Prospect Evaluation: Notre Dame Commitment Demetrius Jackson
By Nick Combs
Feb 9, 2013; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish coach Mike Brey celebrates the five overtime victory against the Louisville Cardinals at the Joyce Center. Notre Dame defeats Louisville 104-101 in five overtimes. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Ranked as the 4th best point guard in the2013 by ESPN 6th by rivals, and also ranked the 20th best player by rivals and 21st best player by ESPN. Demetrius Jackson is a decent sized point guard at 6’1’’ 170 pounds. If you’re above 6’ as a point guard you are usually considered to have good height to play the position. As of now Notre Dame doesn’t have a backup point guard coming off the bench, which is why when Notre Dame played Louisville Atkins played about 60 minutes of basketball. He only had 5 minutes on the bench. Jerian Grant usually handles the ball when Atkins is out, but that takes away from the offense a little bit. With a point guard that will be able to come off the bench will be huge for the Irish. Even in some situations I think that Jackson could be put at the 2.
Jackson is a very good mid-range shooter, especially when it is in transition and pulls up when he has the defense off balance. His three point shooting while good could be better and can tend to force up long shots at times. The way he runs the pick and roll is almost to perfection and baits his defender away from the pick before using it and then attacks, but always looks for the open man. Solid on ball defender and quick and agile enough to get to the basket and get fouled or dish it to a big man waiting alone on the block.
This year we saw Coach Brey bring in Cameron Biedscheid (6’7’’) who can really shoot the basketball, but can also drive and has good size, but does lack strength. With Notre Dame being consistently good every year it will keep bringing in these type of recruits for a long time to come.
Looking ahead to next season it will be Notre Dame will lose many of their big men, Cooley, Sherman, and Knight. This will probably push Biedscheid into the starting lineup at the 4 more than likely and Auguste at 5. Then Atkins at 1, Grant at 2, and Connaughton at 3. When Coach Brey looks to the bench Jackson will be ready to make an impact right away.