HARTFORD — Andre Jackson doesn’t so much shoot the ball when he spots up from 3-point land. It’s more like a hoist.
Jackson collects the ball, gradually lines the ball up through the middle of his body and hoists the ball up, seemingly from right in front of his nose.
It’s unorthodox, and not overly attractive. But it’s been beautifully effective this season.
Jackson, the 6-foot-6 wing known more for his passing ability and supreme athleticism, notched his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and knocked down a career-best trio of 3-pointers on Tuesday to help lead the 25th-ranked UConn men’s basketball team to a 76-59 win in the opener of a “doubleheader” with Butler at XL Center.
Not that Jackson was overly impressed with his performance.
“The double-double is nice,” he said, “but I think I’ve got to be more of a defensive presence.”
“It’s great to see him get rewarded with the made 3s,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said of Jackson, “because he’s in the gym as much as anyone I’ve ever seen. Him and Adama.”
Ah yes, Adama Sanogo also notched a double-double (13 points, 15 rebounds) — his third straight and fourth of the season. R.J. Cole scored a team-high 17 points (fueled by 8-for-9 foul shooting, all within the game’s first seven-plus minutes), freshman Jordan Hawkins broke out of a slump with 14 points and Tyler Polley knocked down a pair of treys and scored 10.
Sanogo added four blocks as the Huskies swatted away 10 Bulldogs shots.
The Huskies improved to 12-4 overall, 3-2 in the Big East. Butler fell to 9-8, 2-4.
The teams will meet again Thursday at the famous Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to complete a rare home-and-home “series.”
“I asked Danny if he wanted to hop on the plane with us,” Butler coach LaVall Jordan quipped, “but he turned that down.”
Jackson shot a mere 11.8 percent (2-for-17) from 3 as a freshman last season. After going 3-for-4 from distance (all in the first half) on Tuesday, the sophomore is now shooting a team-best 52 percent (13-for-24) from beyond the arc — unorthodox form or not.
“I don’t think I changed my form, I just worked on it,” Jackson said. “Starting last year, every day I was in the gym, and I consistently worked. I’m just starting to see some payoff from the work I put in over the summer. I knew that was a big weakness, and I tried to make it a strength. So every day I tried to stay consistent and work on it.”
Added Hurley: “I don’t want to critique his form, because he does have good rotation and good arc. He’s not shooting a knuckleball. His mechanics, he’s made some slight adjustments with those. He’s not shooting as much of a pure jump shot as he did last year, which is fine, because people are giving him space.”
Improved shooting was a goal of Jackson’s over the summer, though Hurley consistently stressed that Jackson did enough other things (passing, defense, athleticism, ballhandling) that he wasn’t overly concerned with his shooting.
“He’s got tremendous talent,” Hurley said. “As a freshman, he wasn’t ready. We played him when we could play him, to get him the experience, to have that going into the summer, so he understood where he needed to grow and develop. The fruits of that labor is being able to show itself.”
On Tuesday, even Jackson’s misses were exciting. About midway through the second half, he nearly threw down the dunk of the year on a one-handed putback attempt of a missed Hawkins 3-pointer. The ball kerranged off the back of the rim, though Cole was there for the putback.
“It bounced the right way, I should’ve dunked it harder and I think I would’ve made it,” Jackson insisted. “After I missed it, I saw R.J. got the rebound, so I was excited.”
A trio of Jackson 3-pointers, including a back-to-back pair inside the final five minutes, helped spring UConn to a 39-24 halftime lead. Sanogo scored UConn’s first eight points of the latter half, though Butler was able to get within 10 inside the first five minutes.
The Huskies gradually pulled away, spearheaded by a 12-4 run capped by a Hawkins dunk with 7:22 left. The only drama left after that was whether little-used bench players Samson Johnson, Rahsool Diggins and Richie Springs would get into the game.
With a little over three minutes left, they did —though Johnson and Diggins combined for four fouls over the final 3:03.
Still, Hurley wasn’t going to let his team get overconfident after a 17-point win.
“Any win in this league is a great win,” he said. “We played well enough to win comfortably, but I’m gonna have enough ammunition when we break this thing down and travel to Indiana tomorrow where I’m gonna have this group’s full attention. Because we could’ve played better, particularly finishing at the rim. Just didn’t have enough guys play (well) who are good players.”
RIM RATTLINGS
Late in the first half, one of the clock operators nearly fainted after suffering a dizzy spell, apparently due to low blood sugar. He was given some Gatorade and other sugared drinks, however, and was able to continue.
Typically, UConn practices at the Werth Family Champions Center in the afternoon before flying out to its destination in the early evening. However, the Huskies are expected to fly to Indianapolis in the early afternoon Wednesday and practice at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
david.borges@hearstmediact.com
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No. 25 UConn men’s basketball team soars over Butler behind double-doubles from Sanogo, Jackson - CT Insider
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