How did Trayce Jackson-Davis' freshman season compare to others?

Indian freshman forward Trayce Jackson-Davis didn't end his year with the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award and saw his first collegiate season cut short by a pandemic. With several plausible distractions from what made his freshman season successful, it becomes more tangible when set side-by-side with previous Indiana big men of the 21st Century.

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Amid the COVID-19-shortened 2019-20 season, there were plenty of reasons for a successful Trayce Jackson-Davis freshman season to get the legs cut from underneath it. One of those reasons being that Jackson-Davis wasn’t able to be seen in postseason play. For most Hoosier freshmen of the past, there have been moments in elimination games where freshmen stepped up and further cemented themselves into the future of the program. Jackson-Davis didn’t get that chance in 2020, save for an 11-point, 17-rebound domination of Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament before it was canceled.

Also, Jackson-Davis was one of few consistent contributors on the roster. The number of games where Jackson-Davis didn’t impact the outcome or wasn’t at the center of providing his team with a chance to win could be counted on one hand.

Then there was the Romeo Langford Effect – the idea that expectations might need to be tempered for in-state five-star prospects entering the program. Whether that effect directly altered the perception of Jackson-Davis or whether it was simply that Jackson-Davis was a five-star forward coming in on the heels of a five-star guard, two drastically differently perceived positions, will likely never be known. But the effect had its distortions regardless.

Perhaps it was the fact that he didn’t win Big Ten Freshman of the Year, coming in just behind Illinois forward Kofi Cockburn despite being named Third Team All-Big Ten over Cockburn.

Regardless of the reasons, Jackson-Davis came to Bloomington and was immediately what the 2019-20 team needed him to be – its best player. In the process, he logged one of the best freshman seasons from an Indiana forward during the 21st Century.

Points per game: 13.5

Rebounds per game: 8.4

Minutes per game: 29.3

Blocks per game: 1.8

Season-high points: 27 (W @ Minnesota)

Season-high rebounds: 17 (W vs. Nebraska in B1G Tournament)

Adding context: Jackson-Davis anchored what was perhaps the deepest frontcourt Indiana has trotted onto the floor this century, a frontcourt that contained a grad transfer and a senior, and he was still the best player and owned a lionshare of the minutes. He had the 89th-best offensive rating among players in the nation used between 20-24 percent of their teams’ possessions. That was the best number on the team, as well as his points and rebounds per game. What will always be lost in this season’s narrative, though, is that free throws were a key aspect of Indiana’s offensive play, and Jackson-Davis was the team’s best free throw shooter. His free throw percentage wasn’t the best on the team (68 percent), but his free throw rate was well above his teammates and rated 57th in the country.

Points per game: 2.4

Rebounds per game: 2.1

Minutes per game: 9.1

Blocks per game: 0.4

Season-high points: 12 (W vs. Nebraska)

Season-high rebounds: 5 (W @ Iowa)

Adding context: Just stating Juwan Morgan’s freshman season statistics doesn’t provide the needed context because creating any summation of 21 Century forwards/centers and not mentioning Morgan is irresponsible. Morgan came in the same class as four-star center Thomas Bryant in 2015 and wasn’t highly recruited or as highly anticipated as some of the other names on this list, but he’s now a feather in Archie Miller’s developmental cap. Morgan was not intended to be a center. He’s only 6-foot-9, but Indiana needed him to play center, which is where he averaged 15.5 points and 8.2 rebounds as a senior. Coming into the program, there weren’t many signs that pointed to Morgan playing a heavy interior presence later in his career.

