Indiana Basketball: 5 takeaways from regular season
By Alec Lasley
1. Trayce Jackson-Davis is THE guy
Coming into this season, many people expected Trayce Jackson-Davis to be a very good player, but I’m not sure people expected the season that he has had thus far.
Averaging a team-high 13.6 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game, Jackson-Davis’s stats still don’t do him justice. He ranks fourth amongst freshman in the entire country in player efficiency rating (27.8) while having just the 117th highest usage rate for freshman (21.6).
It has been clear that the Indiana offense is very up-and-down, but when Jackson-Davis touches the ball on the offensive end, the Hoosiers are extremely successful.
Jackson-Davis has had 21-of-31 games in double-digits and six games of 20+ points. With that, he has added 10 double-doubles, headlined by a 27-point and 16-rebound performance against Minnesota and a 25-point and 15-rebound night against Nebraska.
With the ability to score on the block or take his defender off of the dribble, he is also a terrific offensive rebounder and has saved Indiana’s offensive possessions multiple times with rebound putbacks.
It is not very often that a freshman is the best all-around player on the roster, but with Jackson-Davis that is exactly what you get. He ranks 11th in the entire country with an overall plus/minus of 11.8, which is three points less than the leaders of Xavier Tillman (14.9) and Udoka Azubuike (14.3).