(2026) - SF Sammy Jackson to VCU

[Hoosierfanyuh 7,181]

14 minutes ago, Demo said:

Interesting that 90 mins from his announcement there are still no crystal ball predictions entered. Kudos to his people for keeping their mouths shut.

Apparently trilly just said vcu

[Stuhoo 90,785]

7 minutes ago, Hoosierfanyuh said:

Apparently trilly just said vcu

How to remain loyal to St. Joe's without actually attending St. Joe's?

Go play at VCU for Phil Martelli Jr.!

[Class of '66 Old Fart 93,240]

VCU it is

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,787]

On 6/18/2025 at 7:22 PM, WayneFleekHoosier said:

 

They can make me a believer this season. I do like several of our players and love the energy and coaching acumen.

He looks like a solid player but you don’t win big at P5 playing these guys as Freshman. If we are going to go freshman heavy with recruiting, we need to hit some instant impact guys. Simple as that to me. If you can keep a guy like him content on the bench for 2 years or whatever then that’s a winning strategy but good luck with that in the current era.


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Smart move for the kid. He’ll play early at VCU and can build.

 

  Not a big deal for us.  Lower rated freshmen need time and if that isn’t the path wanted I fully understand that.  

[Demo 24,642]

Congrats to the young man. Imagine a fair part of it was a combination of an early offer and relationship there combined with him pretty clearly wanting to be a PG which Martelli I’m sure was willing to commit to and I doubt IU or UT would. Personally, I didn’t love him and don’t regret a miss here. Would be far more disappointed missing on Moody. 

 

[Home Jersey 16,789]

42 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Smart move for the kid. He’ll play early at VCU and can build.

 

  Not a big deal for us.  Lower rated freshmen need time and if that isn’t the path wanted I fully understand that.  

 

2 minutes ago, Demo said:

Congrats to the young man. Imagine a fair part of it was a combination of an early offer and relationship there combined with him pretty clearly wanting to be a PG which Martelli I’m sure was willing to commit to and I doubt IU or UT would. Personally, I didn’t love him and don’t regret a miss here. Would be far more disappointed missing on Moody. 

 

For sure. And, if the kid goes to VCU to play the role he envisions for himself and develops well, then wants to transfer up to improve draft stock, we’ve got the benefit of the staff having been part of his HS recruitment. In that scenario, I guess you’d call this a “quality” recruiting miss lol… which with the portal/NIL being what it is now, I think that trend will start to emerge/become a more obvious category. No harm no foul.

Thats my offseason sunshine pumping for the day, haha. 

[Home Jersey 16,789]

Why Sammy Jackson, a top-70 recruit, turned down offers from every power conference to commit to VCU

Quote

So, in between games here at Nike's signature grassroots event, Peach Jam, I asked Hodge if he'd noticed whether transfer waivers, NIL deals and revenue sharing have combined to change how power-conference coaches are recruiting high school prospects this summer.

"Yeah, they're not," he said succinctly. "They're not."

On a related note, only 11 prospects ranked in the top 115 in the Class of 2026, according to 247Sports, have publicly committed to a program, as of Wednesday morning. 

Moreover, one power-conference coach recently told me he doubts he'd accept a commitment from any Class of 2026 prospect right now for reasons I'll explain later. In response to both of these facts, and others, Hodge said his message to his players this year has been a little different than previous messages in previous years.

"I told our kids, from the beginning of the year, in April, when we first started, that with the way the college-recruiting landscape is now for high school kids, you may have to go to a level lower than what you really [could've played] at a couple of years ago just so that you can play right away," Hodge said. "And that's what all of them are kinda looking at right now."

Which brings me to Sammy Jackson.

 

He's one of the 11 prospects ranked in the top 115 of the Class of 2026 who has already publicly committed to a college. …

"VCU is a school where I know they're all-in on me. There are a lot of schools out there … SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC … you go in thinking, 'Are they going to bring in a 25-year-old senior (from the transfer portal) or something like that?' But I know (at VCU), even if I'm not getting all of the minutes my freshmen year, I know they're all-in on me. That was the biggest thing for me. The program and the whole staff is all-in on my development. They want me to come in and make an impact immediately."

What Jackson realized through the recruiting process is that, sure, power-conference programs were interested and happy to take him. But literally none of them were willing to commit to him financially this early the way VCU did, in part because most good power-conference programs have accurately realized that, with D1 players now allowed to transfer freely, a solid transfer will likely be better equipped to help immediately than a recent high school-graduate ranked outside of the top 50 in his class.

