{"id":26030,"date":"2012-11-21T14:37:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T14:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilcomprd.wpengine.com\/?p=26030"},"modified":"2023-11-20T09:07:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T17:07:04","slug":"college-greats-chris-jackson-best-freshman-ever-the-original-unstoppable-partner-of-shaq-before-kobe-penny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballislife.com\/college-greats-chris-jackson-best-freshman-ever-the-original-unstoppable-partner-of-shaq-before-kobe-penny\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Jackson - Best NCAA Freshman Scorer Ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"omc-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width:100%; height: 100%\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wIGwqQFaP_s\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen width=\"600\" height=\"420\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Long before LeBron, before Wade, before Kobe and even before Penny there was Chris Jackson - Shaq's original unstoppable teammate.<\/p>\n<p>To most, Chris Jackson is known as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf - the man who refused to stand for the Nation Anthem. \u00a0Some will remember him as the only NBA player with Tourette's syndrome. \u00a0Some will remember him as the great free throw shooter who would have had an NBA record if it wasn't for Calvin Murphy jinxing the ball. \u00a0Dunk fans might remember him as a NBA dunk contest\u00a0contestant who\u00a0never dunked in a NBA game before. \u00a0Angry Steph Curry fans know him as the guy Phil Jackson said reminded him of Steph. My memories of him go back to the late 80s, when he was the most unstoppable offensive player in college basketball.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00a0only took a couple of weeks into his freshman season for Jackson to let the world know about his scoring abilities as he scored 48 and 53 points in the first month of his college career. \u00a0His season high of 55 (with nine 3 pointers) came soon after against Ole Miss and he would go on to average 30 points as a freshman and set the NCAA freshman scoring record with 966 points.<\/p>\n<div class=\"omc-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width:100%; height: 100%\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xlPUBngOPzQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen width=\"600\" height=\"420\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>His average numbers would take a slight dip during his sophomore season, dropping to 28 points per game, but his game continued to improve and was as deadly as ever with the ball in hands. \u00a0He scored 40+ points 11 times and 50+ points 4 times and topped his 3 point barrage against Ole Miss by hitting 10 3-pointers against Tennessee.<\/p>\n<div class=\"omc-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width:100%; height: 100%\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V6V8fXCfNvw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen width=\"600\" height=\"420\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>While Jackson was shattering offensive records, his new teammate, freshman Shaquille O'Neal, was shattering defensive records. \u00a0The raw 286 pound freshman became the first SEC player to block more than 100 shots in a season and recorded two triple doubles with blocks. \u00a0Also on the team was the \"better center\" Stanley Roberts. \u00a0Most people probably don't remember Stanley, who was the backboard breaking center for LSU and the Orlando Magic before Shaq, but Roberts was the better player back then. Sports Illustrated wrote an article about the first meeting between the two goliaths in practice and according to the the story, Stanley Roberts had his share of dunks over Shaq and \"rained jumpers over O'Neal.\" \u00a0Shaq even said when he played in the NBA that Roberts was \"the only one who ever really slowed me down. \u00a0His game is just like min: Big, funny, silly - but he can shoot. \u00a0I can't.\"<\/p>\n<p>But soon after that year, all three careers went in different directions: Shaq would go on to become one of the most dominant college and NBA players of all-time; Stanley Roberts would struggle with injuries and\u00a0weight\u00a0injuries before being banned by the NBA in 1999 for drug violations; Chris Jackson had a slow\u00a0disappointing\u00a0start to his NBA career until winning Most Improved Player in 93. A couple of years later, he committed career suicide with his controversial stance on the National anthem right when he was <a href=\"https:\/\/ballislife.com\/1995-mahmoud-abdul-rauf\/\">playing the best ball of his NBA career<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of \u00a0how his NBA career controversially ended, I don't think there's much to debate on the topic of how great he was in College. \u00a0Great enough to be called one of the best freshman of all-time and great enough to be called one of the greatest NCAA scorers ever.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Sources: <a href=\"http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/vault\/article\/magazine\/MAG1027838\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sports Illustrated<\/a> &amp; \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lsusports.net\/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=27829&amp;SPID=2166&amp;DB_OEM_ID=5200&amp;Q_SEASON=1989\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LSU Sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long before LeBron, before Wade, before Kobe and even before Penny there was Chris Jackson - Shaq's original&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8316,1444,5,39,23],"tags":[],"featured":[],"class_list":["post-26030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-all-blogs","category-college","category-college-videos","category-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chris Jackson - Best NCAA Freshman Scorer Ever? 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