One of Virginia Tech's top 2024 frontcourt targets, four-star PF Ryan Jones, announced on social media that he will be making his collegiate decision next Tuesday, October 2nd.
I will be announcing my commitment on OCT 2nd at 6:00pm at NUMA Speed Elite —> 1469 SW 74th Dr, Gainesville, FL 32607
— Ryan Jones JR. (@RyanJonesJR1) September 24, 2023
Jones took an official visit to Virginia Tech in early September followed by a mid-September official visit to Florida. He did have other official visits previously scheduled though On3's Joe Tipton reported that he has canceled his plans to take official visits to Miami, Xavier, Missouri, and LSU. Those six aforementioned schools plus Louisville and Oklahoma State previously made his top 8.
Now there's no doubt that Tech has a good chance to land Jones, but some may have concerns about the Florida Gators given that Jones is from Gainesville, FL. However, noted Twitter/X CBB Insider Trilly Donovan seems to feel that the Hokies have the edge as he wrote for his website BurnerBall.com on September 25th.
There's no doubt that this would be a major recruiting win for the Hokies if they are able to land Jones. He is ranked as a top 100 national recruit by all four major recruiting services including top 70 by 247 Sports, ESPN, and Rivals. He would also be the fourth highest-rated recruit all-time for the Hokies in the modern recruiting era according to the 247 Sports Composite. He'd also be the highest-rated commit of the Mike Young era as Jones currently has a .9733 rating from the Composite which is slightly above the .9722 for Rodney Rice.
Plenty have talked about Mike Young's recruiting ability post-Mike Jones, but this is a big statement by Young and his staff that they can continue to recruit at a very high level and turn some of their big official visitors into commits.
Tech still has to close it out, but the landing appear to be in a strong spot just a week away from Ryan Jones' decision.
