three had an awesome final season with KU. We see this a lot where players start to break out when they're, you know, these highly recruited guys, maybe by the time they do get to year three, if they haven't hit kind of in that first season or not. But does that get neutralized by the injury? Where again, is this really like year two for El Marco? It just one trump the other. Like what about the fact that the injury was last summer to where it'll really be by the start of the college basketball season, like 16 months away from when that injury happened

Starting point is 00:05:19 to the start of the season where maybe he doesn't have time to fully shake it off. Or like, it's just a question of the improvements that he had made and it's continuing to make does he get neutralized by the coming back from injury and that sometimes it takes longer to come back from injury or is he going to come back from that fully healthy and then the strides he was making last off season carry over into this off season he gets even better and he does take that huge jump and of course I think some of the the recent from a couple weeks ago, the bill self comments that he gave to CJ Moore in the

Starting point is 00:05:49 athletic, I think it kind of adds even more intrigue. And I think it only hypes up El Marco's return, and what he could be or could have been, I think even last season even more, right? You think about the, the comment that Bill self gave about that he would have been a starter on last year's team. Now, I do wonder how much of that is hindsight goggles. Like, is that him saying that after he knows

Starting point is 00:06:10 how poorly it went with Ryland Griffin, who was a starter for a lot of games for KU, to where he's looking back on it and going, yeah, he would have definitely started over that version of Ryland Griffin, even though coming in and based on fit and the three-point need, maybe it would have been, I don't know. I don't know how that would have worked.

Starting point is 00:06:24 But clearly he felt high on El Marco to say that I think that also gives you an indication if he's back to where he was before that does that give him a chance to start on this year's team would be kind of another question with this. I think also given K use maybe struggle to find another star player like they're still good players out there for K K add players that can be role players rotation players that can make a positive impact on on

Starting point is 00:06:50 a small game for K you but at this point, it doesn't feel like they're going to get you know, another all conference first team performer from last year onto their roster that's just not available. It does put more pressure on Marco Jackson's return because if you're just talking ultimate ceilings, if you're just talking potential, who are the guys with the highest ceiling to where the guys with the highest potential on this team? I mean, obviously one's Darren Peterson, two is

Starting point is 00:07:14 probably for Badoonga. Could you make the argument that El Marco Jackson's number three, maybe throw Bryson Dabbing, if we're just talking from that standpoint, there are four McDonald's All-Americans on this team. So if you're viewing that as like the indication of who has the highest ceiling, highest potential, Elmarco represents a ceiling razor in a lot of ways in that way. But yeah, again, like it's just a huge range of outcomes. Like, there's a chance that Elmarco is behind Peterson, Council, and Dawson, and he's playing, you know, I

Starting point is 00:07:40 don't know, 15 minutes per game versus being a guy who is a guy is even a starter. Maybe he's playing 25, 30 minutes per game or it's kind of in the middle ground playing 20, 25 minutes per game with elite quickness, with strong defense, with ball handling, with downhill ability, who is someone that I almost view it even more so with El Marco. Like Like it's not just about this. I mean, it always is about this year with Kansas basketball because you're supposed to be good and you're supposed to compete and focus on that specific year.

Starting point is 00:08:13 But there's a part of this too, where it's more about even a two year thing for Omarco, right? Because it's not just, can you make an impact on this year's team? It's if you do make an impact on this year's team. And to be clear, impact doesn't have to be a starter. You could be the sixth man, you could be the seventh man and be one of the best bench guards in the country and make a big impact on the team. And if you do just that, it's not just that it

Starting point is 00:08:34 makes an impact on this year's team. It's that the following season, Darren Peterson gets drafted, hopefully number one in the NBA draft in 2026. And then all of a sudden we're going into the 2026-27 roster. And in the same way that we're viewing Flory as being a potential stud on this year's team, even though he was a bench player last year, but just because you saw some of the big moments of Flory and now you're just projecting him into a bigger role and saying, okay, I think he's going to be really good this year,

Starting point is 00:09:00 that's how we will view El Marco the following season and we'll be like, yeah, he was really good off the bench for KU this year. I think he's gonna be that classic KU guy, that classic Bill Suff guy that we saw for so many years, that went from being a quality role player to all of a sudden is going to be a star on next year's team. So really is kind of a two year thing in that area. And so you know, without knowing the situation with how smooth things are going from

Starting point is 00:09:22 returning from the injury, though, again, like Bill, self had glowing comments on it in that same article, I kind of wanted to take a deep dive into, you know, some of the past McDonald's all Americans who have played a good amount in year one as a true freshman, what they did in year two, for the bills of error. Now, again, obviously, this is year three for Marco Jackson, but because he didn't get to play last year, it really is his second year of play.

