Eastern Kentucky just made a major splash. Head coach A.W. Hamilton announced Tuesday that four-star point guard Tyler Jackson has signed to play for the Colonels, marking the highest-rated recruit in EKU’s history in the recruiting rankings era. Ranked No. 76 nationally and No. 15 among point guards by Rivals, with four-star nods from ESPN, Rivals, and 247 Sports, Jackson is a game-changer for a program on the rise.
“We’re so excited about Tyler joining our program,” Hamilton said. “He’s an extremely dynamic player who is elite in the open floor. Tyler is one of the top-ranked guards in the class of ’25 and will flourish in our program.” Jackson’s resume backs it up.
Hailing from Baltimore, Md., the 6-foot-2, 153-pound floor general earned a spot at the prestigious NBPA Top-100 Camp. This past season, he balled out at SoCal Academy in Castaic, Calif., the same program that produced 2024 NBA first-rounder AJ Johnson. Before that, Jackson helped the City Reapers claim the Overtime Elite title in 2023-24 and starred at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore as a sophomore in 2022-23. Since the summer of 2022, he’s had offers from heavyweights like Kansas, Alabama, Syracuse, Houston, Villanova, and Memphis, among others. But he chose EKU.
Jackson’s arrival is a massive coup for a Colonels program that’s been rewriting the record books under Hamilton. EKU hoisted the Atlantic Sun Conference title in 2024 and stayed in the hunt for another crown until the season’s final weeks. They’re the only ASUN team with six or more league wins in each of the last two seasons, and their eight-game ASUN win streak in 2024-25 was the program’s longest since a 12-game run across 1964-66. Hamilton’s squad has shattered 103 program records since he took over, and with Jackson’s dynamic playmaking in the fold, expect a few more to fall.
This signing sends a clear message: EKU’s building something special, and Tyler Jackson is the latest cornerstone. Watch out, ASUN, the Colonels are coming. photo provided by EKU Athletics.
