By SAM LANCE
CHICAGO — Class of 2023 four-star guard Elmarko Jackson will narrow down his college options by the end of the summer, he tells ZAGSBLOG.com.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound combo guard from South Kent High School (CT) and the We R 1 AAU program, was one of the most impressive players during the UAA finals. Jackson hit shots from all over the floor and finished with 26 points in the quarterfinals to help We R 1 defeat the previous session champions, the Houston Defenders.
“I get downhill very easily,” Jackson said of his game. “I get buckets for myself and my teammates. I play defense really hard. I feel like I just affect the game in a plethora of ways. I’m always just everywhere, flying around the court, just trying to make plays for my team.”
After narrowing down his schools list to seven or eight this summer, Jackson will then take his official and unofficial visits from there in the fall. The guard hasn’t taken any official visits yet.
At the UAA finals, Jackson said eight schools — Maryland, Miami, Indiana, UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan, Virginia and VCU – are recruiting him hardest. He broke down each of those schools:
Maryland: “I’ve been to campus a couple times on unofficial visits. Under the new staff I just saw how they operated as a team, their workout schedules, where I would live, stuff like that.”
Miami: “I’ve been to their campus unofficially. I went out there during the fall last year. I just went over, watched their games, watched them play UCF, and I toured around campus.”
Indiana: “I haven’t really talked to them a lot. I don’t know a lot about their program. I know they did good this year, though.”
Virginia: “I’ve been talking with coach Tony Bennett and coach [Orlando] Vandross. They’ve just been telling me how their program is run, the pillars of their program, how they expect us to be there as basketball players on the court and off the court.”
Michigan: “They’ve been talking to me about how they develop pros and how they’ll push me hard. They have a nice program, facilities, all of that.”
UCLA: “We talked about living situation, practice facilities, how they play. Just a situation with the guards and how many kids they will have leaving when I come in.”
Ohio State: “I’ve just been talking with them about their facilities, the way they play. Pretty much everything.”
VCU: “They just let their guards go and they work with them a lot.”
Jackson said his three most established relationships are with VCU assistant J.D. Byers, Miami assistant DJ Irving and California assistant Andrew Francis.
Some factors in Jackson’s final choice will be playing time and going to a program that has a winning culture.
“Just how the coaches interact with their players, the togetherness of the entire program will be important,” Jackson said. “Living situation, too. I don’t want to go somewhere I don’t enjoy being at.”
Jackson, the No. 89 ranked player nationally by 247Sports, said his favorite NBA player is Kyrie Irving. He models his game after him, Kobe Bryant and Davion Mitchell for defense.
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