Starting point is 00:09:46 So we're gonna make that comparison when we come back in just a moment and look at what past history, past stats, past players who have done just that would tell us that maybe it is time for a breakout season for Marco Jackson. We'll get to that next. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:10:55 I've always thought that he has that potential that he was going to break out at some point. I didn't know when it would be, but maybe it'll be this season and that's kind of where I'm at with this. I think he is going to be somebody that is a really productive role player for this team whether it's you know 20-25 minutes per game that fits a specific role and you feel good enough about him where the

Starting point is 00:11:14 following season you're like that dude's gonna be your next all-conference player the following year. I don't know maybe that's going out on a limb but he's always seemed like a smart kid and a good kid. It's just like I said, I think once the game slows down for him, when you're that good of an athlete, as long as he can overcome the injury, which it is, that is a real question, right? Because that is a very serious injury, and not all guys come back the same from those injuries. And for a player who is reliant on being a great athlete like Omar Khawiz, like that does matter. So those are fair questions. But here's some of this research from the past, right?

Starting point is 00:11:44 So I wanted to find guys who came into KU as highly recruited players. So we said McDonald's All Americans, which obviously applies for Marco Jackson, and they played a lot in year one as true freshmen, but also didn't play like, too much, I guess, like I didn't want to make the comparisons of, I guess, like Andrew Wiggins, like he wasn't here in year two, right. So for the sake of this exercise, I'm gonna go build self-air players Right. So 2003 or four be our first season on therefore the recruiting class of 2003 would be our first one who were all at

Starting point is 00:12:15 McDonald's all-americans played less than 20 minutes per game as a true freshman meaning they weren't like Full-time starting level players right on Marco started some games, but he wasn't a full time starter. So like JR Giddens, for example, or Wayne Seldon or Sharon Collins, like they would be gone from this research. And then what they did in their second year at Kansas to kind of giving us an idea what what history would tell us to expect maybe from Omarco Jackson this year, which again, is technically year three, but it is second year of play at Kansas.

Starting point is 00:12:44 So I should mention David Padgett, Micah Downs, Bryce Thompson, MJ Rice, Ernest Uday. They all played under 20 minutes per game as McDonald's All Americans. They transferred from KU after the freshman season. So we didn't, I'm not I'm not taking a look at the guys who you know, what did they do in year two, even if it was at a different school, I don't think that applies, especially because you're not playing for Bill Self anymore which

Starting point is 00:13:06 is you know applicable here. Okay I should also mention Julian right barely missed the cutoff year he was 20.1 minutes per game as a true freshman and obviously he became a lottery pick in year two that would be the ultimate if Elmarco Jackson became a lottery pick this year I mean I would be stunned if Kansas weren't to one seat. If you said if you said that you had a lottery pick in Omarco Jackson, Darren Peterson, Florida, but I would almost be impossible not to be that good of this Kansas team. So that would be the ultimate outcome anyway. Devon Dotson also is somebody who doesn't qualify here 32 minutes per game

Starting point is 00:13:40 is a true freshman, but he was the most recent McDonald's All-American to stay for year two under Bill Self. The rest either went pro or transferred. That's kind of wild to think about. I guess Flora Badunga qualifies into this too, right, at this point in time. But Dotson turned into an All-American as a fast athletic guard. So, you know, at least good to bring him up. Okay, Darrell Arthur. He played 19 minutes per game in his freshman season. So barely hit that cutoff. Seven starts as a freshman. Then in year two, he goes up to 39 starts. He plays 25 minutes per game in his freshman season. So Barry barely hit that cutoff. Seven starts as a freshman. Then in year two, he goes up to 39 starts. He plays 25 minutes per game.

Starting point is 00:14:09 National title team becomes a first round draft choice. I would say that was a good jump from the first year of play to the second year of play for him. Biggest jumps statistically for Arthur. He went up by three points, up by about a rebound and a half, and he added over five points to his free throw percentage. For Cole Aldridge, he went from eight minutes per game with zero starts as a freshman, as a McDonald's All-American to then in year two as a sophomore, he was big 12 defensive player of

Starting point is 00:14:34 the year. He averaged 15 and 11 in year two, almost 30 minutes per game. Like all of his stats jumped. That one might be more applicable to Flory Badunga, right? Again, if we're having the Flory conversation too, I don't know that that's something kind of fun to look at that right if you said you were going to get 15 and 11 from Florida but don't go sign me up for that right now right. Perry Ellis another interesting one right 13.6 minutes per game in year one started only three games that he jumps to 34 starts 28 minutes per game in year two he went up

