Isaiah Jackson. Photo by Elliott Hess | UK Athletics
From the day Kentucky started basketball practice there have been stories/reports about what a dynamic shot blocker freshman Isaiah Jackson has been.
“I sort of have a knack for it. It’s like natural. I don’t really know how to explain it,” said Jackson. “It’s something that I guess I was born to do pretty much. It just comes naturally. I don’t even think about it; it just happens. It’s weird.”
He gets to practice daily against senior Olivier Sarr, a Wake Forest transfer, and freshman Lance Ware.
“They pretty much do the same things I do, so even when they’re playing defense on me, it’s hard to get up shots and stuff like that,” Jackson said. “I really try to beat those guys up in practice, so if you guard against somebody like me or better than me, they’ll know what to do in those situations and things like that. Playing against the bigs is my challenge really.”
Jackson said Sarr’s college experience has been beneficial for him. He’s learned things that Sarr has picked up and seen how competitive even practices need to be.
“Telling by Olivier, I can tell it’s real competitive and you’ve got to be tough down there. Playing against him, watching him, or even doing drills and stuff and mimicking what he’s doing, it helps me a lot so I can know what to do in games and going against somebody,” Jackson said.
“I like to compete against him too because iron sharpens iron. I’ve got a lot of stuff that I have to work on (and) he has a lot of stuff that he needs to work, so I feel like us guarding each other can help us tremendously, our skillset and just playing as a team.”