Syracuse Basketball: 5-star target vaults to No. 2 nationally in new ranking

The 247Sports recruiting service has posted its first set of national rankings for the 2024 cycle, and an elite shooting guard who has garnered interest from Syracuse basketball has soared into the No. 2 overall position.

We recently detailed, per Mike Waters of Syracuse.com, that ‘Cuse coaches had watched 2024 five-star guard Ian Jackson play. The 6-foot-6 Jackson, listed as a shooting guard or a small forward depending on the recruiting service, is a sophomore who attends Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, N.Y.

When 247Sports published its top-80 players in the 2024 class only in the last few days, that recruiting service rated Jackson as five stars, No. 2 overall, No. 1 at shooting guard and No. 1 in the state of New York.

As other primary recruiting services have also updated their national rankings of late for this cycle, I’ve come across a handful of comments from analysts and other experts that suggest Jackson is a significant contender for the No. 1 rating across the country in 2024.

Syracuse basketball has displayed interest in five-star guard Ian Jackson from New York.

Rivals.com presently has Jackson at No. 3 nationwide in the 2024 cycle, while he checks in at No. 4 overall via ESPN. Both of these recruiting services recently updated their national rankings for this class.

Perhaps most importantly, at the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite ranked Jackson at No. 2 in his cycle, No. 1 at shooting guard and No. 1 in New York.

In a recent story, Rivals.com basketball recruiting director Rob Cassidy noted that Jackson “sits within striking distance of the top spot” in the 2024 class.

According to media reports and recruiting services, Jackson has picked up scholarship offers to date from teams including St. John’s, Seton Hall, Oklahoma State, UConn, Nebraska, Kansas State and Bryant. Some recent reports also indicate that blue-blood programs Kentucky and Duke, along with Florida State, are showing interest in Jackson.

As a top-five overall prospect in 2024 who is contending for No. 1 nationally in this class, it’s no surprise at all that groups like the Blue Devils, Kentucky, the Seminoles and UConn, among others, are in the mix for Jackson.

I do hope that Syracuse basketball coaches make a serious run at pursuing Jackson, even if the competition is only going to heighten for him. We’ll obviously continue to monitor Jackson’s recruiting process moving forward.