photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Josh Jackson jokes around with head coach Bill Self during a kid's clinic on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016 at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam fitness center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Josh Jackson jokes around with head coach Bill Self during a kid's clinic on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016 at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam fitness center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

From the perspective of the common fan, Kansas freshman Josh Jackson has proven to be the ultra-talented, incredibly skilled, hard-working competitor that he was deemed to be when he signed with the Jayhawks.

From the perspective of Kansas coach Bill Self, Jackson has been so much more.

Thursday afternoon, during his regular weekly news conference to preview Saturday’s game against Nebraska — 2:15 p.m. tip at Allen Fieldhouse — Self went deeper on the one thing about Jackson that has made him marvel since he began coaching the one-and-done freshman phenom.

“Josh is one of those guys who, even
though he’s really, really bright, he
knows he doesn’t know,” Self said.
“It’s amazing to me, when we do
scouting report or whatever, he hangs
on every word.”

So much so, in fact, that Self has found himself testing Jackson on purpose just to see how he would answer and react.

“I ask Josh a lot of questions
sometimes to see if he’d know the
answer,” Self began. “And half the
time he does and half the time he
doesn’t. And he’s always totally
intrigued on why he doesn’t. I mean,
it’s like, ‘Ohhhh, that makes sense to
me.'”

But it’s not just a yes or no question we’re talking here. It’s much, much deeper and includes much greater detail.

“I’m talking about, hey, look at this
possession here and I want you to tell
me exactly why the other team scored,”
Self said. “Break it down.”

Emulating Jackson, Self says, “Well,
they didn’t show this screen.”

Quickly, Self interjects with, “No,
that’s not why. Look at it again.”

“He’s one of those guys that wants to
know those things,” Self continued.
“That’s one of the things that
impresses me the most about him is he
wants to get better…. I’m not sure
everybody’s like that.”

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Josh Jackson gets a break on the sidelines as the team works on perimeter defense during a practice on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 at Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Asked if he thought he had learned anything from coaching previous one-and-done standouts that might be helping him reach Jackson on a different level, Self said he wasn’t sure and added that that would be a question for his assistant coaches.

In the same breath, he again pointed toward Jackson’s intelligence, hunger and drive as the biggest reasons it looks — at least through nine games — like Self and the Jayhawks are getting more out of this one-and-done star than any others in the past.

“The thing about Josh that I think is
really, really great, and (Andrew
Wiggins) was the same way, Joel
(Embiid) was for sure the same way….
he wants to be coached,” Self said.
“He wants somebody to correct him. Now
I’m not saying he wants to be jumped,
but I’m saying he’d like somebody to
coach him and correct him and be
constructive and at the same time push
him and try to get the most out of
him. He likes that.

“He didn’t come in here thinking that
he was where he needed to be. He came
in here thinking I’m picking this
place because I’m not where I need to
be. I think sometimes that gets lost.”

“He’s so, so, so smart,” Self
continued. “But we’ve always said the
best freshmen are the ones that know
they don’t know, and the ones that are
the hardest to coach are the ones that
don’t know (but) think they do….
We’ve been fortunate that the majority
of our guys that we’ve had are like
(Jackson).”

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Josh Jackson (11) tries to regain a lost ball between the legs of Long Beach State forward LaRond Williams during the second half, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016 at Allen Fieldhouse.