In Clarence Jackson, here’s why Wichita State may have found its next junkyard dog
To Clarence Jackson, it didn’t matter that he hadn’t shot a single three-pointer before he caught the ball in the right corner and launched the biggest shot of the game.
In his first game in a Shocker uniform, the Wichita State sophomore had the confidence to take — and make — WSU’s most important shot, a corner three-pointer that broke a 78-78 tie with 2 minutes, 51 seconds remaining that spurred the Shockers to an 85-80 victory over Oral Roberts at Koch Arena on Wednesday.
Jackson, a junior college transfer from Dublin, Ga., said the confidence was instilled in him through practice and assistant coach Lou Gudino consistently harping on him to fire away from deep.
“Every day in practice, Coach Lou tells me to shoot the ball, shoot the ball,” Jackson said. “I know when it’s my time, step up. I had to knock down a big-time shot.”
Jackson said he knew to be ready when WSU senior point guard Alterique Gilbert penetrated and collapsed Oral Roberts’ defense. Jackson’s defender was sucked toward the rim, which left Jackson wide open to stroke in the go-ahead three that gave WSU a lead it never relinquished.
“AG is a wizard with the ball, so I know at any time he can wrap it around and give it to me.,” Jackson said. “We work on that in practice with drills, so it was basically a practice shot to me.”
The shot highlighted an encouraging debut performance by Jackson, who finished with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench.
The 6-foot-7 sophomore plays with an abundance of energy and showed many of signs of filling for Wichita State the junkyard-dog role that has been vacant since Rashard Kelly graduated in 2018. Jackson said that’s exactly what he came to Wichita to do.
“I’m going to do my job and my job is to do everything that other people don’t want to do, which is grab rebounds, play defense, bring energy and effort,” Jackson said.
“Playing Division I basketball is all I’ve been waiting on my whole life. I’m here now, so I’ve got to perform every night.”
Much like Kelly, Jackson is a great rebounder because he gives great effort on every rebounding opportunity. He has a natural instinct on where the ball is going to carom off the rim, and he’s even a little bouncier than Kelly when it comes to leaping. That helps him when he flies in from the perimeter to either snag the rebound or tip the ball out to a teammate. He even showed a flair for passing on Wednesday, which would be an added bonus.
Jackson is a 6-foot-7 bundle of energy when he is on the court and that can be valuable to WSU in its full-court pressure defense, especially on Wednesday when it was playing with just eight players. There was a possession against Oral Roberts where Jackson spent the full 30 seconds of the shot clock flying around the court, defending multiple players and ending with a contest on a missed shot.
“I thought he played great for it being his first time in a (Division I) college basketball game,” WSU interim coach Isaac Brown said. “He brought a lot of energy off the bench, which we desperately needed. He’s just an energizer. That’s what he does. He goes to the offensive glass and he defends at a high level.”
Jackson had plenty of positives in his debut, but he also will have several things to learn about playing at the Division-I level from his first game.
The sequence that best encapsulated this came midway through the first half. Jackson had just made a dazzling play showing off his athleticism, jumping the passing lane for a steal and finishing an acrobatic layup at the other end to give WSU the lead.
But back on defense, Jackson forgot his responsibilities in WSU’s ball-screen coverage. Instead of stepping up to head off Oral Roberts sharpshooter Max Abmas, Jackson remained at the free-throw line and watched as Abmas swished an uncontested three-pointer that prompted Brown to call a timeout and rip into Jackson for the lapse.
“He relaxed that one time, and when you relax that one time at this level, they will make you pay for it,” Brown said. “I think he’ll get better at that stuff the more he plays Division I basketball and being out on the court.”
Another teaching moment came late in the first half when Dexter Dennis came up with a steal and WSU pushed ahead to Jackson in transition. The Shockers didn’t have numbers and the shot clock was turned off, meaning they could have held for the last shot. Instead, Jackson dribbled into a crowd, turned the ball over and committed a foul trying to get it back.
While Jackson brings tremendous energy on defense, he is not immune to the momentary lapses on that side of the ball that plague first-year Division I players.
Jackson’s inexperience was exploited in crunch time, as Oral Roberts caught him relaxing again for just a split-second and delivered a back-door pass to his man for a layup to cut WSU’s lead to 81-80 in the final two minutes.
But Jackson’s saving grace will always be the energy and effort he brings with him through the good and bad plays.
It’s the reason why Jackson figures to play a key role for the Shockers this season.
“I know IB is going to stay on me, and I know I’ve got to give him my all and take whatever he said to me and just take it and move on,” Jackson said. “Try not to mess up again or try to make up for what I just did.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 8:54 PM.
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