Syracuse Basketball: Not looking good for ‘Cuse with 5-star big man target

Syracuse basketball was the first college team to offer a scholarship to 2023 five-star power forward G.G. Jackson, but I don’t get the sense that the Orange will be prevailing in the recruiting battle for this elite top-10 player.

I’m not a recruiting analyst, nor am I in Jackson’s inner circle. But based on some of his recent comments in an interview, it seems that the 6-foot-8 Jackson is focused on a handful of other teams besides the ‘Cuse.

If that’s the case, that’s a bummer. I’ve been high on Jackson ever since the Orange offered him in August of 2020. The challenge for Syracuse basketball is that Jackson’s recruitment has completely blown up, while his national ratings have soared.

It was always going to prove an uphill climb for the ‘Cuse to pick up Jackson, and some of his more recent offers perhaps just crushed any hope that the Orange could potentially prevail here.

Syracuse basketball offered five-star G.G. Jackson, but which teams is he high on?

Jackson, a junior at Ridge View High School in Columbia, S.C., has offers from a boatload of squads, including Kansas, Virginia, Florida State, Duke, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU, N.C. State, Maryland, Georgetown, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and Boston College.

According to a recent article from Rivals.com national analyst Jamie Shaw, Jackson has taken official visits to North Carolina and Georgetown, and he is planning trips to Duke and Virginia.

Beyond those four programs, Jackson told Shaw that others still in the mix are South Carolina, Virginia Tech and N.C. State. Numerous Atlantic Coast Conference teams are noted by Jackson, but obviously no mention of the ‘Cuse.

He is a consensus five-star prospect in the 2023 cycle, and the majority of recruiting services place Jackson within the top-10 nationwide in this class.

I’ve read comments from more than one national analyst of late suggesting that Jackson could absolutely make a serious run at the No. 1 overall ranking in 2023 based on his play for Ridge View High School as well as on the AAU circuit.

We’ll continue to follow Jackson’s recruiting process to see if Syracuse basketball has any shot at securing him. You never know how things can play out with this recruiting stuff, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up that Jackson will ever don an Orange uniform.