Joe Jackson has cut his list to three schools and hometown favorite Memphis is still the leader.
The 5-foot-11, 160-pound Jackson told Jerry Meyer of Rivals that he will attend either Kansas, Memphis or Tennessee and that he will sign in November.
A senior at Memphis White Station, Jackson has been the primary object of desire for new Memphis head coach Josh Pastner, who hopes that Jackson might become a smaller version of Penny Hardaway.
“Memphis is the frontrunner,” Eric Robinson, Jackson’s AAU coach, told me Monday. “They are the hometown powerhouse program in his home city.”
Kentucky was intially recruiting Jackson, but reportedly did not offer him a scholarship.
Kentucky remains involved with fellow point guards Brandon Knight, Kyrie Irving and Josh Selby.
Tennessee, which lost Selby when he re-opened his commitment, hopes to remain in the hunt for Jackson. The Vols are also involved with Trevor Releford and Vander Blue of Madison (WI) Madison Memorial.
Selby, meantime, is headed to visit UConn Wednesday.
Still, Robinson said Jackson isn’t concerned with what those other players decide.
“They all said, ‘We want you. We’re gonna put the ball in your hands,'” Robinson said, referring to a longer list that had included Kentucky, Syracuse, UConn, Duke and Marquette. “We don’t know if they’re telling Brandon Knight, Kyrie Irving, Josh Selby, they might be telling everybody that.
“But do you really want me, do you really want Joe Jackson?'”
Memphis really wants Joe Jackson and Kansas and Tennessee are hoping they can prove they want him as much.
“He’s not worriid about those other point guards,” Robinson said. “He never worried about he opposing person. He’s gonna do what Joe Jackson wants to do and he wants to evaluate it. He wants to evaulate the program.
“He comes from nowhere. To have prestigious schools like this wanting him to come and lead their program to the Big Dance. He’s gonna evaluate because his dream is to be successful and one day play in the NBA.”
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Avaricious / August 11, 2009
Since when did Doron Lamb become a point guard?
With his lateral quickness, he has difficulty defending his natural position, shooting guard.
Hustler Robinson was at the center of journalist Thamel’s recent article on the greed and exploitation of AAU coaches, with respect to NCAA coaches at sanctioned events.
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DrDick / August 11, 2009
Joe Jackson should sign with Memphis. But don’t count Kentucky out. UK backed off because they want Knight and Selby but if they don’t get them they will make a strong push for Jackson. We know Wes or WWW can influence any player they want to go to Kentucky.
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pastaboy / August 11, 2009
Joe’s going to Memphis …..next topic .
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tsmooth / August 13, 2009
Joe at memphis with the barton bros and possibly casey prather and tarik black, not to mention austion hollins, chris crawford, michael bradley, and the kid at white station adonis, could give memphis a top 5 class next year, and make us a top 10 team that could challenge for the Final Four. not to mention, we will probably have will coleman, angel garcia, wesley witherspoon, elliot williams, and martin nglaro back. memphis will be a dangerous team both regionally and nationally. watch out, memphis is back!
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sbucksf / August 31, 2009
hahahaha, joe jackson to memphis and the jokester conference usa. in a couple of years memphis will be back to looking like all those other mid majors at conference usa now that the cheatapari is gone.
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