Kansas Jayhawk signee Josh Jackson is getting plenty of love and accolades from basketball scouts across the country. One recruiting service is so high on Jackson that they have given him an honor no other recruits have achieved before him.
Already considered one of the top basketball prospects in the country, Jackson’s overall rating has increased. In 247Sports rating system, they elevated him to a rating of 102 overall in their final Top247 recruiting class for the 2016 cycle. That rating is the highest for any player in 247Sports’ history of grading players.
But just what has it been that has made the shooting guard such a highly touted prospect by 247Sports? Jerry Meyer, Director of Basketball Scouting for 247Sports, had high praise for the young shooting guard as an all-around player in terms of measurables and skillset.
I said last year that Kobe Bryant comes to mind when scouting Jackson. You hate to throw out a name like that for such a young guy, but the Detroit native has a lot of the same things that made Bryant a star coming out of Philadelphia’s Lower Merion High School in 1996.
In seeing Jackson in person about 30 times over the years, his game begins and ends with his competitiveness. Sometimes you see this level of fight in a point guard or a bruising interior player, but rarely, if ever, from a wing playmaker. Then I would mention Jackson’s ball handling and passing. He loves to distribute the ball. And at 6-foot-7 he has the instincts of a high-level point guard in seeking and manufacturing opportunities for his teammates. Next is his work on the defensive end of the court. In an age where many top prospects hide defensively, Jackson seeks out the opponent’s biggest threat with the purpose of shutting him down. And he is also an eager rebounder. Few, if any, shooting guards I’ve scouted have hunted down rebounds like he does.
As far as his scoring is concerned, Jackson is one of the top scoring threats in the class. Yes, the consistency of his long range jumper is the weakness of his game. But he is a natural scorer, one who can find points wherever they are available. In fact, one of my favorite aspects of his game is that he scores to win — not to produce points.
Coupled with his athleticism, Jackson has certainly caught the attention of many scouts, and it looks like come next season, the Jayhawks will be a team to keep an eye on, especially if this young shooting guard has the ability to make an instant impact. If he does, Kansas will certainly be right back in the mix to make another run in the NCAA Tournament.
[247Sports/Photo: Sportal]
