KU basketball lands commitment from 2019 guard Markese Jacobs

By Matt Tait     Oct 2, 2016

Kansas University basketball recruiting

Well, it worked again.

Less than 24 hours after the end of the 32nd annual men’s basketball kickoff event, Late Night in the Phog delivered again, as Class of 2019 guard Markese Jacobs orally committed to the program Sunday morning, announcing the news on Twitter.

“I feel like Kansas is the school I’ve always wanted to go to,” Jacobs told Scout.com. “I feel like they go through their guards. They are a great guard team. I feel like I fit their category in their guards.”

Jacobs, 5-foot-10, 155 pounds from Chicago, was one of 15 visitors in for Late Night and becomes the first to commit in the 2019 recruiting class.

According to Scout.com, KU began recruiting Jacobs last summer, when assistant coach Jerrance Howard watched him play with his AAU program, Mac Irvin Fire. Jacobs chose the Jayhawks over offers from in-state schools Illinois and DePaul.

“His number one strength is his athleticism and number two is his toughness,” Mac Irvin Fire coach Jimalle Ridley told Scout. “His game is very similar to Sherron Collins. But he shoots the ball better at the same stage.”

Jacobs, who plays at Uplift High, joins a long list of recent Chicago players to play at Kansas, including Collins, Cliff Alexander, Jamari Traylor and Julian Wright.

Chaundee Brown picks Wake Forest

Meanwhile on Sunday, the Jayhawks lost out on Orlando SG Chaundee Brown, the No. 39-ranked player in the 2017 recruiting class according to Rivals.com.

The Journal-World confirmed Sunday afternoon that Brown chose Danny Manning-led Wake Forest over the Jayhawks after officially visiting the Wake campus this weekend.

The Wake Forest staff was the first to go all-in on Brown and that bond and his relationship with the Demon Deacons proved to be too much to overcome.

Losing out on Brown makes the pursuit of other perimeter players in the 2017 class even more critical for Kansas. Four such players visited Late Night on Saturday night — Las Vegas wing Troy Brown and point guards Trevon Duval, Tremont Waters and Collin Sexton.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.