BY ALEJANDRO LOPEZ & SAM LANCE
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA — Fisher’s high school season came to an end earlier than Jason Gardner Jr., a top-25 prospect in the 2027 class, would have liked. After winning state his freshman year, Gardner and his team fell short by one point during his sophomore season. That’s made the 6-foot-1, 185-pound point guard hungrier than ever.
“It’s going to motivate us to work even harder,” Gardner told ZAGSBLOG.
With the high school season behind him, a new season begins this summer at the 3SSB circuit. Gardner, along with his high school teammate Cooper Zachary , are looking to win it all.
“Obviously, I’m trying to win a 3SSB championship right now,” Gardner said. “We play well together. And then personal goals, probably getting invited to Euro camp, obviously get more offers. And then just showing everybody that I’m not just a scoring guard. I can make reads off the off the pick-and-roll. I can make reads on shade back doors. And then just being more consistent with my 3-ball, because obviously everybody knows I can get to the rim and finish. Now the first mindset is to back off, and then if I can get more consistent, I don’t know how you can guard me.”
Gardner’s appeared to be unguardable to start the summer with Indiana Elite 16u, averaging 20.6 points and leading his squad to a 6-2 record. Still, the guard’s performance doesn’t mean he’s satisfied with his game.
“Now, honestly, really it’s just all-around jump shooting,” Gardner said of what he’s working on. “Coming off screens, mid-range pull-ups, catch and shoot threes, off dribble threes. And transition threes. A lot of outside range.”
Gardner has previously discussed his visits to Cincinnati, DePaul, Indiana, Notre Dame and Purdue with ZAGSBLOG. While he hasn’t been to any schools since, he’ll be scheduling some more visits soon. Lately, Gardner’s been in contact with schools like Alabama, Arizona, Dayton, Florida, Michigan, Michigan State, Nevada, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Virginia and Xavier in addition to the ones he’s visited.
He discussed a couple of those programs below:
Indiana with new staff: “Drew Adams, he recruited me at Cincinnati and now he’s there. So that’s already a good relationship over there. Really cool guy, really cool coach. I haven’t gotten a chance to meet all the staff yet, but I’m looking forward to and building a great connection there.” Head coach Darian DeVries has reached out to his coach and father, and he caught Gardner’s games in Iowa.
Michigan State: “I like Tom Izzo a lot. He’s a really fiery coach, and he kind of lets his guards go especially. He just lets them run the team. He lets them — they play fast, they’re athletic. And then over his course of coaching of point guards, he had Cassius Winston, and then they had [Jase] Richardson this past year. So he knows how to develop guards and that’s really cool.”
Ohio State: “Kind of the same thing. Obviously, [Jake] Diebler is the new coach, and he likes to play really fast as well, I think. And then he likes to let his guard go. So I like how he lets his guards go, dictate the game and control the game.” Gardner will take an unofficial visit to Columbus on June 9.
In addition to DeVries, Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry, Purdue’s Matt Painter, plus assistants from Cincinnati, Michigan State and Ohio State, among others, were spotted courtside for Gardner’s games.
Gardner hopes to show college programs this summer that he has what it takes to lead as a point guard.
“I’m a leader, I’m not just a scoring guard,” he said. “I can to shoot the ball, obviously. I think I went 0-4 from three today. But just keep showing them that I’m not nervous to take them at all, having confidence.”
Gardner is the No. 21-ranked prospect of the 2027 recruiting class, per 247Sports. He is looking for a program that can make him feel at home.
“I want to go somewhere where they truly want me,” he said. “Obviously, I’m going to be around them like 90% of the time I’m in college. So I just feel like anytime something goes wrong, I want to be able to go talk to them and talk about the problem. I want to able to like — anything I need just to reach out to them and know they got me. So just having a great relationship.”
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