Jaden Jones

Four-star junior Jaden Jones just verbally committed to Rutgers, his father Jerel Jones told 247Sports.

“We had one coach, it was his first time being in the top 25 in 10 or 15 years and after they won we went into the locker room and when we went in to the locker room you had media and everybody there and he ran up to me, my son and my four year-old and he screamed ‘do I have your commitment.’ After seeing this world of basketball and recruiting, that was dagger for us. It was Rutgers.”

Jones, a 6-foot-7 wing out of Saint Louis (Mo.) Christian Academy, picked Steve Pikiell and Rutgers over Alabama, Arizona, LSU, USC and San Diego State. Jones took his official visit to Rutgers on Jan. 7.

“They say go where you’re loved, and we felt a lot of love there,” the elder Jones said.

“It was huge,” he added. “The culture there, after going and seeing it. They were down in that game, and I wanted to see the coach and how he responded to his player and with the speech he gave in his office to us. It all matched.”

Jones also noted Rutgers assistant Karl Hobbs played an integral part in the recruiting process.

“Coach Karl, he scouted Jaden for 10 days,” he said. “I just thought he was a local. He expressed to me he knew what he was looking at, and he expressed to me he has had some pro guards and he said he knows what he’s looking at in Jaden. He’s younger and a guard. He just has been recruiting me, like I thought recruitment was supposed to be.”

Jones ranks as the No. 96 overall prospect and the No. 22 small forward in the 2021 recruiting class. Jones is the first commitment in Rutgers in the class.

Pikiell and his staff currently have three commitments in their 2020 class – Mawot Mag, Dean Reiber and Oskar Palmquist.