A huge difference being that Naz didn't have to play nearly as much his freshman year as Grill is currently playing. Naz averaged 6.9 (nice) minutes per game, and played in 18 games his freshman year. Grill is averaging 10.8 minutes per game, and has already played in 16 games.
I will say, to be fair to the other side, that Naz was stuck behind --
Babb
Clyburn
Lucious
McGee
Palo
...which is a lot to have in front of you as a freshman guard.
On this team, the minutes are there if Jackson or Grill would show much more, and they have already been eroding into Nixon's playing time.
Haliburton and Bolton are going to play 35+ per night, but after that, it is still wide open. Neither of the freshman have absolutely seized on that.
If they cannot make an impact under those circumstances, then we might need to adjust our expectations slightly, but they are at about where I thought.
Jackson has shown flashes of being a good 3&D guy. His shooting is just really streaky right now, which you expect with a freshman working on the jitters. Grill is still working on slowing the game down, but he plays hard and seems to be learning.
That is about what I expected out of those guys with their rankings.
It won't. Reminds me of the McDoormat era when ISU didn't offer Doug even though it was obvious to anyone who watched Cap City League games that he could play at ISU...
Nobody thought he was going to be one of the greatest college players of all-time.