2020 recruiting target Andre Jackson talks Syracuse following SLAM Summer Classic

For those who don’t follow recruiting closely, Andre Jackson is a consensus top-40 basketball prospect in the class of 2020. Just coming off his sophomore season, Jackson plays his high school basketball at Albany Academy when he’s not running with the Albany City Rocks in the summer.

Just this past weekend, Jackson was down in New York to compete against some of the nation’s top prospects at Dyckman Park for the SLAM Summer Classic.

Following the glorified pickup game which was really more of a reincarnated And-1 Mixtape tour with elite high school basketball prospects than anything else, Jackson spoke of his recruitment generally and offered some nuggets on his Syracuse Orange recruitment. The Orange got in on him early, offering a scholarship to the 6-foot-6 wing last year.

“I like Syracuse a lot actually, that’s one of my top schools right now,” Jackson said. “I’m looking to revisit them coming soon, also Indiana and Kansas.”

While Gerry McNamara is the lead recruiter for Jackson, Jim Boeheim has also been in contact with the 6-foot-6 wing. So what’s their pitch to Jackson?

“They tell me they like me, they’d like me in the zone,” Jackson divulged. “I’m a good player, I’d fit their offense. They’ve had tons of players in my position, how I am, they’ll develop me into the player I want to be, a shooter. Get my game trimmed up, help me get to that next level.”

As of now Jackson isn’t in a rush to whittle down his recruitment as more offers are sure to come in over the course of the season, but he suspects he’ll start to narrow his focus on schools by the end of his junior basketball season.

Of course, Jackson runs with Joe Girard and Isaiah Stewart on the EYBL AAU circuit. While Stewart is favored to land at Duke, he holds an offer from Syracuse along with Girard and Jackson. It may not be likely, but do the City Rocks troika talk about teaming up together at Syracuse?

“Every time I ask Joe where’s he’s going I’m like ‘Cuse! Cuse!’,” Jackson said as if he were nudging his teammate. “I don’t know, we’re not really planning anything right now. I mean I’m not sure about him [Girard] and Isaiah but right now we’re just going with the flow.”

Fair enough and no harm in that. Only time will tell.