Starting point is 00:15:04 eight percentage points on his on his two point shots, which are interesting, obviously, his you know, total stats and everything like that went up. So he definitely became much better player, or, you know, at least used to a bigger role in year two. Carlton Bragg was another one. Now, this is one where you didn't really see a big progression, right? Zero game started nine minutes per game in year one, he did start five games near two did go up to

Starting point is 00:15:25 14 minutes per game. So it did go up a little bit, but he also had some off court stuff, which probably got him in the Bill South doghouse. So you know, even that if that's the lower end of the outcomes here, that's still 50% minute increase, right? How about you joke as a book a six games started 13 minutes per game as a freshman before an injury, so maybe there's some correlations there coming off an injury like that, right? Year two, he starts 34 games,

Starting point is 00:15:50 plays 23.6 minutes per game, averaged 13 and seven on a final four team. Now again, very different positions and styles of play with El Marco and Doke, but that would be, again, maybe a similar path. You could talk about former McDonald's All-American, gets injured, is out for a year, comes back and is a starter and a very good player

Starting point is 00:16:07 on a final four team at Kansas. Then you have David McCormick, 13 games started, about 11 minutes per game in year one. He goes up to 18 starts and 15 minutes per game in year two. This one was tougher because you just weren't gonna, as long as Dokes stayed healthy, which he did, Dokes final year, it just wasn't going to be possible

Starting point is 00:16:25 for David McCormick to see like a huge increase in terms of your minutes played or your starts played, right? Even though they did try to run out the lineup of McCormick and Doke at certain times, but even then, like McCormick still went up about 40% of his minutes. He averaged an extra point per game on a team that was the best team in the country.

Starting point is 00:16:43 So honestly, in going through all of those examples of those players who, yeah, they're under 20 minutes per game as freshmen at Kansas after coming in as McDonald's All-American, what they did in year two, that's a pretty darn good list. Like for Cole Aldridge and Perry Ellis, their giant minute jump. It wasn't just about improvement, which is definitely part of it, but it was also more about the playing time opening up by players departing who were really valuable. And that doesn't really exist for El Marco because again, they were thinner on his first year's team. So it might not be that exact case, but those players still did improve. And if you're looking at the

Starting point is 00:17:19 freshman and sophomore season, I almost do comp it maybe the most. Again, you can make the comp of dope with the injury. David McCormick might be the one to go to here. Again, obviously very different players and everything, but going back to the idea of that, okay, Marco Jackson has a lot of other guys to compete with on this roster for minutes, right? With Melvin Cowsell, Jayden Dawson, who's gonna play some two and three, I would imagine.

Starting point is 00:17:42 And so Marco might be playing some one and some two, right? And Peterson, right? To where okay, Marco could play a bigger role and be a better player than he was last time we saw him. But there could be a cap on it, right? Like he's probably not gonna be playing 35 minutes per game. And maybe that is similar to that year two of David McCormick, where it's like his role, his level play got a little bit better in year two than it was in year one. But because he was capped by a guy in front of him like dope in the same way Elmarco would be by like Darren Peterson for instance It it limited the ceiling of what the the minutes in the production could be but then guess what that following season dope graduates and

Starting point is 00:18:20 David McCormick became an all-big 12th player as a junior. And that goes back to the idea that, okay, Marco Jackson plays good enough in this specific role. Darren Peterson goes off to the NBA draft. You feel like Marco coming back is going to be an all-conference player for KU. So collectively, those six players we mentioned, they totaled zero All-Big-12 honors as a freshman. As sophomores, you got four Big 12 awards. There were two first-team All-Big-12s, Big 12s, two third team All Big 12s as sophomores.

Starting point is 00:18:46 Obviously, I would take a third team All Big 12 season from Omar Krojaks. And again, the role might not allow that, but I do think history tells us that McDonald's Americans who stick around to Kansas, shocker, Bill Self is able to turn them into good players. I know that the Bill Self hype train isn't at his normal high after the last couple of seasons,

Starting point is 00:19:04 but there's a long track record of Bill Self being train is isn't that is normal high after the last couple of seasons. But there's a long track record of Bill Self being able to do just that. And I think whether it's this year or in another year from now, I think we're going to see some really fun progressions from Marco Jackson. Okay, let's finish up just a little other overwhelming takeaways from from kind of what we see here. This is locked on J-Hawks. Thanks for joining us on we see here. This is locked on J. Hawks. Thanks for joining us on the show here. And again, don't forget, you make us your first listen every day. Don't forget

