WHITE PLAINS – Jasiah Jervis carefully weighed all of the options.
And the explosive 6-foot-5 shooting guard at Stepinac had plenty of top college basketball programs to choose from with 20 offers in hand by the end of the summer. Last month, he narrowed the list to five schools – Michigan State, Tennessee, North Carolina State, Illinois and Pitt – and completed his official visits.
Jervis went public with the final choice on Wednesday, Nov. 5, in the gym with classmates, teammates and coaches on hand.
The next stop is Michigan State.
“It came down to family,” said Jervis, who got emotional while expressing gratitude to his inner circle and had his mom reaching into her bag for a tissue. “When they were recruiting me they took time and got to know not only me as an individual, but my parents and my brothers and my cousins. The players welcomed me with open arms and that was big time for me.”
Jervis, who has already been a part of three CHSAA City championships and is ranked 50th in the Class of 2026 on the SportsCenter NEXT 2026 ESPN Top 100, is the fifth member of this senior class to commit to a Division I program in recent weeks. Hassan Koureissi picked Fordham, Darius and Adonis Ratliff chose Southern California and Dylan Perry selected Monmouth.
He might be crossing paths with the Ratliffs during Big Ten play.
“Oh, yeah,” said Jervis, who averaged 16.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists last season. “That would be a good matchup if we play them.”
After getting comfortable as a headliner and earning CHSAA title game MVP honors, he went on to have a breakout summer with his New York Rens club team and upped his visibility at the EYBL Nike Peach Jam in July.
“On the national scene, he skyrocketed,” Stepinac head coach Pat Massaroni said. “He made one of the biggest jumps of any recruit in the country and I think Jasiah’s continuing to show us that he’s one of the top 25 players in the country. He’s put himself into position to be a McDonald’s All-American and he’s done it in a quiet, humble way on and off the court. It’s a credit to the amount of work he’s put in, so I’m happy for Jasiah and his family today.”
There are visions of eventually making the jump to the NBA.
Michigan State and Tom Izzo have a history of turning slightly undersized talents into first-round picks. Jase Richardson, who was taken 25th overall by the Orlando Magic in the 2025 draft, is a recent example.
“That’s definitely part of the plan,” Jervis said. “Coach Izzo, when he was making out my development plan, he knows that’s a goal, but I don’t really talk about that, I talk about helping him win a national championship. They look at me playing a Gary Harris-type role.”
Stepinac began practice on Saturday and has 11 players coming back. The Crusaders are highly regarded in every preseason national ranking that’s been released so far.
There are four more seniors who have yet to make a decision about their collegiate futures, but having the major commits on this side of the recruiting process removes some of the stress ahead of what’s guaranteed to be a noisy season.
“It’s big time for all of us,” Jervis said. “As a kid, you want to be able to play at the highest level. We have five guys to do it and we’re kind of waiting for the others. Whether they go DI or not, we’re proud of them because we work hard for moments like this and we all want to make our parents proud.”
Mike Dougherty covers high school basketball for The Journal News/lohud.com
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: With 20 offers to pick from, how did Stepinac guard Jasiah Jervis land on Michigan State?
Reporting by Mike Dougherty, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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