Big 12 Basketball: Breakout candidates from each team for 2020-21 season

Iowa State – Tre Jackson

Rasir Bolton is pretty much guaranteed to be Iowa State’s focal point and best player next season, and everything outside of that is a big question mark. It’s one of the reasons why the Cyclones don’t have the highest of expectations going into 2020-21, yet that also provides an opportunity for others to step into bigger roles.

Tre Jackson is going to have that opportunity as the only remaining member of Iowa State’s 2019 recruiting class. The 6-1, 176-pounder gradually saw more playing time as his freshman year went on and had three games over the last month and a half of the season (at Texas, TCU, vs. Oklahoma State) in which he played the full 40 minutes. That’s the sign of a guy head coach Steve Prohm trusts (whether he had to by necessity is another matter) and should see significant minutes again as a sophomore.

Jackson has the skill set to advantage of an increased role, too. Despite his lack of size, he’s quick and can get into the lane to create for others, and he has shown the ability to be a threat from three-point range. He’s a decent defender, too, with a knack for coming up with steals.

Jackson did struggle with consistency, as you can expect with most freshmen players in their first season of college basketball, and his shooting percentages really show it (33.8 percent from the field, 33.7 percent from three). But making smarter decisions and taking smarter shots – both of which naturally come with experience – will help in those categories.

There were flashes of great play from Jackson throughout last season. In that game against TCU in which he played 40 minutes, he scored 18 points while dishing out five assists and knocked down four three-pointers. He also hit four threes against Oklahoma and has four assists and three steals against Kansas.

If he can start stringing together some of those high-level performances consistently, Iowa State will be in a much better place.