A day before his college announcement, UK basketball target’s decision still a mystery
In the final days of his five-star recruitment, Isaiah Jackson still has people guessing.
The 6-foot-9 forward from the Detroit area is set to reveal his college decision at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Waterford Mott High School, and the three finalists are Alabama, Kentucky and Syracuse.
On the day before that announcement, few national recruiting experts had weighed in on where they think he’ll go.
“Isaiah has done a pretty good job of holding things close to the vest,” 247Sports national analyst Evan Daniels told the Herald-Leader. “I think it’s a two-horse race between Alabama and Kentucky.”
Daniels has not yet logged a Crystal Ball prediction. Neither of Rivals.com’s national analysts — Eric Bossi and Corey Evans — have put in a pick on Jackson’s Future Cast page.
Alabama might go into Saturday as the slight favorite — national recruiting expert Andrew Slater did make a pick for the Crimson Tide this fall, and national analyst Jerry Meyer followed suit a few weeks later — but the lack of buzz in the days leading up to Jackson’s announcement is telling.
“It’s been tough on him,” Mott High head coach David McGlown told the Herald-Leader. “He even thought about pushing it back for a minute there. But he wanted to follow the same timeline that he had set for himself. But, it’s tough. And, to my knowledge, to this day, I don’t even know which one it’s going to be. We’ll see Saturday.
“It’s just been a family thing with them. They’re really tight-knit, and they try to keep everything under wraps. And that’s a good thing.”
Saturday morning update: Several national recruiting experts, including Bossi and Evans, have put in last-minute predictions favoring Kentucky.
Jackson — the No. 25 player in the 2020 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings — took an official visit to Kentucky in August, Syracuse in September, and Alabama in October.
McGlown said John Calipari has been by the high school a couple of times during the fall recruiting period, and UK assistant coach Kenny Payne has been his lead recruiter.
“He had a great time,” McGlown said of Jackson’s visit to Lexington. “He liked the other kids on the team. He likes Coach Cal. He loves Coach Kenny Payne. He likes all those guys, man. So he had a great visit. It was all positive.”
Jackson’s coach said the Alabama visit was also a positive experience, setting up a difficult decision for the star recruit.
Kentucky signees for 2020
Terrence Clarke — the Wildcats’ first top-five commitment in five years — was the first in UK’s 2020 class to officially sign Wednesday, and the program acknowledged that signing with a social media post the following day.
UK will continue to confirm its early additions, but there is not expected to be a full release on the Wildcats’ fall signing class until it’s complete. That means Kentucky will wait until after Jackson’s decision to issue insight from John Calipari on each of his new recruits.
Kentucky did make the surprise announcement Friday morning that five-star point guard Devin Askew had signed with the Wildcats for the 2020 class. Askew, originally in the class of 2021, was widely expected to ultimately reclassify, but he had been planning to hold off on that decision until the spring.
Once Jackson makes his decision, the only uncommitted players in the 2020 class with UK scholarship offers will be Greg Brown and Cliff Omoruyi, and neither of those recruits is expected to make a college announcement until the spring.
The early signing period ends Nov. 20.
Slow times for recruiting?
The early signing period for basketball is nothing like the madness of the early football period, which is filled with new commitments, last-minute flips, and all sorts of other craziness.
By comparison, the first couple days of this basketball signing period were beyond bland. There were very few commitments of national note — none among five-star recruits — and the team rankings haven’t changed much, as a result.
Going into Friday, according to the 247Sports composite, Duke still had the nation’s No. 1 class, followed by North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Virginia, Utah, Baylor, Xavier and Wisconsin. That order changed when Askew’s ranking was updated to the 2020 class, and UK has now passed Duke and UNC to move into the top spot.
A commitment from Isaiah Jackson on Saturday would further strengthen the Cats’ hold on the No. 1 spot in those rankings.
Crystal Ball change
247Sports added a new wrinkle to its popular Crystal Ball feature this week: Recruiting analysts are now able to predict which prospects will opt to go pro instead of playing college basketball.
Once that option was allowed, national analyst Evan Daniels and a few others immediately put in predictions that top-10 recruit Makur Maker would take that route.
Maker had been linked to Kentucky earlier this year, but there has not been any recent contact between the Cats and his camp, and an immediate jump to the pros appears to be the most likely option.
“I think it’s probably been that way for him for a while,” Daniels told the Herald-Leader. “He’s still going to go through the process, but I think he’s going to make an attempt to get in the NBA Draft. And I can’t imagine the NBA wouldn’t approve that.”
Maker is in his fifth year of high school and could meet the NBA’s qualifications for the 2020 draft. ESPN currently lists him as the No. 25 prospect for that draft class, suggesting an expectation that he will get cleared.
The “pro” prediction for Maker likely won’t be Daniels’ last in that category for 2020 recruits. Several others are looking closely at the scenario.
“There’s a bunch,” Daniels said. “There are more options now than ever for elite-level high school athletes, in terms of doing something other than college. And I think it’s only going to expand. The NBL is an option. The G League is an option. Sitting out is an option — probably not the option I think is the best — but there are plenty of options. And I think the kids are all watching what their friends are doing.”
The Australia-based NBL is where former five-star recruits RJ Hampton and LaMelo Ball are playing this season. Hampton, in particular, has many friends in the 2020 class, and Daniels specifically mentioned former UK target Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs — both five-star recruits — as players who are close with Hampton.
“I can guarantee you that both of those guys are watching what RJ does pretty extensively,” Daniels said. “They’re certainly paying close attention to what these guys are doing.”
ESPN ranks Ball as the No. 3 prospect for next year’s draft and Hampton at No. 6. If those projections pan out — and both of those players are indeed NBA lottery picks next year — other top recruits in the 2020 class and beyond will likely take a longer look at pro ball as an option.
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 7:00 AM.
