Arizona Basketball: Josh Jackson is waiting to commit
The NCAA basketball world, including Arizona Basketball fans, are awaiting Josh Jackson’s commitment decision. He is also waiting.
Like you, the ZonaZealots crew is excited about the prospect of the class of 2016 No. 1 prospect Josh Jackson‘s possible Arizona commitment decision. But there are other schools that are in the Mix: Michigan State and Kansas.
Jackson is not only an extraordinary player and a McDonald’s All-American, but he is also eloquent and super chill. Just listening to him, one comes away impressed about his character and how mature he seems.
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Jackson seems to embody the type of player whom Miller covets and would fit very well into his system. As far as a high caliber player, Aaron Gordon, and Stanley Johnson as well as Allonzo Trier are a few Arizona Wildcats who come to mind when considering Jackson.
Michigans state is in the mix, and there are a few reasons why. One because the team is always successful winning games and in getting itself far into the NCAA tournament. Something Jackson is looking for, a team that wins. But a bigger reason he may want to become a Spartan might be because one of his best friends, Miles Bridges, recently committed to Michigan State.
It was a surprise to us that Kansas was now being mentioned as one of the three schools Jackson has dwindled his choices down to. We thought is was down to two, Michigan State and Arizona. One would assume it’s because Coach Self has led his Jayhawks to the top of the NCAA charts; they are consistently ranked in the top 10 each week. So why not go check their organization out?
Kansas just knocked off Kentucky, and Jackson made a visit to Kansas about the same time according to Krysten Peek, Rivals.com, who interviewed Josh at The Grind event where Jackson played for Prolific Prep.
Arizona Wildcats
Kansas players are coming back next year, and Jackson says, “There was a lot trust in the building, and I think that’s one of the major factors I am looking for — they all want to see each other do well, and they all got the same goal to which is to win as many games as possible. And that’s pretty much what I’m all about.”
Arizona is very much in the mix.
Asked if playing under coach Miller for Team USA has anything to do with his upcoming decision and if Arizona had an edge over the other schools, “Yeah it definitely does,” he said, “Playing under coach Miller for U19 basketball was great, I loved the way he coached me and the thing that I respected about him is as we were on the trip he didn’t recruit me at all, he didn’t, not once, try to recruit me, it was all business. I really respect him for that.”
The Crystal Ball prediction on CBSsports.com says Arizona has a 45% chance, Michigan state 25% and Kansas 20%.
All three schools have had players enter the NBA, they are probably even in the running on that note.
A number of factors are going to go into his decision, “I feel I would rather go somewhere where I can win games and just be successful, and I feel like whichever school that is, I will pick that school,” he said.
An important factor is who will ultimately be on the team when he gets to the school, “Players that are coming in, players that are gonna stay, who’s gonna go, you never know a coach could leave and go for an NBA job,” Jackson explained, “Wherever I feel most comfortable and I have like the trust in that place is where I’m going to pick. ”
Josh Jackson will wait until he knows which players from the three teams is going to declare for the NBA draft before he makes his decision; he is going the distance.
Here is the entire interview:
Josh recently played against Gary Payton’s youngest son and during the game there was some trash talking and stare downs between the two. But it’s all good, they understand and respect each other.
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BearDown Josh! BearDown Arizona!