Points per game: 11.9

Rebounds per game: 5.8

Minutes per game: 22.6

Blocks per game: 0.9

Season-high points: 23 (W vs. Minnesota)

Season-high rebounds: 13 (W vs. Ohio State)

Adding context: After a 2014-15 season when Indiana struggled without a true big man, Thomas Bryant was a welcomed four-star center out of West Virginia. Max Bielfeldt had also transferred into the program that offseason, and OG Anunoby and Juwan Morgan were freshmen. Yogi Ferrell and James Blackmon Jr. led the team in scoring, and Troy Williams and Bryant were directly behind them, as Bryant spent the year learning the game at a college level, as he was raw coming in. Tom Crean was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for leading Indiana to a Big Ten regular season championship and a Sweet Sixteen appearance. Bryant finished Third Team All-Big Ten and had a much-improved sophomore year that propelled him into the NBA.

Points per game:11.3

Rebounds per game: 6.6

Minutes per game: 26.5

Blocks per game: 1.4

Season-high points: 19 (W @ Penn State)

Season-high rebounds: 15 (W vs. Stony Brook)

Adding context: Noah Vonleh’s one year at Indiana was a blip in the middle of a transition that phased out the rest of the Cody Zeller Era contributors, with Will Sheehey finishing up his career and Yogi Ferrell taking over. Much of the potential on the roster didn’t pan out as hoped, but Vonleh was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year after leading the conference in rebounding and was expected to be the center on the 2014-15 squad until he elected to enter the NBA Draft after one year. Vonleh had the tendency to disappear at times, and an injury to his foot left him inconsistent at the end of his college career. His blend of size and athleticism made him the second lottery pick in as many years for Indiana, as Zeller was also drafted into the NBA the year before.

Points per game: 15.6

Rebounds per game: 6.6

Minutes per game: 28.5

Blocks per game: 1.2

Season-high points: 26 (W vs. Iowa)

Season-high rebounds: 13 (W vs. VCU in Round of 32)

Adding context: Cody Zeller is one of the supreme interior scorers for Indiana in the last 20 years. A Sweet Sixteen shootout loss to Kentucky the same season as the Wat-Shot was not the way Indiana was hoping to end that season, but Zeller was the heart of what is considered the height of the Tom Crean Era and one of the most successful groups of the 21st Century within the program. Like Jackson-Davis, Zeller was an immediate difference-maker but certainly had more assistance than Jackson-Davis. If there was a comparison to make between any of the freshmen on this list and Jackson-Davis, though, it would be Zeller. The 2011-12 team also had a fairly deep frontcourt, and Zeller led the team in scoring and rebounds. He was a McDonald’s All-American from in-state and was leaned on heavily from the beginning. Zeller split the Freshman of the Year award with Michigan’s Trey Burke that season.

Points per game: 13.3

Rebounds per game: 4.9

Minutes per game: 28.1

Blocks per game: 2.2

Season-high points: 23 (L @ Minnesota, L @ Iowa)

Season-high rebounds: 13 (L @ Iowa)

Adding context: DJ White’s freshman season was in the latter stages of Mike Davis’ time at Indiana and the same season that saw Pat Ewing eventually transfer, football star wide receiver James Hardy suit up as a forward and current Indiana assistant Mike Roberts play as a senior. White was the only real forward presence outside of Ewing, who averaged four points and four rebounds per game. Bracey Wright, a junior, and Robert Vaden, a freshman, were the other two contributors on that team that was eliminated in the NIT. White would be in the program through the Kelvin Sampson days and graduated with Dan Dakich as his head coach, after averaging 17.4 points and 10.3 rebounds per game as a senior.

Points per game: 13.8

Rebounds per game: 6.9

Minutes per game: 32.6

Blocks per game: 1.2

Adding context: Bloomington-native Jared Jeffries joined Indiana at the turn of the century and during Mike Davis’ first season as the head coach after Bob Knight was fired. Junior center Kirk Haston averaged 19 points and 8.7 rebounds that season, as Indiana lost in the Big Ten Tournament final. Jeffries was key to that run, averaging 13.8 points and 6.9 rebounds for what was one of the best frontcourts in the country that season. Jeffries was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and eventually became Big Ten Player of the Year as a sophomore during Indiana’s 2002 run to the National Championship game.

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