Syracuse Basketball: Baltimore 5-star target, top-ranked PG, wins AAU title

Tyler Jackson, a Syracuse basketball 2025 five-star priority recruit, captured an AAU championship on Sunday.

The 6-foot-3 Jackson, an elite point guard who was offered a scholarship by the Orange coaching staff in late April, and his teammates with the Baltimore-based Team Thrill on Sunday won the 16U title in the Under Armour Association league (“UAA”).

Per a tweet from The Circuit, this proved the second-consecutive 16U crown for Team Thrill. In the final game on July 9, per the UAA Web site, Team Thrill knocked off the Washington, D.C.-based DC Premier, 57-37, to cut down the nets at the Lake Point Champions Center in Cartersville, Ga.

During the UAA’s season-ending playoffs from July 6 to July 9, Team Thrill went an impressive 7-0 overall.

Syracuse basketball 2025 five-star target Tyler Jackson is an AAU champion.

Unfortunately, I’m not seeing a comprehensive list of box scores on the UAA’s Web site. However, I did come across a few box scores that listed some of Jackson’s statistics over the last couple of days.

In one contest, Jackson tallied 25 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals. In another encounter, he struggled with his shot, collecting four points, four assists and two steals. In a third affair, Jackson generated 22 points, five rebounds, two blocks and one steal.

Jackson, a consensus top-30 national prospect in the rising-junior cycle, has proven stellar in grassroots basketball this spring and summer. He played well for Team Thrill earlier in the spring and during the recent UAA playoffs.

https://twitter.com/SLAM_HS/status/1678119013979770888

Additionally, in late May, Jackson suited up during one session for the Baltimore-based Team Melo in Nike’s EYBL league, where he competed alongside another Syracuse basketball 2025 priority target, four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony out of New York City.

In that Nike session, over a stretch of four games, Jackson averaged a ridiculous 30.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 29.3 minutes per affair.

Jackson, a standout rising junior at the Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore, has said in several interviews of late that he’s hearing a lot these days from the ‘Cuse coaching staff. He has also said that he plans to officially visit the Hill in the near future.

In the 2022-23 campaign, as a sophomore for the Saint Frances Academy, Jackson was named to the Baltimore Catholic League All-League second team. The Panthers, last season, claimed the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (“MIAA”) A Conference championship.

When the contact period opened up for the 2025 class on June 15, enabling college coaches to initiate direct communication with prospects in this cycle, reports stated that Syracuse basketball did reach out to Jackson.

His offer sheet, besides the Orange, also includes LSU, Old Dominion, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, California, Kansas, Alabama, Maryland, Illinois, Rutgers, Seton Hall, DePaul, George Mason, Georgia Tech, Rhode Island, Houston, Penn State and UCF, among others.

Other strong programs that have recently contacted Jackson, according to reports, include Indiana, Miami, Florida State, 2023 national champion UConn, Kentucky, Oregon and Texas.

Multiple recruiting services, when I penned this column, had Jackson as five stars, a top-15 overall player and the nation’s No. 1 point guard within the 2025 class.

To me, he is a significant contender for the No. 1 national ranking in this cycle.