SEC freshmen recount a heated meeting on the basketball court. Now, they laugh about it.
A few months after it happened, GG Jackson looked back on his high school basketball matchup with Chris Livingston wearing a bright smile on his face.
At the time, it probably wasn’t too funny. More confusing than anything.
Back in January, Livingston’s nationally ranked Oak Hill Academy (Va.) squad was set to take on Jackson and his Ridge View (S.C.) team. The final result wasn’t much of a mystery. Oak Hill — stacked with several major prospects — was heavily favored. But it was a much-hyped matchup nonetheless, a chance to see Livingston and Jackson — two of the top recruits in the country — face off on the court.
Jackson reflected back on that game at the Southeastern Conference’s media day event in October, when — as a South Carolina freshman and one of the league’s top newcomers — he was surrounded by reporters from other schools and asked to dish on some of his 2022 classmates who were expected to star during the upcoming season.
When the conversation turned to Livingston — a five-star newcomer at Kentucky — Jackson found himself switching back and forth between holding down laughter and genuine incredulity over what had happened when the two players walked onto the floor nine months earlier.
“He came out before tipoff — he said something to me and I was like, ‘What?!’ And from that point on, we were just going back and forth,” Jackson said.
Livingston spoke to the Herald-Leader last week about this game, starting to chuckle at the mere mention of it, still clearly tickled by what had transpired nearly a year earlier.
The UK freshman didn’t remember exactly what he had told Jackson before tipoff, but he acknowledged that it wasn’t very pleasant.
The game started, and Livingston was clearly in battle mode. The 6-foot-6 wing was knocking down shots, playing even harder than usual, and going right at the 6-9 Jackson, who at that point was about to become the No. 1-ranked recruit in his class.
“He was on fire,” Jackson said. “It was embarrassing how he was scoring, to be honest.”
As the game progressed, Livingston kept going at Jackson, who was growing more and more confused over what exactly he had done to get under the Oak Hill star’s skin.
Finally, Oak Hill big man Christian Reeves — now a freshman at Duke — leaned over and told Jackson what was up.
“Yeah, Coach told him that you said some nasty things about him,” Reeves said.
Jackson laughed at this point in the retelling.
Oak Hill head coach Steve Smith had told Livingston before the matchup that he heard Jackson had been talking trash about him during the days leading up to the game.
“Which I wasn’t!” Jackson exclaimed nine months later.
Livingston was all business then, but he laughs about it now.
“They were hyping the game up — our coaches — in the locker room before the game saying, ‘GG’s talking s---.’ This and that,” Livingston said. “And he was a top player himself in high school. He was coming up. So I took that and went with it. They kind of gassed the matchup up, and the coaches kind of got me riled up. So when the game started and we got to playing, I was talking trash. …
“And then come to find out, he never even said any of that stuff. It was funny to find out.”
Livingston said he didn’t even know that his coaches had been messing with him until he heard about Jackson’s comments from SEC media day. He didn’t feel that he’d been let on.
“It was funny,” Livingston said, still chuckling. “That’s just how my coaches were.”
And Livingston had no reason to question what he was hearing. He knew that Jackson’s coach, Yerrick Stoneman, was a friend of Smith’s — he had been an assistant at Oak Hill for 11 seasons — and was soon to become his successor. Smith retired after 37 seasons last year, and Stoneman was named Oak Hill’s new head coach.
“I think my coaches — they know how to get me going with things like that,” Livingston said. “I think that’s just what they were trying to do. It was a big matchup. And the coaches knew each other, so they were just trying to get the best of each other, and get the best out of our guys.”
Oak Hill won the game 92-52, with Livingston scoring 18 points for the balanced Warriors and Jackson tallying 27 points as the clear star of his team.
The two will meet again on the court Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, where the roles will be similar.
Livingston has emerged as a starter for Kentucky, but he remains a complementary piece on UK’s team, averaging 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in 16.5 minutes per game. Jackson is the unquestioned star on a South Carolina team that was picked to finish last in the league on SEC media day and appears to be headed in that direction.
Jackson, projected as a possible lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft, spoke highly of Livingston and fellow UK freshman Cason Wallace — a teammate of the South Carolina star at the NBPA Top 100 Camp — back in the fall. And Livingston has been keeping an eye on South Carolina’s team so far this season, too.
“I’ve been watching them quite a bit,” he said. “He’s a really good player. He’s really versatile, tall, can finish around the rim really well. He has a good feel for the game, especially with how young he is. And he can shoot it, too. It’ll be a good game when we play them on Tuesday.”
Tuesday
South Carolina at Kentucky
When: 7 p.m.
TV: ESPN2
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: South Carolina 7-7 (0-1 SEC), Kentucky 10-5 (1-2)
Series: Kentucky leads 54-13
Last meeting: Kentucky won 86-76 on Feb. 8, 2022, in Columbia, S.C.
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
