Trayce Jackson-Davis could have used a fifth year in college to push his name higher up NBA Draft boards.
And the door to return to Indiana was of course wide open.
He could have tried to show he could knock down the occasional three-pointer, or display other skills that complemented the dominant aspects of his game.
But already the program’s all-time leader in rebounds and blocks, it just didn’t feel right to Jackson-Davis to utilize the extra year created by the COVID-19.
“It was fake almost. If I would have beat the scoring record and pushed out records, that extra year, it didn’t feel real,” Jackson-Davis said on the Ride with JMV last week. “And that’s just the competition I have within myself. That’s one of the main reasons why I left. I had a phenomenal senior year, I don’t have anything left to prove here, it’s time to go.”
What TJD didn’t know at the time was just a few years later, all players would have the option to play a fifth season. And as a result, his records are likely to be broken by the next dominant big man who stays at Indiana for five years.
Jackson-Davis is with the Toronto Raptors, set to enter his fourth year in the NBA in 2026-27. He knows his long-term viability in the league hinges on continued improvement, and he’s seen players like Al Horford and Brooke Lopez extend their careers by becoming three-point shooters while in the league.
If he does have a regret about his time at Indiana, Jackson-Davis says he wishes he would have worked more on developing his three-point shot, and looked for more attempts from long range in games while in Bloomington. He took three 3-point shots in 126 games with IU.
“I wish that I would have taken it more seriously,” Jackson-Davis told JMV. “Going all the way back to my freshman year, I was a four and Joey Brunk was the five. I felt like I was more of a slasher and a cutter, but I wasn’t really a post-up player. That development didn’t really happen until my second year, my sophomore year, when Joey got hurt.
“If I had stayed in that four role and started drifting towards the corner, it would have been good for my growth. But Joey got hurt, and then all of a sudden I was averaging 20 points my sophomore year. I thought, ‘Okay, well, it’s pretty easy to score inside.’
“Then my junior year came and Woody (IU coach Mike Woodson) was kind of iffy (on shooting threes). He didn’t really say not to shoot, but he didn’t really force me to either, so I kind of didn’t.”
But Jackson-Davis did make tweaks to his game while at IU with an eye towards the NBA.
Fans will recall his assist numbers doubled his senior year as he learned to take advantage of all the attention coming his way.
And Jackson-Davis also became more of a ball handler during his final season at Indiana. He decided to start grabbing rebounds and pushing the ball up the court himself.
He was pretty effective at it, but his head coach wasn’t so sure initially.
“By my senior year, I decided, ‘All right, well, I’m not shooting the ball, but I’m going to at least throw something into my game to make me a different player,'” Jackson-Davis said.
“I had always just been rim-running and passing to the guard. My senior year, I just said screw it. My teammates told me, ‘You’re not going to do it.’
But more than just taking on the dares of his teammates, the always humble and respectful Jackson-Davis felt he had to disregard his head coach this time.
“I remember during the first or second practice, I was taking the ball up the floor and Woody told me, ‘Pass it to a guard.’ Then, during the next practice I said no and I just kept doing it.
“Eventually he just said all right, screw it. I feel like if I would have started shooting threes, he would have been the same way. I don’t think he would have told me not to shoot it. Maybe he would have preferred me to go dunk it if I was that open, but I feel like if I would have shot those shots, he wouldn’t have cared.”
With the improvements he made to his game as a senior, Jackson-Davis was a consensus First Team All-American, averaging 20.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.9 blocks per game.
For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on X: @daily_hoosier and find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
