(January 6th) In the initial profile of this season, Jackson McAndrew was taking a lot of threes, and he was making a lot of threes, but the efficiency was merely okay – ranking in the 52nd percentile. Since then, while maintaining his extremely high attempt rate, McAndrew has shot 41.2% from three, to pull himself up to the 92nd percentile for bigs.
McAndrew has also sharply increased his steal rate from the 4th percentile to the 33rd, courtesy of a three steal game against Georgetown. Creighton’s season has been a bit up and down due to injury, but McAndrew has proved himself ready far faster than it seems they expected.
(December 12th) Some profiles are difficult to decide what to talk about. Jackson McAndrew’s is not one of those profiles, because it’s headlined by some 100%’s. Big men simply do not take, nor do they make, three point attempts at the rate that McAndrew does. The number of other bigs who are shooting as much as McAndrew in this class is effectively a rounding error. McAndrew, therefore, has a clear place in an NBA that’s increasingly and increasingly obsessed with the benefit that spacing at all positions provides.
We should also give credit to McAndrew for avoiding some of the typical traps that freshmen fall into. He’s in the 76th percentile for rebounds, the 77th percentile for turnovers, and the 97th percentile for fouls. He’s playing responsible basketball in a way that freshman typically aren’t capable of, and as a result of that his minutes have only risen since the start of the season.