By SAM LANCE
KANSAS CITY, KS — Class of 2026 five-star guard Jason Crowe Jr. has been turning heads on the basketball court for a long time.
One story shared by his father, Jason Crowe Sr., who played basketball at Cal State Northridge and professionally overseas for 13 years, comes from Crowe Jr.’s days playing at the neighborhood park. When Crowe was 6-years-old, he was out shooting 3-pointers, and one of the park workers took his camera out to start filming. Why? Because Crowe Jr. simply didn’t miss, and the park worker had never seen anything like it.
While Crowe Jr. was talented then, he didn’t necessarily always have that “it” factor. The five-star began his career playing YMCA ball at age four. He was great there, but reality soon set in when Crowe Jr. started playing a bit more competitive basketball.
“We took him to the neighborhood park and he didn’t score a bucket and didn’t even get a shot attempt,” Crowe Sr. told ZAGSBLOG. “So that’s when the reality kind of set in like ‘Oh, this ain’t cute.’ So it became kind of discouraging for him, and then I think that’s what started the journey. He wanted to be successful, he wanted to play well. So he was willing to commit effort and energy into that and I think it just changed from there. He came back next year and he was the best player at the park in a years time.”
People really began to take notice of Crowe Jr.’s abilities when he started playing on the MADEHoops circuit in middle school. But his father said the pandemic is what really got things rolling.
“You really had nothing to do but do your work online and go in the back yard and work all day,” Crowe Sr. said. “I would see him doing things and creating different things. And I think that pandemic led him straight to high school. The whole mindset was let’s prepare for high school. I need you to be strong, I need you to be mature enough to play.”
Shortly before entering his freshman year, the Crowe’s watched Mikey Williams play, who was really blowing up at the time.
“I remember saying, ‘Look, that’s all good and we respect Mikey. But when you go to high school, you gotta destroy this guy,’” Crowe Sr. said. “Because I wanted him to understand you got to play against this guy. And I think that kind of set the tone for everything else that was coming down the pipeline, because he really turned into a destroyer. He really turned into a guy that was out there and wanted to win, and I think that’s what fuels his motivation.”
When Crowe Jr. arrived to his freshman season of high school basketball, he was ready to go. Coached by his father at Lynwood (CA), the Crowe’s won a CIF state title. That year as a freshman, Crowe averaged 36.4 points, 4.8 assists, 3.4 steals, and 2.6 rebounds per game.
“He did that with a team of one senior starter and the rest — we only played like six guys — and the rest of them were all freshman,” Crowe Sr. said. “It was all our MADEHoops team. I was willing to struggle with the guys from the neighborhood, but it wasn’t a struggle. We won a championship. So that was great and I think that kicked off his career. He’s just been working hard and the better he gets, the more he wants to improve. So I think that’s critical.”
Fast forward to now, and Crowe Jr. is a top-five player in the 2026 class. He’s currently at Inglewood High School (CA) with his father and has tallied 3,000 career points during his junior season — a rather remarkable accomplishment.
This summer, Crowe Jr. is playing with the Oakland Soliders on the Nike EYBL circuit. So far through 11 games, Crowe Jr. leads the EYBL in scoring at 23.8 points per game. He’s also averaging 4.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.1 steals while leading his team to an 8-3 record.
“I’m trying to do more than scoring,” Crowe Jr. said. “I’m trying to show that I can facilitate, playmake, play defense. Just do everything, all the little things the team needs from me to win.”
But aside from his scoring, what really makes Crowe Jr. special?
“He’s not just a scorer, he’s a creator,” Crowe Sr. said. “We look at the scoring, but we don’t look at the creation. I watched his passing video from the EYBL last session. I don’t think you’re going to find a player in high school who can pass and make these reads that he makes… You got to go to the pros to beat that. You have to get to great NBA players to top that right now. I just think his desire to win is so high and he has a combination of skill, conditioning and will. And I think that’s why he’s at the top. He has the skills, but he was the will and the conditioning to come out there and display that.”
On the recruitment front, Crowe Jr. is drawing interest from pretty much all the top programs in the country. Specifically, Alabama’s Nate Oats, Arkansas John Calipari, Kentucky’s Mark Pope, UCLA’s Mick Cronin and USC’s Eric Musselman were the head coaches out to see him at Inglewood during his junior season. Crowe previously broke down a few of these schools to ZAGSBLOG.
Still, Crowe Jr.’s recruitment remains wide open. The Crowe’s don’t really talk about recruitment and won’t until they disclose a top five and who they’re visiting.
“I want everyone to feel welcome because, the one thing I will say, my experience in playing international basketball has opened up the world as a pallet,” Crowe Sr. said. “So there’s no place that he won’t play. We want everybody to feel free. If it’s Barcelona, Spain, then we want you guys to recruit us. If it’s the Australian league, they’ll come by with their situation. If it’s USC, if it’s Villanova, if it’s Miami, I don’t want anybody to feel discouraged because the one thing about recruiting, which great recruiters tell you, you go after what you can catch. So a lot of times people get discouraged when they see certain things and we don’t know where our best opportunity will be.”
Crowe Jr. will not be taking any summer visits. All of those will be in the fall so he can focus on the AAU season and winning Peach Jam. When it comes down to making a decision, Crowe Jr. is looking at a few aspects of programs.
“I just want to see that family environment,” