Syracuse Basketball: 4-star priority PG eyes top-50 ranking, analyst says

I’ve said for a while now that I believe Syracuse basketball priority recruiting target Elmarko Jackson, a four-star guard in the 2023 class, is vastly underrated on a national scale.

Sure, both of the industry-generated ranking services, the 247Sports Composite and the On3 Consensus, place the 6-foot-4 Jackson within the top-100 across the country.

Several recruiting services rate him as a top-75 overall prospect, although Rivals.com has Jackson barely inside the top 150, which is absurd.

In any event, as his offer sheet continues to blow up, Jackson has performed at an ultra-high level this spring and early summer in grassroots basketball and at other events, such as the recently held NBPA Top 100 camp in Orlando, Fla.

This month, should Jackson keep on playing at such a top-flight level on the AAU circuit amid NCAA live periods, he could make a realistic push for the “national top 50,” 247Sports national basketball director Eric Bossi wrote in a recent article.

Syracuse basketball offered a scholarship to four-star Elmarko Jackson in April.

In my own personal opinion, a huge key for the Orange in Jackson’s recruitment is to get him on the Hill for an official visit in the near future.

He’s noted the possibility of traveling to Central New York in prior interviews, but I haven’t seen anything lined up as of yet. What’s more, the talented guard has witnessed his offer list add some impressive names lately.

Just in the last 10 days or so, Jackson has landed offers from heavyweights such as Villanova, Kansas, Michigan, Texas and Indiana.

His other offers, meanwhile, include from Virginia, LSU, Oklahoma, Tennessee, DePaul, Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Kansas State, St. John’s, Penn State, Miami, Minnesota, Maryland, VCU, Bryant, La Salle, Ole Miss, Seton Hall and California.

With an offer sheet approaching 30, it certainly feels like Syracuse basketball faces a monster challenge in trying to win out here. Jackson has said that he’d like to trim down his list of contenders by summer’s end, and hopefully, the ‘Cuse will make the cut.

A stand-out for WE R1 in the Under Armour Association league, Jackson will spend his senior year competing for a terrific prep-school squad, the South Kent School in South Kent, Conn.

Bossi, in his recent story, said that Jackson is a potential stock-booster in the 2023 cycle this month on the AAU tour.

"The 247Sports analyst wrote in part about the Orange recruit, “Let’s be clear, Jackson isn’t sneaking up on anybody. He’s ranked No. 72 nationally and has been pretty well known for a while. However, he’s starting to show that he can be a full time point guard and given his ability to get to the rim and toughness, he could push for the national top 50 with a July that resembles his play during the spring months.”"

Jackson entering the top 50 would be totally reasonable. And the next time that Rivals.com updates its national ratings for the 2023 class, I would hope that it would move Jackson up, as he’s currently ranked No. 144 overall by that recruiting service, which makes no sense to me at all.