GG Jackson, Nation's top prospect, commits to South Carolina
GG Jackson will play for South Carolina after all.
South Carolina men’s basketball landed arguably the biggest recruit in program history today when the Columbia (S.C.) Ridge View five-star power forward committed to the Gamecocks after originally committing to North Carolina and then decommitting nine days ago.
Jackson will reclassify to the 2022 class. That means he’ll be eligible to play for the Gamecocks this upcoming season. He just finished his EYBL circuit with Team CP3, paving the way for his reclassification and announcement Saturday.
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On3 ranks Jackson the No. 1 player in the 2023 class and he will almost assuredly be a top 10 player once he reclassifies to the 2022 class.
The 6-foot-8, 210-pound Jackson has also ranked the top overall prospect in the 2023 class with a rating of 99.20 in the On3Consensus, which equally averages the rankings from all of the major recruiting services.
Jackson checks in as the top overall prospect in the 2023 class on On3, Rivals and 247Sports with ESPN ranking him the sixth-best prospect in that class.
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- Inside the winding recruitment of 2023 No. 1 prospect GG Jackson
It’s a massive get for Lamont Paris in his first year with the Gamecocks, adding the highest-rated recruit for his class in program history.
The most recent Top 50 player South Carolina signed was PJ Dozier, who was an All-American out of Spring Valley.
If Jackson did stay in the 2023 class he would have certainly been in contention as a McDonald’s All-American and national player of the year.
This move has been in the works for some time, first surfacing weeks ago in a report by On3’s Jamie Shaw.
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Jackson was one of South Carolina’s major targets in the 2023 class under Frank Martin, arguably the favorite to land him.
The Gamecocks’ staff sold him on being the male equivalent of A’ja Wilson, something he was receptive to.
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“It definitely puts a lot of thoughts in my head,” Jackson told GamecockCentral after a February official visit. “I feel like I can lift the state up. A’ja Wilson did it with the girls. Jadeveon Clowney did it with football. I feel like I could, if I was to go there, do it for men’s basketball.”
Paris made him a priority after getting the job, meeting with Jackson at Ridge View (S.C.) High School days after getting the job.
The visit went well, but it was ultimately too late at the time. Jackson committed to North Carolina a few weeks later.
He becomes one of the focal pieces now of South Carolina’s 2022-23 team.
The Gamecocks have two other freshmen joining the fold in Zach Davis and Daniel Hankins-Sanford.
South Carolina also brings in Hayden Brown, Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, Meechie Johnson and Ebrima Dibba out of the transfer portal.
As it stands currently the Gamecocks have one more scholarship available to spend for next year’s roster.
“Just best available in terms of having a good fit also,” Paris said in June about the roster. “Rather than just taking someone to just take someone I’d rather it make sense and make sure it’s a good fit and it’s a need for us.”
