Background
Vance Jackson, who committed to Arkansas and coach Eric Musselman on Wednesday, began his college career at UConn, where he averaged 8.1 points on 41 percent shooting and 3.8 rebounds over 26 minutes per game. He transferred to New Mexico following his freshman season.
Jackson, who stands 6-9, 230 pounds, had a career year in his first season with the Lobos, averaging 13.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game to go with 2.7 assists. His numbers dipped slightly in Year 2 at New Mexico, but he scored in double figures in the team's last six games, including a 26-point, 12-rebound outing against San Jose State in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
Jackson, played for Prolific Prep in Napa, Calif., as a senior in high school. He put up 21.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and led the program to 25 wins. He spent the two previous years at St. John Bosco in California. He averaged 19.4 points and 7.1 rebounds as a junior.
A native of Pasadena, Calif., he originally signed with UConn over offers from Arizona, California and Southern Cal. For more insight on Jackson, who will be eligible in 2020-21, I reached out to UNM beat writers Will Webber of the Santa Fe New Mexican and Geoff Grammer of the Albuquerque Journal.
Strengths
• Versatility. Webber and Grammer both mentioned to me that Jackson has good range. For his career, he is shooting 35.3 percent from 3 on more than 400 attempts. As a freshman with the Huskies, he shot 48.4 percent from 3 in conference play, and in the last two years he hit 54 and 50 3s, respectively. At New Mexico this season, he knocked down 42 percent of his 79 attempts from deep.
When he gets hot from the perimeter, he gets really, really hot, Webber said. He has a game that extends well beyond the recently extended 3-point line.
"(He) can carry the team when he gets rolling," he added. "He’s a jumpshooter before all else."
In January 2019, Jackson went for 18 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals against Musselman's Nevada team that wound up as a 7-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Later that year, in the Mountain West Conference Tournament, he averaged 25.5 points on 53 percent shooting, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in two games.
He scored 25 points on 9 of 18 from the floor against Utah State, who went on to win the conference tournament title.
"(He) was the first player in the then-20-year history of the Mountain West to be named to the all-tournament team despite not making the semifinals," Grammer said. "That year, he was unguardable in two MWC games. For the most part, when not forcing shots, I think he is a very good 3-point shooter."
• Rebounding. In Jackson's first three seasons, he grabbed at least six defensive rebounds 28 times. He finished with 10-plus defensive rebounds three times as well, and 10-plus total rebounds eight times overall. Webber says Jackson is not a consistent crash-the-glass type of player, but his leaping ability allows him to play above the rim when need be.
In his first year at New Mexico, Jackson recorded a defensive rebound rate of 22.3 percent, according to KenPom, which ranked 122nd nationally. His MWC-only figure was 22.6 percent - seventh-best in the league. He placed in the top 15 in the MWC this season, posting a DR rate of 17.3 percent.
His numbers could have been even better had he not missed five games in the middle of conference because of a knee injury. Even though his rebounding numbers dropped last season, his 5.2 boards per game would have been the second-best mark on this year's Arkansas team.
If all goes well for Jackson, I don't see any reason why he would not be able to take firm control of the 4 for the Razorbacks next season. It's also hard to put a price on experience. He has 89 games under his belt.
• Has shown to be a solid assists-guy in the past. Jackson had his best season setting up teammates in his first year at New Mexico. He averaged nearly three assists per game, which is a plus for a guy at his size. He assisted on nearly 20 percent of Lobos scores when on the floor as a sophomore.
According to KenPom, that figure rose to 21.1 percent in conference play, placing him in the top 10 in the league.
• Grammer said he loved covering Jackson, adding that he is a nice, talkative kid who is "not afraid of microphones and recorders." That's good to hear. And from Webber's perspective, Jackson was easy to deal with and routinely gave good interviews.
"Some might say Vance is a diva," Webber said. "Maybe it’s true, but there’s no doubt he’s got skills to play for a check somewhere."
Weaknesses
• Disappeared for stretches. This was the first downside to Jackson's game noted by Grammer. For the most part, he said, that was due to Jackson not forcing the issue and allowing teammates to get going.
But he turned in a number of games in which he scored 6-8 points while playing a good amount of minutes, and it felt as if he did not truly impact the game.
"He would certainly tell you that was more about not getting the ball enough," Grammer said. "(But) the Lobos coaches would say otherwise."
In Jackson's transfer story on March 30, Webber wrote: "He struggled badly in the first 12 games this past season, shooting just 30 percent from the field (24-for-80) and 24 percent from 3-point territory while averaging 6.7 points — barely half of what he did as a sophomore."
Jackson put together a couple of games at New Mexico in which he shot 1 of 11 and 2 of 11 from 3-point range, and he also went 2 of 10 on 2-point attempts in a meeting with Colorado early in Year 1 with the Lobos.
• Defense is not his game. Despite his frame, Jackson could stand some improvement here, Grammer noted. He has blocked only 18 shots in his college career, and half were in his final season at New Mexico - five of the blocks came in a four-game stretch toward the end of last season.
According to SportsReference, Jackson has a career defensive rating of 104.9. Last season, it jumped to 109.5. As a team, the Lobos ranked outside the top 175 in terms of defensive efficiency (102.4), according to KenPom.
His steals numbers were solid down the stretch of the 2019-20 season, particularly after he returned from injury. Jackson came away with three steals in three of the team's final eight games. His career-high in that area is four against Wyoming in the 2019 MWC Tournament.
• Webber also noted that Jackson was not a player who absorbed a lot of contact. He is more of a finesse player, which seemed to drive his coaches crazy.
"There were other players with smaller frames who mixed it up a lot more than he did," Webber said. "He wasn't a bad rebounder. It helped that he was often paired against a smaller defender."
• Jackson is a solid ballhandler for a player at his position, but he got himself into trouble when he over-dribbled, the reporters said. Grammer added he could fall in love with the idea that he was the team's point-forward. When dribbling was at a minimum, he was at his best.
"He doesn’t drive to the basket a lot and tends to stop his dribble penetration when pressed as things collapse around him," Webber said. "(He) can hold his own when not under duress."
Both essentially said Jackson is a shooting guard trapped in a forward's body.