Florida has found themselves in the final five schools for one of their 2025 targets, Georgia native Jackson McVey.
McVey is a 7’1” center who originally hails from a small town called Ellijay, Georgia. Through his middle school years he had decent height, but it wasn’t until he turned 14 when the inches really started to pile up and he shot up to 6’10”, than 6’11”, and now all the way up to 7’1”–with some events even listing him at 7’2”.
Dominating his local high school scene, McVey finished last season at Gilmer High in Ellijay averaging 26.9 points, 15.6 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game–admittedly, not against the highest quality of competition. Because of that he announced he’d be moving to the Overtime Elite program in Atlanta, and already took part in the Adidas Next Generation tournament where he played around 10 minutes a game and started to get accustomed to being on the court with bigger and better athletes.
Playing with Team Curry this summer offers started to roll in, despite the fact that he didn’t actually play that much and didn’t put up a lot of raw numbers. Right now the word with McVey is potential. He’s not someone who dominates any particular aspect of the game and you can’t point to one element where you feel he’ll be elite, but he moves well at 7’1”, can handle the ball a little bit, and shows moments of nice feel.
For the Gators, they are willing to grab a center like this in the 2025 class because they won’t be looking for someone to contribute right away. Right now the roster has Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon, Sam Alexis, and Viktor Mikic who are all centers or players capable of playing center, and every single one of them have eligibility remaining past their year. Florida can sell McVey on coming in and getting situated in a developmental role before hopefully becoming the versatile weapon they think he can become. It’s important to note this past summer was McVey’s first opportunity to play a high level of basketball, something he’ll also get at Overtime Elite this year, so teams are thinking he’ll make a significant jump.
Going from scout to scout there is a wild variance of how people see McVey relative to the rest of the 2025 class, and his list of offers was also vast. Right now he is the 244th ranked player in the 2025 class, but his final list of schools is much better than most players in this range. McVey will be considering Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Stanford, and Florida State. Currently, McVey has a visit scheduled to Florida at the end of October as well as visits planned to some of his other final schools, so it’s likely he doesn’t make his choice until later in the fall.
When McVey got the Georgia Tech offer he referred to it as his dream school, and he grew up a fan of the program living in Georgia. They’re considered one of the top teams to beat, though Florida is also thought to be a favorite.