Donovan Jackson Interview
- Thread starter CyTwins
- Start date
I like Jackson's confidence. You can tell he doesn't want to be the guy at the helm of an ISU team that misses the tournament. He strikes me as a guy that's going to lead by example and leave it on the court every night. It'll be interesting to see if he'll be the vocal leader, or if someone else will accept that role.
I was also a fan of hearing this Q&A since I have been curious about it myself:
You have several graduate transfers including Hans Brase/Jeff Beverly/Zoran Talley: how hard is it to get everyone on the same page when you are bringing in so many new people? It is tough at 1st but everyone has bought in to what is going on. We are known for winning so everyone is comfortable with taking a role to help us win as many games as possible.
I was also a fan of hearing this Q&A since I have been curious about it myself:
You have several graduate transfers including Hans Brase/Jeff Beverly/Zoran Talley: how hard is it to get everyone on the same page when you are bringing in so many new people? It is tough at 1st but everyone has bought in to what is going on. We are known for winning so everyone is comfortable with taking a role to help us win as many games as possible.
I think he'll be fine being vocal too. He seems to have an intensity to him.
We'll get to see what he learned watching Naz and Monte. He's going to have to be on the floor a lot for us.
That leadership quality may be the largest unknown looming this season. We've had tremendous leadership over the last several years, and I hope that it's rubbed off quickly on the guys returning. I have a feeling that character and leadership is a value that Prohm looks for in recruits, so I'm sure we'll be fine.
If you listened to the Eric heft podcast, they talked about basketball and he mentioned leadership. He seemed to imply that he thought Donavan would be ok in that area and that Bibb might need to work on it.
One small thing I noticed is Donavan showed up for every CCL game. That's a good sign.
Dude has big balls, he isnt afraid to light it up! Love all the lefties we have on our team. Our future seems to be brighter with our recent commitments. This year is a question mark, too many unknowns to be confident. I like how Prohm connects with his players on a personal basis which carries over to the court.
Go State!
You also have to remember that Jackson didn't really have an offseason to develop and work a ton on his game because of his wrist, which is why he almost redshirted. A year learning from Morris and an offseason fully healthy is going to do wonders for him this year. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was an all big 12 caliber guard. He definitely has the confidence it takes.
If DJ is hot, we will not be easy to beat.
If he's off, we'll struggle. But it'll be fun to have an aggressive PG who can make 3/4/5 threes in a half when he gets it going.
If he's off, we'll struggle. But it'll be fun to have an aggressive PG who can make 3/4/5 threes in a half when he gets it going.
Last year's team really developed into one of my favorites mainly due to all of the unique back stories from the roster that we grew to know more about later on, and also the 'buy in' that we saw develop as the team really played some nice ball the last month.
Imo DJ's very underrated in his abilities; there will likely be some shortfalls early, but if they can gel and figure it out, I'd think another tourney is on the way.
Imo DJ's very underrated in his abilities; there will likely be some shortfalls early, but if they can gel and figure it out, I'd think another tourney is on the way.
I think DJ is underrated going into the season. People forget that when Prohm recruited him the common assumption was that Monte was probably headed to the NBA as an early entrant and Naz's eligibility was up. As it turned out, Monte came back for his senior year, and Naz got the extra year after the hip issues. Compounding the problem was the wrist injury that clearly bothered him for a good portion of last season.
The main takeaway is that Prohm thought enough of him to be ready to hand him the keys to the offense last year before everything changed with Monte and Naz. I expect DJ to be the steady hand in the early part of the season while the young guys and transfers get their feet underneath them. He'll have to fill a huge leadership void. I think he's capable. I keep thinking about how his confidence soared after the KU game. That's a guy who can fill it up and appears to want the mantle as the leader of this team.
The main takeaway is that Prohm thought enough of him to be ready to hand him the keys to the offense last year before everything changed with Monte and Naz. I expect DJ to be the steady hand in the early part of the season while the young guys and transfers get their feet underneath them. He'll have to fill a huge leadership void. I think he's capable. I keep thinking about how his confidence soared after the KU game. That's a guy who can fill it up and appears to want the mantle as the leader of this team.
Probably the biggest positive I'm taking into this year is the fact that in several games last year, DJ and Babb came into a game where we were struggling and turned the tide in a serious way. My impression is that they were better balanced between offense and defense than the starters that they were replacing.
It's getting to be accepted fan board dogma that there isn't enough three point shooting.
So, that pretty well clinches that it'll be school record time as far as shooting threes.
The guy is confident as can be and better yet seems that way about the roster.
So, that pretty well clinches that it'll be school record time as far as shooting threes.
The guy is confident as can be and better yet seems that way about the roster.
I definitely agree with leadership being an unknown. You really can't begin to measure how valuable Naz's contributions in that department were over the last few years. I really think Shayok and Jacobson can make a huge impact in that way this year as well.
Great point on Shayok and Jacobson, because both of them seem to play all out, all the time. I'd think that they'd eat anyone's lunch who wasn't doing the same in practice.
the past few months have had some great articles about how we are a winning program and winning tradition.
i remember an interview georges gave when he signed here and guys were making fun of him for going to Iowa State. The quotes was something like "Why would you go there, they're terrible." And five years later the tide has completely turned - a compete 180 and people nationally know this is a place to come and win. That small attitude change has paid huge dividends.
On the flip side, we've also recently read things about people needing to stay humble and work hard because at this level it's not given to you like in HS or a smaller college.
i remember an interview georges gave when he signed here and guys were making fun of him for going to Iowa State. The quotes was something like "Why would you go there, they're terrible." And five years later the tide has completely turned - a compete 180 and people nationally know this is a place to come and win. That small attitude change has paid huge dividends.
On the flip side, we've also recently read things about people needing to stay humble and work hard because at this level it's not given to you like in HS or a smaller college.
I just hope that the specter of "personal expectations" doesn't raise it's ugly head. I hope they all can settle into their roles in the Prohmian Empire quickly; if so, they should be able to soar.
And probably a chip on his shoulder, as he'll almost certainly be overlooked in preseason individual honors. Which is fair; he still has to prove it. There are other guys in the league who have been more productive or are more hyped going into the season. But I do think he truly believes he's one of the best guards in the Big 12. Nothing wrong with a little extra motivation to prove the doubters wrong.
