Freddie Jackson- 2011 6'3 PG VCU prospect

Freddie Jackson is an under the radar 6'3 point guard whose first offer is from VCU. Dave Telep just saw him recently at the North Carolina Eastern Regionals playing against another Ram target in Chris Wilson (Terry Sanford)and raved about his game. He went from unranked and unknown to a 3-star Scout recruit. Jackson scored 18 points and dished out 10 assists in his matchup with Wilson. In his junior season, Jackson has averaged 14.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 7.7 assists a game. He was subsequently invited Dave Telep's Carolina Challenge where he went against some of the best players in North Carolina and acquited himself very well. This is a guy that VCU would love to have and would be a great fit. 6'3 point guards from North Carolina have been good to VCU lately.


VCU has really been setting up camp in North Carolina and is making it a focus area for recruiting. With the investment of time and effort into that region, VCU has a foothold with a lot of North Carolina prospects which is exciting as the basketball talent (especially in eastern North Carolina) is grossly underrated. Here's what Dave Telep had to say about Jackson upon seeing him for the first-time at the regionals.

“The best thing about Freddie Jackson is that he is a late bloomer,” Telep said. “He has developed at his own rate without any outside influences."

“As a basketball player, I really like his feel for the game, and the best thing he does is his mid-range game and his ability to pass the basketball. I was so happy he came up to the Carolina Challenge and got to play against the best guys in our state, see what it was like and show how good of a player he is.”

It's pretty incredible that the VCU staff has been able to lock down on under-recruited prospects and get on them early. The VCU coaching staff beat both Telep and the UNCW coaching staff under Benny Moss (both in their home states mind you) in finding out about Jackson. While the new coaching staff at UNCW is trying to get in with him now, VCU has been on him for much longer and is tough to beat. The staff has made North Carolina a priority and it shows. Dave Telep definitely knows to pay more attention to him now. He missed on Eric Maynor and VCU snagged him, he may not have missed on Jackson, but we might get him anyway thanks to some strong work by the excellent coaching staff at VCU.

“Talking with his high school coach, Freddie really started to accept a bigger role as the year went on and really started to grow into the role of being the best player on the team,” Telep said.

“The other thing is location. I remember driving home from the East Regional thanking God that I saw Freddie Jackson that day and really kicking myself that I didn't know much about him before then.”

Don't worry Dave, you're not alone there.