UNC Basketball Signee Sticking Out From Crowd in Houston

After a bounceback year that saw the program go from missing the Big Dance completely in the 2022-23 season to earning an ACC regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this year, UNC basketball is set to lose some key pieces.

The school’s all-time leading rebounder in Armando Bacot has played his last game for the Tar Heels, and transfer sharpshooter Cormac Ryan has exhausted his college eligibility after six years between Stanford, Notre Dame, and UNC. On top of that, First Team All-American and ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis may opt to head for the NBA rather than use his extra year of eligibility to return to Chapel Hill.

That’s not to mention other potential transfer decisions. But it’s safe to say the UNC roster will look plenty different next season.

Tar Heel fans won’t have to worry too much, though, as five-star prospect Ian Jackson has caught a lot of eyeballs this week in Houston at the practices before the McDonald’s All-American Game on Tuesday night.

Jackson, a 6-foot-4 guard who played his high school ball at Our Savior Lutheran School (N.Y.), ranks as the No. 9 prospect nationally on the 247Sports 2024 Composite and is one of two five-star commits headed to Chapel Hill next season.

The other, 6-foot-6 forward Drake Powell, checks in just a spot below Jackson at No. 10 on the 247Sports 2024 Composite.

Both Jackson and Powell are in Houston alongside a collection of other talented future stars ahead of the McDonald’s All-American Game, but it seems that Jackson is sticking out from the crowd.

He received high praise from Rivals analyst Rob Cassidy, who is covering the event in Houston and wrote about the incoming freshman in an article on Monday morning:

“Nobody on either team has been more consistently effective than Jackson, who shined in Saturday night’s scrimmage before carrying that momentum into Sunday’s practice, where he once again showed himself to be as versatile an offensive threat as there is in this class. The term ‘three-level scorer’ gets overused in modern basketball, but Jackson is the true embodiment of the descriptor, as his quick first step and ability to get to the rim is made even more dangerous when he has it working from deep, which he has for the entirety of McDonald’s week.

“Once seen as a bit of a raw athlete with developing peripheral skill, the future Tar Heel now looks like a polished offensive threat ready to impact ACC games…the week he’s had in Houston may well earn him a bump in the final rankings.”

The news of his strong play should be a big boost to UNC basketball enthusiasts, especially with the incoming class set to step foot on campus in the coming months.

If Ian Jackson can continue to turn heads and perform well in the McDonald’s All-American Game, the hype for next season may continue to grow in Chapel Hill.