Syracuse Basketball: 4-star PG Elmarko Jackson vaults into top-25 overall

When recruiting service On3 recently updated its national rankings for the 2023 class, Syracuse basketball target Elmarko Jackson made one of the largest leaps across the country.

The 6-foot-4 Jackson, a four-star point guard who received a scholarship offer from the Orange coaching staff in April, proved one of the best all-around performers this spring and summer on the AAU circuit.

That, in turn, has led to a flood of high-major offers, with his total number of scholarship offers now hovering around 30. Additionally, his play over the past few months in grassroots basketball has fueled a national rating surge for Jackson.

In my opinion, Elmarko Jackson still remains significantly undervalued on a national scale, although let’s see where his rankings reside after all of the primary recruiting services refresh their 2023 ratings.

Syracuse basketball faces steep competition for four-star point guard Elmarko Jackson.

According to On3, Jackson presently checks in at No. 23 overall, No. 6 at point guard and No. 1 in Connecticut. Previously, On3 had him at No. 61 nationally.

Jackson will spend his upcoming senior year at the South Kent School in South Kent, Conn., after putting forth a stellar junior campaign for the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, Pa.

At the time of this writing, Jackson was No. 65 via ESPN, No. 69 at the industry-generated On3 Consensus, No. 69 per 247Sports, No. 88 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, and No. 141 via Rivals.com.

In late July, Elmarko Jackson said via Twitter that he plans to trim his list of remaining contenders in the coming weeks, take his official visits and then announce his commitment this fall.

He has said that Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim has watched him compete a lot in recent months as Jackson played for the Delaware-based WE R1 in the Under Armour Association league.

Beyond the Orange, Jackson’s offer sheet includes Louisville, Ohio State, UCLA, Villanova, Kansas, Michigan, Texas, Indiana, 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.

To date, I have not seen any predictions for Jackson’s future collegiate destination on various recruiting Web sites.

Not too long ago, we noted in a piece that the eight teams recruiting him the hardest were Miami, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, UCLA, Ohio State, Indiana and VCU, according to an interview that Jackson gave late last month with Sam Lance on zagsblog.com.

My sense is that the ‘Cuse coaching staff has prioritized Jackson for a while now, but Syracuse basketball has also been in pursuit of several other 2023 guards.

Given the intense competition, my own personal opinion is that the Orange is going to have a tough time prevailing for Elmarko Jackson, but the first step is to make his list cut in the near future.