NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Utah of last decade
By Joey Loose
8. Frank Jackson – Duke
One of Utah’s rare 5-star prospects, Jackson is a 6’3 guard from Alpine who starred on the high school stage. He was among the top-rated recruits nationally in the class of 2016 and made his way to Duke like so many of those prospects have in recent years. Jackson played just a single season with the Blue Devils under Mike Krzyzewski.
That freshman season saw Jackson average 10.9 points and 2.5 rebounds a game, starting just under half the games on a Blue Devils squad that won 28 games. He scored a career-high 21 points in just his second career game and later helped lead the Blue Devils to the ACC Tournament title as a starting guard. He would add 15 points in their upset loss to South Carolina in the second round.
Jackson was overshadowed by Duke stars like Grayson Allen and Jayson Tatum, but still had a pretty solid effort for the Blue Devils. He contributed offensively, hitting just under 40% of his long range shots. Like many other 5-star recruits, he declared for the NBA Draft after his freshman season ended. He was taken early in the second round and has spent much of the last five years in the NBA, though an injury limited the beginning of his professional career.