My Two Cents: Perfect Time for Trayce Jackson-Davis to Bounce Back

Indiana freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis has been held in single digits in all three road losses, but he has good Nebraska memories, so Saturday could be a breakout night for him.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Even when you're a very good player, it's hard to sustain success night after night in the Big Ten. Freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis, who's clearly Indiana's best player this season, is learning that the hard way right now.

The 6-foot-9, 245-pound freshman from Greenwood, Ind., has a ton of talent. He didn't win Mr. Basketball in the state of Indiana last year just on name alone. He's proven that in Bloomington these first three months too, that he's a smooth player around the rim and he does a lot of things — on both sides of the floor — to help Indiana win games.

But there's a reason why words like slugfest and battles and fights and determination get used so often in the dead of winter around the Big Ten. It's a hard, physical league. And when you're the best player on a team, many of these smart coaches across the Big Ten landscape will simply game-plan to take you out of a game.

Rutgers did that to Jackson-Davis on Wednesday night in Indiana's 59-50 road loss. He only scored four points. Look at Indiana's other two losses in the Big Ten, too, at Maryland and at Wisconsin. He had only seven points against the Terps and only nine against the Badgers.

That's a 6.3 scoring average for his Indiana's star freshman on the road in the Big Ten. He's averaging 15.6 points per game in the other 14. 

"He's a young player who is going through a normal progression of the Big Ten schedule,'' Indiana coach Archie Miller said Friday. "Talking to Trayce, one thing I think young guys have to understand, especially at this time of year, is you're a player now. Not only are you a player for our team, but you're a player on the other coach's mind. What do you do to stop him? What do you do to keep him from doing this?  What do you do to keep Jackson-Davis from doing because he's so impactful for our team?

"To me, we've got to get Trayce back to being himself. You know, he leads us in scoring, rebounding, free throw attempts, free throw makes, blocked shots. He's a good player. I just think young guys get caught up sometimes in like, it's not going well for me right now, I'm a little down, I didn't make any baskets, we lost, blah, blah, blah. It's hard for a young guy to maybe realize sometimes the value that he has for your team not scoring, but just the value he adds to our team when he's himself.''

Keeping that confidence level high 

Confidence is a fragile thing, especially when you're a freshman. It's hard to feel good about yourself, especially after a rough night. Fighting through a long, long season is the hardest thing that freshmen ever have to get used to at the college level.

But sometimes it just takes one game to snap out of it, and Saturday night's game at Nebraska (7 p.m. ET; TV: BTN) could just be the one for Jackson-Davis. It's important to know you can succeed, and his 25-point, 16-rebound, 3-blocks night the first time he played Nebraska is still fresh in his mind.

He just needs to relax and play his game. And even on the road, those numbers might be possible again on Saturday night. So might a win, which the 13-4 Hoosiers desperately need on the road.

"It's always about what you can do (in communicating as a coach) and trying to bring that to his mind right now and refreshing him a little bit,'' Miller said. "It's important because he's had such a great year for us here to start, and he's got so much more ground he can cover. He's a big part of our success.

"So much with these guys is keeping thing simple and making sure they feel good and they are aggressive. Trayce and I had a long talk last night, and you know, the bottom line is, players continue to evolve as the season goes. Sometimes they have their ruts. Sometimes good players go through a couple games. But the best players always find a way to bring it on the biggest nights, and we need Trayce to bring it on the biggest night — and that biggest night will be Saturday for him. He's got to be aggressive. He's got to do the things that make him successful.''

Having that luxury of memorable success against a team does help, Miller said. That's why he thinks he'll see good things out of Jackson-Davis on Saturday night.

"If you watch our first time we played against Nebraska, his effort level, his activity level, what he was able to do in that game, it didn't come from me,'' Miller said. "It came from his ability to play hard and run and play to win and be aggressive and not worry about, 'I missed a shot' or 'are they double-teaming me?' It doesn't matter.

"He always plays to win. That's the great thing about him, and he cares a great deal about playing to win and us winning, and that means something to him. He adds a lot of value to our locker room and to the deal with who he is. But you never want to see a guy go through the dumps and let it carry over, and I don't think he'll do that.''

Leaving to survive a long season 

It's all part of the process. And that's the challenge now for Jackson-Davis. He's a good player. Very good, in fact. But he wants to be great, and he's at a bit of a crossroads right now. He needs to turn the corner again, and Saturday night in Lincoln is a good place to start.''

"As you go through the course of the year, sometimes as a coach and sometimes as a player, it becomes a long year and you start to forget about all the ways that you were successful,'' Miller said of the midseason doldrums. "You have been successful and sometimes you're kind of living in the moment and you forget. I think you want Trayce to really understand that in our wins and in our losses, he plays a big role. Not because of the play that we call or anything, but because of his winning attitude and his effort level and the things that he brings to the table that I can't teach him.

"At the end of the day, he can't settle for anything other than his best, and when he does that, at the end of the day, he's going to be successful. We'll keep working to be better and he's got to continue to get better, but he's got so much ability and he's got so much talent that when he's engaged, he just impacts the game a lot of different ways. That's the thing that he's got to focus on