Every year, the top-ranked player in each class has to show up at each club event and prove their worth. The proverbial target is on the back of their jersey every day, with opponents from across the country waiting to get their shot at them.
Prolific Prep’s Josh Jackson is no stranger to this, though playing in the Under Armour AAU circuit, he hasn’t garnered nearly the kind of press that the No. 1 player in America would, if they were playing in Nike or Adidas events.
Nonetheless, Jackson has done enough to get social media buzzing about his potential, especially with his 41 points, seven assists, and six rebounds against KC Run GMC in April.
Jerry Meyer, the National Director of Scouting for 247Sports, has consistently had high praise for Jackson. In a piece he wrote recently, that praise reached a new level.
A dynamic 6-8 three-position perimeter player, Jackson is not only the top player in the 2016 class but also one of the top prospects I’ve scouted in my 11 years in the business. He is a dynamic playmaker with no holes in his skill set. Jackson competes at a high level and has a great feel for the game as both an offensive and defensive player.
Obviously, with one of the top scouts in the industry calling Jackson “one of the top prospects I’ve scouted”, that target on Jackson’s back got even bigger. But Meyer didn’t stop there.
Josh Jackson and Dennis Smith are the two players out of 2016 I could see selling shoes one day. Currently Under Armour & adidas but history
— Jerry Meyer (@jerrymeyer247) April 25, 2015
Now, it isn’t like Jackson has no competition for his spot on top of the 2016 rankings. Players like Dennis Smith, Harry Giles, Malik Monk, and Jayson Tatum certainly belong in the conversation, and this class looks to have one of the most compelling top fives in quite some time.
Also in April, Jackson released his list of nine schools, including Kansas, Arizona, Kentucky, Duke, Louisville, Michigan State, N.C. State, North Carolina and UCLA. A Detroit native, but playing his high school basketball in Napa, Calif., Jackson is considered a Kansas lean at this point in his recruitment.
