Jared McCain, 2023 Top-30 prospect, talks Duke offer & recruitment

In the eighth grade, Jared McCain created a goal board that listed several schools that he would like a scholarship offer from. Among those on the list, Duke and UCLA have been checked off. Who’s left remaining on the list, you ask? Kentucky, Arizona, and Oregon. Those offers are sure to come at some point, for the 6-foot-2 shooting guard out of Corona (Calif.) Centennial.

McCain is the No. 29 prospect in the 2023 class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is ranked as the No. 5 shooting guard and the No. 1 player in California.

A college decision won’t come until his senior year but McCain says he’s looking for “that family atmosphere.” He’s already taken official visits to both Houston and Lousiville, as well as unofficial visits to UCLA and LMU.

McCain discussed his recent visits, as well as who he wants to visit in the future with On3.

Houston wants to give McCain the keys

“They’re really centered in on me, which was cool,” McCain said. “They showed me how I’d fit into their system, and how it would work. Also, how their guard their now, Marcus Sasser, how I can take stuff from him, and basically do the same thing he’s doing so it was cool. I really liked that visit.”

Louisville visit was ‘dope’

“That was super dope, Louisville Live…those fans are crazy,” McCain said. “Their assistant coach Ross (McMains), he took me in and showed me a bunch of film on Fred VanVleet, just being a bit bigger, stockier guard. It was cool that they also zoned in on what I can do.”

The Duke offer was ‘crazy’

Jon Scheyer and Duke extended an offer to Jared McCain in early November of last month. What was it like for McCain to cross off another school from his goal board?

“It was crazy,” McCain said. “It was after we finished practice, and they had an assistant there to watch me. And coach (Jon) Scheyer FaceTimed me and he was just talking about Duke and the culture there, and he finally said those words, and it was crazy. I have a goal board that I got to check it off of so that was super dope.”

McCain said he would like to take an official visit to Duke in the near future.

Gonzaga visit being set up

Just about one week prior to McCain getting the Duke offer, Gonzaga extended an offer as well. He was originally slated to take an unofficial visit to the Zags on November 13th for the Texas game but had to cancel due to contracting strep throat.

However, McCain says he’s in the process of setting up an official visit to Gonzaga sometime in early January.

Familiar with UCLA

“I know a lot of their players very closely so I’ve been growing up with Will (McClendon), and I’ve known Peyton (Watson) for a while. On my unofficial (visit), that’s when they offered me and that was on my goal board as well so it was surreal.”

UCLA is only about an hour and a half away from McCain.