Starting point is 00:19:30 to check out locked on college football or locked on college basketball for your second listen every day. Okay, so the first thing of this is that I think what this tells us is a Marco should get a lot better. If you go back to Bill's comments that he gave to CJ Moore, it sounded like he already was getting a lot better. Even if we're to say that the injury that he's been out all this time that he's gonna have to shake some rust off knocks him back a little

Starting point is 00:19:55 bit. Right. But then you have another summer of improvement. I feel confident he's gonna be a better player than he was as freshmen. But again, going back to the the when you watched him play as a freshman, there were moments where you saw the athleticism, there were moments where you saw some of the good stuff. It just felt like and specifically that position, like the two positions that I look at as being the hardest to play as a freshman in college basketball,

Starting point is 00:20:16 specifically for Bill Self, it's point guard, and it's center. No, don't forget about Darren Peterson, because that dude is just on another level. Anyway, right? When you think of the Mario Chalmers made it work and yada yada. Anyway, we don't need to get into that. But point being, there's a lot on your plate, right? And so especially if you're El Marco when you're on a team with DeJuan Harris where now there's a lot more on your plate because you're trying to learn how to play point card

Starting point is 00:20:42 because you might be the point guard of the future, but also you're trying to learn how to play point card because you might be the point guard of the future, but also you're trying to learn how to play off guard and it's just a lot on your plate. And especially for a player like El Marco, who seems to be very thoughtful and actually is like smart person. And sometimes that can work both ways, right? I want smart people. I want thoughtful people, but sometimes, and you know, it can make you be a little paralysis by analysis because you might be overthinking things. And I don't know if that was actually what was going on or not.

Starting point is 00:21:07 Right. But I'm just I'm almost making an excuse for it of like, that makes sense to me why you might have some struggles as a freshman. It doesn't always click right away. Sometimes it takes time for the game to slow down. And so that's almost something where I'm like, even with a year off, you know, just being around the game, I could see it slowing down like learning the playbook more while you're out for a season. Like, I could see the game slowing down for him more.

Starting point is 00:21:32 And if the game slows down for more, I think he has all the required traits and skills to be a good player. And so, you know, obviously, at the same point in time, like one thing that that rang true for a lot of those guys that we talked about is past McDonald's, All Americans, what they did in their year two jump is that he doesn't have the more playing time possibly opportunity again, maybe he could get up to 25 minutes per game, but there is a certain limit with all the guys that they've kind of brought in and him coming off the injury and everything like that. But I just I continue to believe that like I right now, if I'm projecting the rotation, I do have a Marco is like somewhere

Starting point is 00:22:10 between 20 to 22 minutes per game. I think he's going to be a very good perimeter defender. I think he's going to be a good athlete. I think this team is going to be really good at getting out and transition. I think the three-point shooting is going to get better for Marco Jackson. Now, is he going to be a knockdown three-point shooter?

Starting point is 00:22:22 I don't know about that. But like couldn't get to at least 30 from where he was. Yeah, that's definitely doable to me. And is he going to show certain flashes and certain things that make you believe he is the kind of point guard of the future? Yes. That that's kind of how I view it, right. So either way, I think I'm officially on board, whether it is more about Marcomarco showing stuff

Starting point is 00:22:47 for the following year, or if it is about him being that good that he does have to work into the starting lineup this year, where it is Peterson, Jackson, I guess Dawson, or Council, one of the two, White and Flory. I think theoretically, if you were starting Elmarco, you probably would prefer to start Dawson, as opposed to council,

Starting point is 00:23:05 just to have another three point shooter out there. But regardless of what it is, I'm a believer in El Marco Jackson. I'm buying El Marco Jackson stock. And basically every player went over in that illustration, I guess, so to speak, except Carlton Bragg ended up in a good result as far as KU player career paths.

Starting point is 00:23:23 And again, the Carlton stuff, I think that was more than just on the court stuff. And by all accounts, everything I've seen or heard is, you know, good reviews. I know Marco Jackson, I guess, would be the point there. So we'll see if he does have that breakout season this year. Certainly, KU could need it because, you know, not having, not getting to Darianne Williams,

Starting point is 00:23:42 not getting to Nahm Esar. Well, you know, you got a McDonald's All-American that could be coming off your bench that's coming into really a second year of play, but his third year overall of basketball. Like a lot of other schools would be dying to have that. Anyway, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you podcast,

Starting point is 00:23:59 including on our YouTube page, where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you next time for another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Elmarko Jackson BREAKOUT Season Incoming? How Will He Respond from a Season-Ending Injury?

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