The Return - Chapter 3

He's back.

After missing the entire 2024-25 season because of a knee injury he suffered during a summer scrimmage with his team, Elmarko Jackson is back in action and ready to roll for the 2025-26 season.

As he does, we’ll follow him every step of the way in the latest edition of our weekly diary series that will chronicle Jackson's red-shirt sophomore season, which we're dubbing, "The Return."

Some of what you’ll read here, in Jackson's own words, will focus on his return to form and the process — both mental and physical — of getting back into the flow with an almost-entirely-new Kansas team.

But we'll also dive into Jackson the person, the off-the-court stuff that makes him who he is, his goals, dreams, funniest moments and favorite things.

It'll all be centered around the 2025-26 Kansas basketball season, which featured the Jayhawks entering the season ranked No. 19 in the AP preseason poll and picked to finish 6th in the Big 12 Conference.

The Elmarko File

Age: 21 | Number: 13 | Height: 6-3 | Weight: 195 | Position: Guard

Hometown: Marlton, New Jersey | High School: South Kent School

Notable: A 5-star prospect and McDonald's All-American in high school, Jackson came to Kansas before the 2023-24 season as a potential impact player. He played in 34 games that year, starting half of them, and averaged 4.3 points and 1.7 assists in 18.6 minutes per game. He was solid but never quite turned the corner of making a major impact. Then the injury came that put his journey on a different path. That's nothing new for the Jersey native, who played at 3 different schools in high school and averaged between 15 and 20 points per game at all three of them. That includes tallying 19 points and 6 assists per game as a senior at South Kent in Connecticut. All of it led to Jackson being the No. 19-ranked prospect in the country per 247 Sports in the Class of 2023. He also finished ranked No. 25 by Rivals and No. 26 by ESPN.com. Jackson's background includes time on the football field and as a lacrosse player and he's still young in his basketball journey.

KU record to date: 7-3

Next up: 4:30 p.m. (central) Saturday at NC State in Raleigh, N.C. on ESPN.

For the first time in his three-year Kansas career, Elmarko Jackson recently recorded back-to-back games of double-digit scoring.

First, he dropped 17 points on Tennessee in a huge win for the Jayhawks to push to them to 3-0 at the Players Era event in Las Vegas. He followed that up by going bonkers for a few minutes in the first half of a loss against No. 5 Connecticut at home, where he finished with 11 points in 16 minutes on 5-of-9 shooting, with a couple of makes from 3-point range.

The fact that those two games marked the first time Jackson had put back-to-back double-digit scoring games together as a Jayhawk may surprise you and it may not.

Regardless of how you feel, there's no denying that Jackson absolutely needed it.

“I needed it a lot. It felt really good. It felt really good. Obviously, with (the Nov. 26 game vs. Tennessee) being the third-place game and us trying to stay undefeated out there, it was great to play well and to get that win. I knew a couple guys on the Tennessee team, as well, so it was a good bragging-rights game, too.” 

Jackson played 27 minutes in that win over Tennessee, one more than the 28 minutes he had played combined in KU's three previous games against Syracuse (8), Notre Dame (14) and Duke (6). With that in mind, the next most obvious question about the two-game outburst was simple — where'd it come from?

“Going into the Players Era tournament, coach just challenged me and Jamari to just compete and play at a higher level. Obviously that’s not something you want to hear as a player. But I just took a second to sit back and think, like, dang, I can definitely be playing harder and contributing better to the team. He was right.” 

Pushed by the challenge from KU coach Bill Self, Jackson started doing more on his own, spent even more time in the gym and really honed in on the areas of the game that he thought could help KU the most.

"That Tennessee game and the UConn game was just a culmination of that; both times it just felt like the game was flowing and just easy."

It also marked the first time this season that we saw Jackson just play. Self talked early in the season about how Jackson was still being super-analytical about everything in front of him, almost like going through a mental checklist of things he needed to cover on every play and possession.

That approach hindered what he could do. So, he decided to just let it fly and not worry about the knee or messing up or being too picky about how things looked or felt.

“I felt like that game (Tennessee), really more so the second half, was just about playing free, not analyzing as much, not thinking as much and just making simple plays, taking what the defense was giving me and just playing.” 

He admits that there were times, even this season, when he doubted himself.

“Slightly. It was just like, ‘I haven’t done this for a while.’ But now I’m just focused on to making sure everything’s clicking.”

And with it, came a whole new Elmarko Jackson, one not too many of us had seen before — Fiery Elmarko, a guy who's not afraid to yell and scream and pound his chest and fire up his teammates after his big moments.

The smiles, laughs and positive response from his teammates in those loose-your-mind moments showed beyond a doubt that the Jayhawks like that version of No. 13.

“I mean, I’m just a competitor and those big-time plays and those big-time environments, it just kind of came out. I think it’s fun. And I feed off of that stuff and I know my teammates do, as well. Seeing the ball go in the basket or making big plays on defense, it’s just really fun to get out there and be scrappy and make gritty plays and then keep it going.” 

While Jackson has been at Kansas for the start of three seasons, each one has been different. As a freshman, he was the hot-shot McDonald's All-American who people had huge hopes for and couldn't way to see play. He had a good freshman year but never fully broke through.

Last year, after the knee injury in the summer, he started the season in street clothes and never played a minute.

So, in a sense, that makes what he's done over the first 10 games of this season a third fresh start. And that's exactly how he's looking at it, taking each day, each game, each week as an opportunity to build the ways he can help this team.

“Most definitely. If I’m being truthful, just having that whole year off and not being in those types of scenarios for a while, a certain continuity was missing and I’m just coming back, bit by bit, and understanding different parts of the game better after being away from it for a period of time.” 

“I’m just focused on using practice reps, but more importantly game reps, to just get back in the flow of things.” 

Tracking Elmarko's Return

• Chapter 1 - Happy to be back out there

• Chapter 2 - First impressions of DP

• Chapter 3 - I needed that

— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com