Much of Florida’s 2025 recruiting has been focused on bringing in wings with length that can fill a gap on the roster but recently they’ve started aggressively pursuing the frontcourt position with the recruitment of 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.
Right now McVey is ranked as the 201st player in the class of 2025, though he didn’t have the best visibility due to his small high school and the league they played in. He did play this past summer for Team Curry in addition to going to the Adidas Next Generation tournament which helped get some eyes on his game which led to a number of offers and interest–including from Florida. Now playing at Overtime Elite recruiting analysts will have more opportunities to see him and sort out what they think about his game which has a style that people are having a bit of difficulty evaluating.
When it comes to his style of play, McVey’s biggest strength is also in some ways his biggest weakness. That strength is his versatility. McVey is someone who can handle the ball a little bit, pass it decently, and get up and down the court with decent pace–all while contributing a little bit on the glass and blocking a couple of shots. At the same time–while he’s a jack of all trades, he’s also a master of none. Some coaches love to see that he’s able to handle the ball a little bit and try to take some jumpers, but other coaches would much rather see a 7’1” player do 7’1” things–be a monster on defense, and control the glass. McVey’s lack of strength has hurt him against better competition–but given how quickly he has shot up in height, he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to add muscle.
The biggest strength with McVey is his mobility. Given that he’s not extremely bulky McVey is light on his feet and does a pretty good job of staying in a stance allowing him to slide laterally and take away a lot of real estate, also while using his length to contain guards and contest shots if they choose to try and get away from him with a step back. Florida sees this mobility and is enticed–as it’s not often you see players at 7’1” will fluid movement, and they feel muscle can be added.
McVey might not look like someone who can step in and play right away, but that makes him an excellent target for 2025. Right now Florida’s frontcourt is extremely young and no one is set to graduate following the 2024-25 season so if they did land McVey he’d be able to come in without a lot of pressure and develop his game.
Currently McVey is set to visit Florida on October 27th. He also has visits scheduled to Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Creighton. As previously mentioned McVey is from the state of Georgia and he has said when he was younger that Georgia Tech was his dream offer, so that’s a school to watch in this recruitment. Florida State has obviously had a lot of 7’0” or taller players over the last decade, but they’ve had a few rough years in a row that have seen them finish near the bottom of the ACC. If Creighton is serious about their interest in McVey they’ll also be a force, as they have been operating as one of the best programs in the sport over the last several years.