CHAPEL HILL — Consensus first-team All-America forward and 2017 ACC Player of the Year Justin Jackson will enter the NBA Draft and sign with a professional representative, foregoing his senior year of college after the leading the University of North Carolina to the NCAA championship.
“I thank God, my coaches and teammates and the University of North Carolina for giving me this extraordinary opportunity,” says Jackson. “My family and I discussed my decision with Coach Williams and we agree that declaring for the NBA Draft is best for my career. I wouldn’t trade anything the last three years as a Tar Heel, especially getting the chance to win a national championship, which was unbelievable. I feel I made a good decision last year to come back for my junior year. That has put me in a much better position as a basketball player and a person. I’m proud to know I will always be a Tar Heel.”
Jackson led the Tar Heels in scoring this year at 18.3 points per game, set the UNC single-season record with 105 three-pointers, averaged a career-high 4.7 rebounds and was second on the team in assists with 113. He scored 731 points, second most in Williams’ 14 seasons as UNC’s head coach and tied for the fifth most in any season by a Tar Heel.
“We’re excited for Justin and proud of the way he conducted himself each day in leading our team to a national championship,” says Tar Heel head coach Roy Williams. “Justin explored his draft options after his sophomore season but understood it was in his best interest to play another season of college basketball, and what a year it was for him and our team. He did what our coaches and the NBA people advised him to do – get stronger and work on making more shots. He responded by investing a tremendous amount of his time in the offseason and came back to school a bigger, better and more confident player.
“He improved from a 29 percent three-point shooter to setting school records for three-point shooting; his scoring, rebounding, assists, ball-handling and leadership skills all improved, and when we got deep into the NCAA Tournament, he became an elite defender. His last three defensive performances against Kentucky, Oregon and Gonzaga against some of the most talented perimeter scorers in the country were nothing short of spectacular.
“Justin has improved his draft position immensely this year and it’s a credit to him and the hard work he put into making himself a great player. We are so pleased that he is able to take this step and look forward to watching him play for many years at the next level.”
The Tomball, Texas, native was a consensus first-team All-America in 2017 with UCLA’s Lonzo Ball, Villanova’s Josh Hart, Kansas’s Frank Mason III and Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan. He became the 14th Tar Heel to earn ACC Player of the Year honors and is one of three (with Lennie Rosenbluth in 1957 and Ty Lawson in 2009) to win that award and lead UNC to a national championship in the same season.
He led the Tar Heels in scoring (19.5 per game), field goals (41), three-pointers (15), assists (22) and steals (9) in Carolina’s six NCAA Tournament wins this year. He made five three-pointers in the first round against Texas Southern, led all scorers with 19 points against Kentucky in the regional final and scored 38 points in the Final Four – a game-high 22 in the semifinals vs. Oregon and 16 in the title game win over Gonzaga. He helped limit Kentucky’s Malik Monk, Oregon’s Dillon Brooks and Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss to a combined 11 of 38 shooting from the floor. He earned All-South Region and All-Final Four honors.
Jackson concludes his college career with 239 points in NCAA Tournament play, second most by any Tar Heel in history. Overall, he played in 118 games, scoring 1,626 points (13.8 per game), with 481 rebounds, 314 assists and 168 three-pointers. He joins three-time NBA champion Rick Fox as the only Tar Heels with 1,600 career points, 150 three-pointers, 400 rebounds and 300 assists. He scored in double figures 87 times with a high of 34 against Kentucky in Las Vegas in December 2016.
Jackson made 63 three-pointers in his first two seasons combined, making a career-high four threes in a game once, and converted 18 percent of his field goals from beyond the arc. This year, Jackson made 39 percent of his baskets from three-point range and made four or more three-pointers 13 times with a career-high seven vs. Davidson and six twice. He made 2.63 threes per game, the second-highest figure in Carolina history.
Jackson led UNC in scoring 19 times this year, scored 20 or more points 19 times and scored in double figures in 37 of 40 games.
