Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
Two players to watch in tonight’s’ Cal-Carolina game.
One of them is Andrej Stojakovic, the Golden Bears’ 6-7 sophomore who is the ACC’s second-leading scorer with a 20-plus point average, ahead of flying Duke dunker Cooper Flagg.
The other one is Tar Heel freshman Ian Jackson, who has been coming on like gangbusters and is now a starter since Seth Trimble missed three games with an injury. Jackson is up to a 15-plus average after going five of the last six games with 20-plus points.
Stojakovic also has the ACC’s eighth-best free throw percentage, miraculously improving his accuracy at the line from 53 percent last year to 84 percent this season. He is a big guard, half-foot taller than Elliot Cadeau and R.J. Davis and will be able to shoot over them.
Trimble is 6-3 and back into action and the 6-5 Jackson will spend some time covering the lanky Stojakovic who makes 46 percent from the floor and 35 percent from the arc and is the man for a Cal team that is 8-8 overall and 1-4 as a new member of the ACC.
The Bears do have some other guys who are good. Jovan Blacksher Jr. is the ninth-best 3-point shooter in the conference, making two per game. Mady Sissoko, a 6-9 senior, is sixth in offensive rebounds, where Carolina doesn’t show anyone in the top 15.
The Heels are trying to get around their lack of size by using their four best players for much of the game with Cadeau, R.J. Davis, Jackson and fellow freshman Drake Powell starting. If 6-10 Jalen Washington can play like he did at N.C. State, the 4-1 Tar Heels have a good shot of beating Cal and Stanford Saturday to go 6-1 before their toughest stretch of the schedule – at Wake Forest, home and home with Pitt, at Duke and at Clemson. And Jackson’s emergence is a Godsend.
Hubert Davis insists he has not shortened his rotation to eight players but doing that gives his most talented guys the most minutes. And with defenses hounding R.J., Jackson can slash inside with his right hand or left and has shown that he can hit the three-ball from the corners and the top of the key, boosting his arc accuracy to 43 percent.
The downside for Carolina fans: Jackson is playing like the projected No. 12 pick in the June NBA draft, which means he is likely not returning next season. Of Roy Williams’ total 22 first rounders, Cobey White, Cam Johnson and Cole Anthony have become NBA stars since 2017. White looked like a potential all-pro in college, Johnson’s career has taken off in the NBA and Anthony is much better up there than he was in his only year in Chapel Hill.
So watch Jackson’s NBA talent because he looks like the next Tar Heel who’s going to be a star in the “league.”
https://chapelboroaudio.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/2025/January/15/Art%27s%20Notebook%20011525%20-%20FINAL.mp3Featured image via Todd Melet
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
Related Stories
‹
›
