WORLD STAGE: Princeton University men’s basketball player Jackson Hicke puts up a jump shot in a game last winter. Rising junior guard Hicke, who averaged 5.5 points and 2.7 rebounds a game last season, will be playing for the U.S. men’s 3×3 team in the upcoming World University Games in Bochum, Germany. The event is slated to go from July 16-27 with the 3×3 hoops competition taking place from July 17-20. (Photo by Steven Wojtowicz)
By Justin Feil
Jackson Hicke originally was scheduled to have an internship this July.
Instead, the rising Princeton University junior men’s basketball star guard will spend the middle of the month representing the Team USA at the World University Games in Bochum, Germany. Hicke is part of the men’s 3×3 team.
“It’ll be the highlight of my summer but it did shake it up a little bit,” said Hicke.
Hicke didn’t find out until last month that he had a spot on the four-man roster. He’ll join Avery Brown of Columbia, Chandler Pigge of Harvard and Nick Townsend of Yale.
“It sounds like a super cool opportunity,” said Hicke. “There was no tryout involved. They were looking around at people in the Ivy League that would be a good fit and asked once they needed me for the team.”
The brainy Ivy quartet will be trying to prove that it also is among the best at the relatively new discipline in basketball. The foursome spends 11 months of the year trying to plot to defeat each other in Ivy play, but will come together for this competition.
“It is a little funny for sure,” said Hicke. “I don’t know them personally yet. We’re on a text chain together and they seem like good guys. I’ve played against them and we know who each other are but I haven’t really talked to any of them. It’ll be a little funny for sure to be teammates with them for 10 days and then going back to playing them twice a year and not really liking them on the court. At the end of the day, it’ll be pretty cool just to meet some of these guys from other Ivy League schools. They all seem like good dudes and can all really play. For those 10 days we’ll all be on each other’s good sides I hope.”
Hicke enjoyed a big jump in his second season of college basketball out of Radnor, Pa. After a freshman year in which he lost time due to injury, Hicke posted big improvements across the board.
“Freshman year, you’re really just adjusting to the game,” said Hicke, who totaled 20 points in 16 appearances off the bench in his debut campaign. “Everyone says it, but it is much faster and much more physical (than high school). It takes time to get used to. My sophomore year, I kind of knew what to expect and when I could get to my spots and what I could better do to help our team win, whether that be just playing better defense or cutting at the right times, just helping my teammates out. You slowly learn how the game works and when to do things that are a benefit for the team. The game starts to slow down for you and everything becomes easier.”
His scoring average went from 1.2 to 5.5 points per game as a sophomore, his minutes per game more than doubled to 17.2 per game, he shot 82 percent from the foul line which included the game-winning foul shots at Penn, his rebounds nearly doubled to 2.7 per game and he had three times as many assists as his first year and more than twice as many steals. He made eight starts after not starting once as a freshman.
“Experience is the biggest thing and also you know how to get your body ready,” said the 6’5, 200-pound Hicke. “I’m much stronger than I was coming in. I have a pretty serious and planned out strength program. Being more physical, more experienced and just calmer out there because I knew what to expect was honestly the biggest thing, less so skillwise.”
Hicke is hoping that the 3×3 competition will help push him to improve further. The game is fast-moving and players have to be able to be versatile to contribute in every way.
“I think it’ll be good for my development,” said Hicke. “A lot of these countries are going to bring good players and playing 3v3, you’re making quick reads and you have the ball in games a lot because there are only three players on the court. And I think it’ll be great for me defensively because you have to be in really good shape. There’s no real checking it up. Once you score you can grab it out of the rim and the other team has the ball. So it’s go, go, go for 10 minutes, which I think will be great for me. I’m sure there will be some skilled and pretty physical players. There’s tough, high level competition really anywhere so having a set-up where they’re bringing in great players to play against I think will be great for me.”
Pool play at the event will take place on July 17 and 18. Play-in games and quarterfinals are slated for July 19 with the semifinals and finals set for July 20. Hicke believes he has the tools to help the U.S. squad make a deep run.
“I can make 3s pretty quick and cut and I know how to play off two-man action or three-man action, whether that’s off on-ball screen action or normal ball screen,” said Hicke. “I know where I should be in the space of the floor for 3 on 3 and when to cut at the right time to make it easier on my teammates. We do it in practice pretty much every day and our offense is based around it. I think it’ll be a little different because it won’t be our offense. I have a pretty good understanding of where I’m trying to pass to and where I’m trying to get my teammates the ball.”
Hicke doesn’t have extensive 3×3 experience, but Princeton’s offensive strategies and practice reps give him a great base. He’s heard glowing reviews of the 3×3 game from Princeton teammates Caden Pierce and Dalen Davis, who were part of the 2024 USA Basketball 3×3 Men’s Nations League Team. And he’s been watching as much 3×3 action online as he can find.
“What I’ve seen so far is you have to be in great shape,” said Hicke. “It looks very tiring. The biggest thing is getting easy looks. It’s obvious, but the teams getting wide open layups now and then and the good looks at 3s do best. Threes are very important because it’s 2s and 1s so 3s are more valuable. The teams that are moving the ball and making quick reads – the shot clock is only 12 seconds so you only have one or two reads to go to – so the teams that are efficient and getting good looks seem to be the ones that over time will wear you down as the easy points add up.”
Hicke and his new teammates got a crash course in 3×3 at a training camp in Cincinnati on July 12. Three days later, they were scheduled to fly to Germany.
“They are bringing people in,” said Hicke. “I would assume they’re bringing in four people and we’ll work our chemistry and play against them and have live reps. I honestly don’t know what training camp will entail so I’m looking forward to it.”
He’s most looking forward to the trip overseas and the experience there. Hicke was born in London and lived there until he was 7. But Germany wasn’t a country he visited then. He’ll be there with teams and sports from all over the world in a sort of mini-Olympics setting.
“Going abroad and going to Europe/Germany will be a really cool cultural experience,” said Hicke. “There are so many different people from so many different countries. It’s also cool that there’s a lot of different sports involved. I’m excited to go watch some of the other stuff like tennis or the other different sports. It’ll be a really cool event. And then just to play at a high level, 3-on-3 seems like a cool game, but I’m not as familiar with it.”
Hicke will see some of the best competition in the world at the university level. It’s an experience that should only help him as he looks to step into a larger role for a Princeton team that figures to look different after the graduation of Blake Peters, the transfers of Xaivian Lee and Jack Scott and the decision of Pierce to take a redshirt season this winter so he can play his final year of college eligibility at another school in 2026-27.
“I’m super excited for next year,” said Hicke. “There are a lot of changes but I’m excited for what we bring back and also the new freshmen that are coming in. I think we’re going to be connected and a good group. Me personally I’m trying to become a little better of a 3-point shooter so I’m continuing just working on that, and then working on being a little bit more of a guard so working on ballhandling and perimeter defense. Nothing too crazy, just trying to keep building.”
While playing in the University Games disrupted a planned internship, the opportunity to compete there for Team USA was something Hicke couldn’t pass up.
“It’s going to be a great experience and pretty good for my development,” said Hicke. “I just love playing basketball so it’ll be great doing that.”