Ranked among the nation’s top 30 prospects for the class of 2016, Utah native Frank Jackson recently made public his plans to take a two-year mission trip as a part of his LDS faith. That means any program recruiting him would need to wait until the 2018 season for his services.
According to Jackson, in a recent interview with NBC Sports’ Scott Phillips, Jackson has clearly communicated his plans with all the schools recruiting him, and no one has expressed any issues with his decision.
Once a BYU commit, Jackson is considering Arizona, BYU, Duke, Embry-Riddle (DII, where his father played), Maryland, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Stanford, UCLA and Utah. Duke and Arizona appear to be the favorites for his commitment, as Jackson has made it known that he hopes to commit before leaving on his mission, and those two schools are the ones he has set up visits with in June.
Landing players who are intent on taking a mission trip has worked out just fine for BYU, as the recently departed Tyler Haws finished No. 20 on the all-time NCAA scoring list after his mission trip concluded.
While the trip will allow Jackson to become even more physically mature before stepping onto a college basketball court, it’s unclear exactly how much development he will be able to see with his skill set. Such religious missions are extremely labor intensive, and often only provide one day of free time where someone like Jackson could work on his game.
Nonetheless, Jackson is one of the top scoring point guards in the country, and it’s no surprise that the demand for his commitment hasn’t taken much of a hit with his news becoming public knowledge.
