Syracuse Men’s Basketball’s COVID pause is a good time to check in on the recruiting front. The Orange currently have a depth problem that is rearing its ugly head this season, but that should be solved with the deep and talented class of 2022 that is coming in next year. However, what does the following year look like?
Syracuse is primarily targeting the backcourt, which makes sense given the inevitable departures of Joe Girard and Buddy Boeheim. The Orange have a couple offers out to top-50 frontcourt players, like Matas Buzelis and Isaiah Miranda, but recent reports don’t look too favorable for them coming to the 315.
Instead, Jim Boeheim and company are relying on finding a diamond in the rough with Joseph Estrella and trying to lock down an uber talented Gavin Griffiths. The door is still open for both of those players, but not so much with G.G. Jackson.
Jackson is the No. 21 overall recruit in the class of 2023 according to ESPN, and No. 10 overall per 247Sports Composite. He‚Äôs a 6-foot-8, 210 lbs. forward/center combo. I know what you‚Äôre thinking — a tall dude with some actual strength that could hold down the middle of the zone. As much as that is probably true, it doesn‚Äôt seem like Jackson is too keen on the Orange.
Syracuse offered Jackson a scholarship way back in August of 2020. The South Carolina-native had just finished his freshman year of high school at that point. Everyone knew it was going to be a difficult sell to get Jackson to come to ‘Cuse. He is a big recruit that pretty much every Power 5 school has their eyes on, including North Carolina, Duke, Florida State, Virginia, LSU, South Carolina and more. All of those schools have already offered Jackson a scholarship, by the way.
Syracuse’s recruiting of Jackson seemed fine for a while. The Orange were always in the mix, up until about a week ago when the now-junior spoke to Jamie Shaw of Rivals about his recruiting.
“I took my first official visit to UNC, and then my second one I went up to Georgetown,” Jackson told Shaw. “I am supposed to be going to Duke and Virginia real soon; I am not sure on the exact date yet.”
Did you see Syracuse ever mentioned in that quote? What about in the rest of this article? Go ahead, click those words that are orange, skim the article and get back to me if there is any reference to the Orange.
Unless I’m blind, Jackson rattled off eight schools in that interview and never brought up Syracuse. So, by using some common sense, one could determine that SU is out of the G.G. Jackson sweepstakes, which is very disappointing. The forward is extremely talented and would fill the gap of “strong big man” that the Orange have been missing for years.
Hopefully you never got your hopes up on Syracuse landing G.G. Jackson, but if you did, I’m sorry. You can pretty much close the book on him coming to ‘Cuse and shift your attention to Estrella, Griffiths, or any of the guards.
