If not for the words from his head coach’s mouth and the vicious scar on his left knee, you might’ve thought Kansas guard Elmarko Jackson was in the same spot as the rest of his KU teammates — suited up for Monday’s media day and counting down the days until the 2024-25 season starts.
Instead, Jackson, despite his in-tact appearance, is still nine months away from returning to action after suffering a torn left patellar tendon during a camp scrimmage this summer.
“He’s not going to be able to do anything until May or June, as far as on-court, full-speed type activity,” Self said Monday during KU’s annual media day.
“These past couple of months have been rough, especially the first month just because I put in so much work in the offseason. But once I got past that and got back around the guys after surgery, it just boosted my morale so much.” — KU sophomore Elmarko Jackson
When Jackson first went down, you could see serious concern in his face as he sat up and reached out for his knee. But he said on Monday that he expected the best almost immediately.
“Shoot, I thought I was all right,” he said. “I told my trainer (Bill Cowgill), ‘Ched, I’m not playing no more today, but I’ll be all right after that.’ And he was like, ‘Man, I don’t know about that.’”
The 1-year timeline for a full recovery was known pretty much right away. After he went down during an awkward take to the basket on June 5, Jackson had surgery a few days later and then spent the next month or so at his home back in New Jersey.
Up to that point, the word from around the program was that Jackson had improved a lot in the months after the 2023-24 season ended, putting end endless work and finding ways to strengthen all aspects of his game.
As a freshman, Jackson started 17 of the Jayhawks’ 34 games last season, averaging 4.3 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 18.7 minutes per game.
There were flashes of brilliance and moments of disappearance during his up-and-down rookie season. But the work and his desire to get better and pick up whatever he could never wavered.
The arrival of the offseason brought with it the chance for a fresh start, and his injury coming in the aftermath of the big personal step he took early in the offseason was depressing, and Jackson said he felt every bit of it while recovering from surgery back home.
“These past couple of months have been rough, especially the first month just because I put in so much work in the offseason,” he said Monday. “But once I got past that and got back around the guys after surgery, it just boosted my morale so much.”
Jackson continued: “Just being around the guys and feeling the sense of community that we have and the brotherhood within this group, it was really good for me because I was just at my home for like a month not really doing anything. It was just great to be back around the guys and see the work that they were putting in. That was nice.”
For the next several months, that’s as good as it will get for Jackson, who will continue to rehab and strengthen his knee while also trying to develop his game from the mental side of things.
The setback adds a new chapter to the sophomore guard’s journey, but, if we’re being honest, it’s already been a pretty unique road for Jackson to begin with.
Ranked as a Top 20 prospect out of high school, the 6-foot-3 Jackson came to KU saddled with huge expectations from the outside world.
Some viewed him as a one-and-done prospect. Others had him pegged as a lottery pick in the 2024 draft before last season started.
But Jackson, who didn’t even start taking basketball all that seriously until his sophomore year of high school, never viewed himself as anything more than another dude. He wanted to play; he wanted to be a star, but he also wanted to work for whatever he got.
He did just that and picked up some valuable experience in Year 1 with the Jayhawks, while also learning a lot about himself and his game — good and bad — in the process.
Now the work begins anew.
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