Tony Bennett Virginia men's basketball head coach — Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

Will Virginia Land Another Commit in the 2023 Recruiting Class?

Analyzing UVA's chances to secure another commitment in the recruiting class of 2023

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Sep 26, 2022 2:22 PM EDT

In this story:

Will Virginia pick up another commitment in the recruiting class of 2023? With Davin Cosby Jr. off the board to Alabama on Saturday, UVA is in the hunt for three remaining targets in this class: Andrej Stojakovic, George Washington III, and Elmarko Jackson. Let's break down the latest on each player's recruitment and analyze Virginia's chances of landing a commitment from one of them.

SF Andrej Stojakovic (Carmichael, CA)

Andrej Stojakovic, son of former NBA star Peja Stojakovic, picked up an offer from Virginia back in May before his meteoric rise to become a five-star prospect by the end of the summer. In late July, Stojakovic included UVA in his top six along with Duke, Stanford, Oregon, Texas, and UCLA, but there hasn't been much traction between Stojakovic and the Cavaliers since then.

The 6'6" California forward has been predicted to stay on the West Coast for a while and now there are four crystal ball projections on 247Sports in favor of Stojakovic committing to UCLA. He's taken visits to Texas, Oregon, and Stanford as well. Virginia hasn't gotten a visit and it seems unlikely the Hoos will get one at this point. The only reason we're still talking about it is because Stojakovic put Virginia in his most recent cut list and hasn't officially eliminated the Cavaliers from contention, so there's still a non-zero, but extremely low chance that he picks UVA.

SG George Washington III (Dayton, OH)

Virginia is involved with George Washington III again for the first time in nearly a year. He strongly considered UVA in his initial recruiting process in fall 2021, but he ended up committing to Ohio State last November. The Buckeyes essentially recruited over Washington after that, landing four more commits in their 2023 class this year, the last of which was Taison Chatman, a four-star guard who was also considering UVA, but committed to Ohio State on September 20th. We don't have all the details on what happened behind the scenes, but Ohio State's aggressive recruitment of Chatman and Bronny James, two players who play the same position as Washington, probably played a significant factor in him deciding to decommit and reopen his recruitment on September 5th.

Whatever the case may be, Washington is back on the market and the Cavaliers are trying their luck with the four-star shooting guard again. The same day that Taison Chatman announced his commitment to Ohio State, George Washington III announced a new top five and Virginia made the cut along with Louisville, Dayton, Michigan, and Wake Forest.

“They were on my final list my first time going through the recruitment process," Washington told 247Sports' Brandon Jenkins. "Kyle Getter is a great guy and Tony Bennett is amazing. Not a lot of people have anything negative to say about him and his character. He has proven himself as a Hall of Fame coach who is one of the best to do it. He has a national championship and his program is a recurring favorite in the ACC. They know how to win and he knows how to put guys in the league while he does it. They were a really good choice for me to have in my top five.”

So far, Washington has scheduled one visit to Michigan for the weekend of October 8-9. He is expected to take a visit with Louisville as well, as he played two seasons of basketball at Christian Academy of Louisville before transferring to Chaminade Julienne in Dayton this year. Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers are also hopeful to host Washington at some point, but no such visit has been scheduled that we know of.

PG Elmarko Jackson (South Kent, CT)

Elmarko Jackson would be the highest-ranked recruit to commit to Virginia in this era of modern recruiting tracking. A four-star point guard, Jackson is the No. 18 overall prospect in the class of 2023 per 247Sports as well as the No. 4 point guard in the nation and the No. 1 player in Connecticut. Jackson included UVA in his top seven last week along with Texas, Notre Dame, UCLA, Villanova, Kansas, and Miami. With the other top programs involved, the fight for Jackson's commitment will be heated and challenging.

But, if things go as planned, Virginia does have a legitimate chance to win this big-time recruiting battle with some of college basketball's elite programs for one of the most talented playmakers in the 2023 recruiting class. Jackson has visited Miami and Kansas and has plans to take a visit to Texas next week and then one to Notre Dame on October 30th. According to On3's Joe Tipton, Jackson plans to take his fifth and final official visit to Virginia, but that visit is not officially on the schedule yet. Assuming that Jackson does not commit to another school in the next month and that he does end up making a trip to Charlottesville in early November, that will mean that Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers will have the final opportunity to pitch Jackson on a commitment to UVA.

“Virginia is changing their offense kind of like a more European type of offense," Jackson told On3. "The way they come off for screens and stuff like that. And just like defensively, how they get after it. They’re a very aggressive defensive team. Coach Tony Bennett is a really good coach. He played at the highest level in the NBA where I want to play. He played point guard, the same position as me. I feel like he’s got the knowledge more so in that type of field than some of these other coaches have when it comes to getting to the NBA at that point guard spot.”

It's not a guarantee, but it is a common recruiting trend that the last school a recruit visits is the one that ends up receiving his commitment. Jackson is the exact type of player Tony Bennett and the UVA coaching staff have been searching for to be the program's point guard of the future to succeed Reece Beekman. There aren't many point guards in the country as talented as Elmarko Jackson. The Cavaliers are hopeful to not only host Jackson on a visit this fall, but make a serious run at securing his commitment.

A commitment from Elmarko Jackson or George Washington III would be massive for the Cavaliers, who have already secured verbal commitments from two talented players in the class of 2023 in four-stars Blake Buchanan and Elijah Gertrude. Adding another commit to that class would result in back-to-back outstanding recruiting classes for the Virginia men's basketball program.

Stay updated on all the latest Virginia basketball recruiting news, including offers, visits, and commitments here: Latest Virginia Basketball Recruiting News and Updates

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