Josh Jackson's Gem vs. Kentucky Makes Kansas College Basketball's Team to Beat

Josh Jackson has been playing at an elite level all season, but the freshman phenom found another gear at Rupp Arena on Saturday, pacing the No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks to a 79-73 win over the No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats.

In the 48 hours leading up to the blue-blood battle, it seemed like everyone was resigned to the inevitability that Edrice "Bam" Adebayo would have his way with a depleted Jayhawks frontcourt. The only unknown was how dominant his double-double would be in front of scouts from what Fox Sports' Aaron Torres estimated as 25 NBA teams.

In Adebayo's place, it was Kansas' de facto power forward who balled out in his audition for the pros, as Jackson finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals—including what was effectively a game-sealing putback layup with just over a minute remaining.

Sporting News' Sam Vecenie added his thoughts on Jackson's performance:

Aside from the one-game losing "streak" each squad carried, the big story heading into the clash between the two winningest programs in college basketball history was the lack of a backup power forward.

Carlton Bragg Jr. was indefinitely suspended from the Jayhawks on Thursday, as the Kansas City Star's Jesse Newell first reported. From that moment, the options for slowing Adebayo became Landen Lucas or bust. And with Adebayo's No. 20 ranking in fouls drawn per 40 minutes, one guy shouldn't have been enough to contain him.

Even before losing Bragg, Kansas had more than its fair share of problems slowing opposing big men. West Virginia's Esa Ahmad had 27 points against the Jayhawks on Tuesday. Texas' Jarrett Allen exploded for 22 points and 19 rebounds against them last weekend. TCU's Vladimir Brodziansky put up 28, Stanford's Reid Travis had 29 and Georgia's Yante Maten went for 30.

Remove one of the pieces of that frontcourt and put it against arguably the best physical big man in this year's draft class, and Adebayo would have free rein to cause havoc.

Contrary to logic and popular assumption, though, he struggled all night.

In what was supposed to be a dunk highlight reel for the big man, he only had one slam while racking up four turnovers and four personal fouls. Moreover, he missed six of his 10 free-throw attempts and struggled on the defensive glass, allowing Kansas to turn nine offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points.

Rather than worrying about who on the Jayhawks would guard Adebayo, it seems we should have been wondering who on the Wildcats could slow Jackson.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

When he is making outside shots like he has been lately, though, there are only a handful of teams in the country that can even pretend to have an answer for him.

For the first two-plus months of the season, the knock on Jackson was he couldn't shoot. Considering he started 9-of-38 (23.7 percent) from three-point range and 53-of-93 (57.0 percent) from the free-throw line, it was a fair complaint. He has borderline unstoppable in transition since middle school, but the game plan in the half-court offense was to let him shoot threes and give up the foul if he tried to drive past you.

Now that he is 8-of-14 from downtown in his last three games, it's even harder to find weaknesses on a versatile team with its sights set on a 13th consecutive Big 12 title.

Here's the thing everyone seemed to forget when the Bragg news broke: Jackson has been thriving as the small-ball 4 for Kansas since late November.

According to KenPom.com, the 6'8" wing has been Kansas' power forward for 75 percent of its minutes over the past five games; its other 6'8" wing, Svi Mykhailiuk, was holding down that job 15 percent of the time. The only thing that changes without Bragg is the 10 to 15 minutes per game Lucas spends on the bench will now be divvied up between Mitch Lightfoot and Dwight Coleby—a duo that held its own for 14 minutes against Kentucky.

David Purdy/Getty Images

As B/R's C.J. Moore wrote before the game, the small-ball approach is a significant change of pace for Jayhawks head coach Bill Self compared to the past decade, but it's working beautifully. Kansas beat Kentucky at its own game and showed it is prepared to run up and down with anyone, anywhere.

Yes, there are still concerns for the Jayhawks. They shot 10-of-18 from the free-throw line and remain one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the country. And they'll still struggle to slow opposing big men—the main reason Adebayo never got going is De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk were pushing the pace every chance they could and never allowed the freshman to establish position or dominance.

But in a week when nearly every title contender east of Arizona suffered at least one loss, winning at Rupp Arena makes Kansas once again look like the team to beat in men's college basketball.

Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of KenPom.com and Sports Reference. 

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.