LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball coach Bill Self opened up on Monday about Elmarko Jackson’s freshman season with the Jayhawks.

Self, speaking on the latest edition of the “Hawk Talk with Bill Self” show, highlighted that Jackson would be the first to tell you he’s been hard on Jackson this season. Self alluded to the reason being he thinks Jackson can be a pro, in part because there are aspects to Jackson’s game you can’t coach because of Jackson’s natural athleticism. And Self added Jackson is a special talent who has yet to play to that level.

But Self also noted how Jackson hasn’t been prioritizing basketball for more than a handful of years. So, there’s a lot that’s still new to Jackson. And Self didn’t express any doubt in Jackson being the type of person who is willing to be coached to be a great guard.

“He needs to obviously do what we want him to do, but I need to let him go, too,” Self said. “I need to have him not looking at the bench, and tell him, ‘It’s time for you to go.’ And I think he’ll do that. And I thought Saturday there were some things that he did in that game — and especially defensively he’s getting better — but there were some things he did in that game that I thought looked like a guy that had really, really improved over the first month of the season.”

Here’s more on Jackson, his freshman year to date and a focus moving forward:

This is when Elmarko Jackson started to see his basketball career take off

Jackson, speaking on the show as Self did, said when he was younger he primarily focused on football and lacrosse because of a couple of his uncles. One uncle, he explained, played lacrosse in college. Another uncle, who Jackson wanted to primarily follow in the footsteps of, played football both in college and professionally.

Then came the pandemic, and the need to quarantine.

“It was just like, I couldn’t really go outside and hang with my friends, like just play, like, rough touch or throw a ball around,” Jackson said. “And so, I just kind of had a portable hoop in my house and I just started hooping and watching YouTube videos of players that I liked and it kind of just took off from there.”

Three people Jackson brought up in that respect were Kobe Bryant, Kyrie Irving and Michael Jordan.

Here’s what Elmarko Jackson thinks about his freshman year so far

Jackson, playing for the No. 2 team in the nation, said he’s had a great time so far. His favorite part of playing for Kansas (10-1) is the love and support they receive from fans. To date, he’s started all 11 games and averaged 6.1 points, 3.1 assists and 1.4 rebounds per game in a little more than 23 minutes of play per contest.

Jackson said in the past he was playing to not make a mistake. Now, though, he’s more comfortable and not thinking as much. That’s allowed him, from his perspective, to be more instinctive.

Bill Self wants Elmarko Jackson to continue to focus on being instinctive, and thinking less

Earlier in the season Self’s message to Jackson was it’s all right to make a mistake, as long as Jackson is playing at full speed. As Self talked this week, he said he doesn’t know if that message has changed. But Self noted as well that it’s not unusual for that to be a need for a freshman.

Self thinks when Jackson finally cuts loose, everyone will see Kansas take a significant step forward as a team. Self added there are more players on the team who can help the Jayhawks in the same way by making the same move. There’s more Jackson and Kansas’ bench can give this team — starting Friday with their game at home against Yale.

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Inside Elmarko Jackson’s freshman year with Kansas basketball