Syracuse basketball watches 4-star PG who exploded on Under Armour Association circuit

Last weekend, during an NCAA-permitted live period in grassroots hoops, the Syracuse basketball staff was in for 2027 four-star point guard Payton Jones from Texas.

The 6-foot-2 Jones is a top-100 national prospect and a top-20 point guard within the 2027 cycle. He has scored more than 2,000 career points in high school, and in the current AAU season, Jones is off to a fast start for the 17U team of the Houston-based Gulf Coast Blue Chips in the Under Armour Association ("UAA") league.

In the 2025-26 season, Jones played at a high level for Beaumont United High School in Beaumont, Texas, which went 36-4 overall and reached the title game of the Texas University Interscholastic League ("UIL") Class 5A Division 2 state tournament.

Jones was named to the Class 5A Division 2 All-Tournament team. According to MaxPreps, during the 2025-26 campaign, Jones averaged 20.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.3 steals per game while making 46 percent from the field, 32 percent from beyond the arc and 74 percent from the free-throw line.

Syracuse basketball is checking out 2027 4-star PG Payton Jones.

This past weekend, with a live period going on from May 15 to May 17, the UAA circuit held a session at the Spooky Nook Champion Mill in the Cincinnati area. In his four games there, Jones averaged 20.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists per encounter while hitting on 44.3 percent from the field, 47.1 percent from 3-point land and 82.6 percent from the charity stripe.

In April, when the UAA league conducted its first spring session, in Kansas City, Kan., the scouting experts at The Circuit named Jones to their All-UAA session one first team, as he averaged 20.8 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Jones' scholarship offer sheet includes schools such as Auburn, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas State, LSU, Maryland, Mississippi State, Missouri, N.C. State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Virginia Tech and SMU, among others.

According to recruiting analysts, some of the major contenders for Jones, at this juncture in his recruiting process, include Oklahoma State, Houston, Maryland and SMU. Within the 2027 cycle, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite places him at No. 82 overall, No. 18 at point guard and No. 6 in Texas, while the industry-generated Rivals Industry Ranking has Jones at No. 87 nationally, No. 24 at point guard and No. 5 in Texas.

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