Syracuse Basketball: 4-star junior, top-10 shooting guard, scores SU offer

Last summer, we wrote about Syracuse basketball coaches reportedly showing interest in 2023 four-star guard Elmarko Jackson.

Now that interest has turned into an official scholarship offer from the Orange to the 6-foot-4 Jackson, which he revealed in a recent tweet.

Candidly, I’m pumped about this offer. I really like Jackson’s game, and I believe that his stock is going to continue to rise in the junior class. He recently finished up an excellent 2021-22 campaign at the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Per Jackson’s bio on the MaxPreps Web site, in 25 games for the Academy of the New Church (which went 18-7 overall, by the way), he averaged 17.9 points, 5.4 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per encounter.

Syracuse basketball has gotten into the recruiting mix for four-star Elmarko Jackson.

I’ve seen Jackson listed as either a point guard, a combo guard or a shooting guard, depending on where you look. Regardless, he’s got some serious skills.

Not too long ago, there was an NCAA live period where college coaches could watch high-school prospects in person at various AAU events on the Nike, Adidas and Under Armour circuits.

According to On3 national analyst Jamie Shaw, Jackson played at a top-flight level for his AAU team, WE R1, during a recent Under Armour Association (“UAA”) session.

"In fact, Shaw named Jackson as his most valuable player for this UAA set of games. Shaw wrote in part, “Coming into this weekend, Elmarko Jackson was already the 2023 On3 Consensus No. 76 overall player. He did nothing but improve his stock in front of our eyes at the event. Jackson has an elite frame with elite speed; that got him this ranking. Now, he is playing with pace and, most importantly, consistently knocking down shots. The first live weekend could not have gone any better for Jackson.”"

The ‘Cuse coaching staff will face growing competition for this new recruiting target, given how Jackson performed this past season at the Academy of the New Church and is faring so far on the grassroots basketball circuit.

According to media reports, recruiting services and his own Twitter page, Jackson’s other offers include from St. John’s, Penn State, Miami, Minnesota, Maryland, VCU, Bryant, La Salle, Ole Miss, Seton Hall and California.

Reports and recruiting Web sites would also seem to suggest that he holds interest from squads such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgetown, Butler, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Xavier.

Most, but not all, of the primary recruiting services rate Jackson as four stars and a top-80 overall prospect in the 2023 cycle.

The industry-generated 247Sports Composite has him at No. 45 nationally and No. 10 at shooting guard. The On3 Consensus places Jackson at No. 76 across the country and No. 18 at shooting guard.

To date, I haven’t seen any predictions from national analysts or recruiting insiders as to Jackson’s potential future collegiate destination, and we’ll obviously continue to monitor his recruitment moving forward.