Lutz adds grad transfer Jalen Jackson

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - WKU Hilltopper Basketball head coach Steve Lutz announced the signing of grad transfer Jalen Jackson.

“We are excited to add Jalen Jackson to the Hilltopper family,” said Lutz. “He is a great young man and is a very competitive player who impacts winning. He has won at every level that he has ever played at and we look forward to him continuing to impact winning at WKU.”

Jackson will reunite with Lutz after spending the last two seasons with him at Texas A&M Corpus-Christi.

Jackson was named the Southland Tournament MVP after averaging 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists, leading the Islanders to the SLC Tournament Championship. He logged a career-high 37 minutes in the championship game, scoring 17 points against Northwestern State.

The San Antonio, Texas, native logged a career-high 22 points against Southeast Missouri State, helping the Islanders to their first-ever NCAA Tournament win in program history. Jackson was honored on the SLC All-Academic First Team with a 3.44 GPA as a communication major.

Jackson increased his scoring between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, averaging 6.6 points in his junior season to 7.4 points in his senior season. He also improved his shooting between the years, improving from 39.7% to 41.4%.

Prior to his time in Corpus-Christi, Jackson played 43 games over two season for North Texas. He was apart of the 2021 Conference USA Tournament Champion team that went on to defeat Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Out of high school, Jackson was a three-star recruit from Wagner. He was the No. 17 ranked player in Texas and No. 19 ranked points guard in the nation according to 247Sports. Overall, he was to the No. 201 ranked player in the country in the Class of 2019.

As a high school senior, he was the 26-5A District MVP and San Antonio Express News Player of the Year, averaging 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 0.9 blocks per game.

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