Judy Mosley 2.0
That’s a pretty presumptuous thing to call Kamilah Jackson.
But after her 31-point, 25-rebound performance against Cal State Bakersfield last night, I let myself consider it seriously for more than a few moments.
Now, I don’t want to put too much pressure on the 5-11 freshman leading Hawaii in scoring and rebounding this season. But from the Bows’ exhibition games against Chaminade and BYU-Hawaii, I had a feeling Jackson had the potential to be much more than the next in a long line of undersized Wahine posts.
Again, I tried to be cautious in my excitement about Jackson considering those were exhibition games against D2 teams (and that may be a generous descriptor for Chaminade).
But now 11 games into her freshman season, Jackson is proving her worth against real D1 competition, averaging 14.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per outing. And since moving into the starting lineup, those numbers have gone up to 20.0 points and 15.2 rebounds over those five games.
And Jackson has put up good numbers against more than just the transitional D2 teams (that’s a real slight to Bakersfield to call them that, sorry ‘Runners). She put up a decent 10 and 8 on 4-of-6 shooting against UCLA, and dropped 10 and 10 off the bench against North Carolina, both highly ranked teams with quality posts.
Hopefully Jackson can continue to succeed as the competition grows more familiar with her. (Her lack of size shouldn’t be too bothersome in the WAC.) And while I don’t really think Judy Mosley’s career records of 2,479 points and 1,441 rebounds are in danger of falling, I do believe that in four years, we should be adding just the second ever member to our 1000-1000 club.
