‘You don’t think they’re open, but they’re open to him:’ Martez Jackson making his mark for the Barbs

Martez Jackson said the plan for the DeKalb boys basketball team this year has been fairly simple.

“We just get the ball to T basically,” Jackson said of Trenton Kyler, who’s knocking down almost 50% of his 3-pointers this season and averaging 21.6 points a game. “That’s really just what’s going on.”

But even with the year Kyler is having for the undefeated Barbs, Jackson has worked his way into the starting lineup and has been distributing the ball while providing a spark of energy, coach Mike Reynolds said.

Jackson is averaging about seven points and four assists a game this season. He said he sees himself as a role player this year.

“We got four seniors on the team and two of them are doing a lot of work,” Jackson said of Kyler and starting point guard Jamarcus Winters, the team’s top defender. “So the best thing for me to do is be a role player, and it’s working out good.”

Jackson has been starting since Feb. 26. In the 93rd annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Classic on Saturday he put up nine points and three assists against Rockford Chrisitan and followed that with a 21-point, three-assist showing against Indian Creek.

And while he said he sees himself as a role player, Reynolds said he disagrees with that assessment.

“I never thought of him as a role player,” Reynolds said. “I thought of us as having six starters. He was playing heavy minutes before and he just had to get back into playing the right way. There’s a difference between playing organized high-level basketball and playing more of an AAU-type, pickup-type game. And he’s slowly but surely figuring that out.”

After missing a couple of games early this season because of injury, Jackson has come on strong. On Tuesday against Neuqua Valley, Kyler reached the 1,000-point mark in his career and the Barbs stayed perfect in DuPage Valley Conference play.

It was a close game early on, then Jackson came in and sparked a run for the Barbs. He had a rebound and kicked off a fast break, feeding ahead to Kyler for a 3 to give DeKalb the lead for good late in the first.

In the second quarter he started with a steal on defense and again fed the ball ahead to Kyler. Later in the quarter he found Lane Mcvicar on a no-look pass which Mcvicar converted into a three-point play.

“He gets everybody the ball,” Kyler said. “You don’t think they’re open, but they’re open to him. He gets it there.”

Kyler said that Jackson is a rare high school player.

“He’s one of the best playmakers I’ve worked with at any level of basketball,” Kyler said. “And he’s young, he still has another year to play. If he keeps his head straight and keeps focusing on this he can definitely do damage.”

Reynolds said he is a natural distributor of the basketball.

“Naturally he wants to get other guys the ball,” Reynolds said. “I think that’s when he feels he’s playing his best is when he’s throwing assists. He’s done that to the point where we have to tell him to take shots, he wants to pass so much.”

But he can score too. He put up the first 11 points for DeKalb in less than four minutes in a win against Metea Valley on Wednesday.

Reynolds said the team changes when Jackson is in the game. On offense, the team becomes quicker when he’s handling the ball and Winters and Kyler don’t have to worry about it.

And on defense, Reynolds said Jackson does a good job of guarding the ball-handler, which allows Winters to switch his coverage to the other team’s best wing player if needed.

He said he wasn’t sure what to expect out of Jackson to start the year, but Jackson has shown improvement every day – even with limited practices this year because of the condensed schedule.

“We knew he had a lot of talent, but to be honest he hasn’t played a lot in games,” Reynolds said. “He played a few varsity games at the beginning of last year, but with a senior-stacked lineup he played more on the sophomore team for most of the year. We knew he had high-end talent. It’s just can he get it all put together on both ends of the floor.”

Reynolds said Jackson has the ability to see a play ahead on the court. Jackson said he’s just trying to remember what the coaches have told him.

“Just find the open man,” Jackson said. “I don’t really know how to explain it. I just keep my head up when I’m dribbling. That’s really all I got to do. Keep my head up and get it to the open man.”