Put another way, coaches at good power-conference programs are now hesitant to seriously invest in sub-50 high school prospects this early because something more experienced and better will likely be available the moment the transfer portal opens. On the flip side, some sub-50 high school prospects, at least the ones like Jackson, are now hesitant to commit to good power-conference programs this early out of fear of looking up in April and seeing their school of choice sign a 22 year-old mid-major star likely capable of pushing them down the depth chart and putting them at risk of wasting a year of eligibility on the bench.

That's been happening a lot lately, by the way.

 

According to Marc Jackson, zero power-conference schools offered contracts equal to the contract VCU coach Phil Martelli Jr. put on the table. Only one school was even close, he added.

"[VCU] offered five times the amount of some other schools," Marc Jackson said. "[VCU] really made Sammy a priority and went far and beyond financially to make sure they showed him that he was a priority."

Some of this is a byproduct of the House v. NCAA settlement that went into effect July 1 and created what amounts to a salary cap in college athletics and big questions about what will and will not be allowed in NIL going forward. Every Division I athletic department that wants can now spend up to $20.5 million annually directly buying players, but most Power Four institutions are dedicating the overwhelming majority of that money to football, leaving schools that value basketball but don't have Division I football -- like St. John's, Creighton and, yes, VCU -- in advantageous positions.

"VCU has more money to spend than me right now," one power-conference coach who works at a school that's made a Final Four told me last week. "They don't have football. So they have more money than me."

"If you're not a solidified McDonald's All-American with a college-ready body, you should probably go to a level lower to play (immediately)," he said. "And then you'll have more leverage and options after your freshman or sophomore or junior year to go to one of those [power-conference] schools and capitalize on your market."

Translation: Go star outside of the traditional power-structure early, build value and then field million-dollar offers from power-conference programs once you're older and established and truly ready for that level.

"Exactly," Hodge told me when I presented that summary to him. "That's the way it works now."

Great article with a lot of relevant insight to things discussed in this thread/ the 2025-2026 roster thread. 

Quoted text is not the full article, just a few more relevant excerpts.

[Demo 24,642]

7 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Why Sammy Jackson, a top-70 recruit, turned down offers from every power conference to commit to VCU

Great article with a lot of relevant insight to things discussed in this thread/ the 2025-2026 roster thread. 

Quoted text is not the full article, just a few more relevant excerpts.

Nice read. A lot to chew on. Will say this, if Jackson’s dad isn’t exaggerating and VCU outbid everyone else by a country mile, they overpaid. He’s a talented kid, but imho he’s not special. Dollar for dollar I’d take Moody over Jackson without a thought.

[Home Jersey 16,789]

9 minutes ago, Demo said:

Nice read. A lot to chew on. Will say this, if Jackson’s dad isn’t exaggerating and VCU outbid everyone else by a country mile, they overpaid. He’s a talented kid, but imho he’s not special. Dollar for dollar I’d take Moody over Jackson without a thought.

For sure. Without overthinking it (or any real info), curious about the bit where VCU is paying 5 times as much as some schools...

5 times as much ... what do we think a realistic range is for VCU to be paying? 250k? 500k? 1M?

That would mean the power conference schools offering 50k, 100k, 200k. 

I don't think he's making a million bucks next year, so probably on the lower end of that range. Could be dead wrong.

Just wild how much the game has changed in the last 10 years especially. 

[Pagoda 5,393]

33 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

Why Sammy Jackson, a top-70 recruit, turned down offers from every power conference to commit to VCU

Great article with a lot of relevant insight to things discussed in this thread/ the 2025-2026 roster thread. 

Quoted text is not the full article, just a few more relevant excerpts.

That is interesting.

In CFB, the best teams are still high school recruiting heavy... they're willing to pay younger guys during their development stage even though they aren't on the field much, if at all.  Teams really value having guys in the program multiple years, because when they're ready, they're really good, and they will do all they can to retain them.  The portal is still used to fill gaps, but it's not the primary focus.  Recruiting folks sort of view portal guys as 1/2 to 1 star less than their ranking and they judge programs more on high school recruiting.

CBB is definitely looking different than CFB.  I still think you want multi-year guys, but the need to have kids in your program could be a little less given the nature of the sport?  I don't know.

One thing for sure is rev share is really hurting us on the bball side -- these non-FB schools have so much more money now, it's shocking, at least to me.  Things got way more competitive overnight once the House Settlement was complete.  On the flip side, it helped us in FB, so... I guess it evens out.