Tom Keegan: Josh Jackson feeling at home in Kansas

Kansas newcomer Josh Jackson throws down a dunk for the crowd during Late Night in the Phog on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016 at Allen Fieldhouse.

You won’t catch Josh Jackson glancing at his watch — an old expression that means turning your palm upward to check the time on your iPhone — because he’s not counting down the months, weeks, hours, minutes and seconds until his required year of college basketball is behind him.

On the contrary, Jackson is putting as much effort into the experience as possible so that he can draw knowledge from it that will benefit him for the rest of his life.

“I think that’s the cool part about it, being able to go from stage to stage, going from high school to college, hopefully college to the NBA,” Jackson said. “You get to start over again, learn so many new things.”

Getting pursued by all the college basketball blue bloods and those striving to recruit against the giants wasn’t all that bad either. After all, who wouldn’t want to answer his phone and hear the voice of the funniest, frankest NBA commentator ever.

“I was a little bit surprised, really surprised, didn’t know what to say to him, really,” Jackson said of the first of two phone calls from Sir Charles Barkley. “He was just telling me about the recruiting process. He was telling me Auburn was a great place, how much fun he had there, things that they could do for me there.”

And, of course, he made Jackson laugh because if you’re as good at that as Barkley is, why not?

“Oh yeah,” Jackson said. “He definitely showed a little humor. I think that’s just his personality.”

Barkley wasn’t even the biggest NBA name developing a relationship with the Detroit native. Magic Johnson shared his love of Michigan State and Magic’s name echoes even more loudly in Michigan than in Los Angeles.

“Magic was telling me to keep up the good work I had been doing in high school,” Jackson said.

Even with such charismatic Hall of Fame basketball players, both outstanding representatives of their universities, Jackson chose Kansas and seems so happy he did. It’s obvious he very much enjoys his teammates and can’t wait to battle with and for them.

“My intensity comes from the legacy, the history (of Kansas basketball) and from these guys’ intensity,” Jackson said, pointing to teammates. “I see how hard they go in practice, how bad they want to win. I don’t want to be the guy on the team who didn’t try hard enough, so as long as they’re trying, I’m trying. If they’re fighting, I’m fighting.”

It’s oh-so easy to envision Jackson, years after his long NBA career has ended, surprising the nation’s No. 1 high school basketball recruit with a sales call.