Trayce Jackson-Davis has seen no shortage of preseason recognition going into his fourth season with IU basketball.
There’s been Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, College Hoops Today, The Almanac and CBS Sports, to name the most noteworthy.
Today he can claim perhaps the most prestigious preseason honor for an individual — first team AP All-American.
Jackson-Davis is joined by Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, and Houston’s Marcus Sasser on the five man squad, voted on by the same 59-person panel that placed the Hoosiers No. 13 in last week’s preseason top-25.
Individual recognition is nothing new for the Greenwood, Ind. product. He was named a third-team All-American as a sophomore, has earned all-district honors each of the last two seasons, and has been a third-team, first-team and second-team All-Big Ten choice in his first three campaigns with the Hoosiers.
Jackson-Davis enters the year ranked 15th all-time at IU in scoring (1,565), 19th in scoring average (16.9), ninth in rebounds (797), seventh in blocked shots (178), and seventh in field goal percentage (55.8%). He has a chance to become IU’s all-time leader in rebounds and blocks, and will likely end up top-five in scoring as well.
All of those accomplishments have led many to ask the 6-foot-9 Jackson-Davis about his legacy at IU. And while he’s been part of two NCAA Tournament teams (if you count his 2019-20 season ended by the pandemic), he knows those thought of as greats at Indiana win league crowns and do their best work in March.
In that regard, Jackson-Davis knows he still has much more to accomplish.
“I think that’s the last thing for my legacy, to build here – just being a part of a great team,” Jackson-Davis said at the Big Ten’s media day. “I don’t want to be remembered as a guy that was a great player but that was a part of mediocre teams. So I think that’s the last thing that I want to be able to say, that we did something special in 22-23.”
Last March Jackson-Davis gave a glimpse of what he hopes is still to come in his IU career.
During the 2022 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, he averaged 25.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest on 34-of-51 shooting (66.7%) from the floor. Jackson-Davis broke five program records during the tournament run, including single-game points (31), single-game made field goals (15), total points (76), total made shots (34), and total rebounds (25). Indiana was able to receive an NCAA Tournament invite due in large part to his efforts at the event.
Indiana opens the season with an exhibition matchup against Marian at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 29, at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The regular season begins on Nov. 7 against Morehead State.
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