BLOOMINGTON — Trayce Jackson-Davis doesn’t dial long distance.
He only makes local calls around the basket. His shots can be fancy, but not from far. He dunks his Trayce Jams. He spins right for layups. He spins left for layups. He might go crazy and toss a ball up from the lane.
As Saturday showed, Jackson-Davis’ scoring repertoire is more than sufficient to haul a team to victory. His Indiana University men’s basketball team managed to survive a University of Illinois Big Ten assault 71-68 at Assembly Hall.
This was only a few days after Jackson-Davis provided the same type of carry-the-team workload against Northwestern but couldn’t save his friends, who lost 62-60 in the last second.
Playing with the utmost confidence — and with the other Hoosiers deferring to his skills — it seems a bit like Jackson-Davis against the world as a 19-8 IU squad scrambles to stand out in a bunched-up league.
When in doubt, give the ball to Trayce. And along the way, he continues to pile up lofty box score lines, such as his Illinois row of numbers: 26 points, 11 rebounds, five blocked shots. Against Northwestern it was this: 23 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists.
As a byproduct, Jackson-Davis became the school leader in blocked shots a couple of weeks ago, is third and possibly moving up in rebounds and Saturday became the fifth-leading scorer all-time. He passed his coach, Mike Woodson, who didn’t mind.
“I couldn’t be more proud of a young man than Trayce today,” Woodson said following the win over Illinois (17-9). “That record has — I’ve been sitting in that spot for a long time, and for him to surpass it, man, it’s special.”
Woodson’s IU playing career, before playing and coaching in the NBA to play and coach, was between 1976 and 1980 and he had 2,061 points. Jackson-Davis was at 2,055 before the game.
These most recent games leave IU 10-6 in the Big Ten, trailing Purdue but kinda-sorta in the mix with four games to go. It took “scraping and scrapping” as Woodson put it, to beat Illinois after trailing by nine with about 12 minutes to go.
He did not like the way IU came out in the first half. Woodson said his team was in “slow motion. It was heated in the locker room at halftime a little bit.”
To make the NCAA tournament and have half-a-thought of claiming the league’s regular-season crown, Indiana, Illinois and about five other teams must keep winning.
“We’re hungry, too,” Woodson said. “This was a separation game. If they win, they separate. Even though we’ve got a long way to go, this game was important.”
It makes sense to run the IU offense through Jackson-Davis, who is also at the peak of his passing game, but the Hoosiers need to help him more on the scoreboard. On Saturday, he got just enough assistance from Jalen Hood-Schifino (13 points), Miller Kopp (12), who made four 3-pointers, and Race Thompson (10) to edge the Fighting Illini.
Against Northwestern, it was Jackson-Davis, plus Hood-Schifino and Thompson with 13 each.
Thompson, who missed a stretch with a knee injury, has looked as if he is regaining stamina and fluidity.
“It’s hard for him, especially mentally,” Jackson-Davis said. “He’s playing as hard as he can.”
Hood-Schifino is a freshman. He still makes goofs as a playmaker but atones, as he did down the stretch versus Illinois, nailing a tie-making jumper and tie-breaking free throws in the closing minute.
IU has been without original starting point guard Xavier Johnson with a broken foot since Dec. 17. He could return soon, providing some more depth, but it’s unclear how he will adjust.
Lately, the Hoosiers have not received terrific regular help from Tamar Bates and Jordan Geronimo, and future star Malik Reneau has been inconsistent. Woodson said he must get those guys more PT and give his main group more rest. The unsung hero of league play has been Trey Galloway, but it hasn’t been an everyday thing.
Pre-conference tournament everydays are dwindling. At Michigan State. At Purdue. Home against Iowa. Home versus Michigan. The Hoosiers could win them all, lose them all, and all of the games could easily all go down to the last 10 seconds.
Lew Freedman writes sports columns for The Tribune. Send comments to [email protected].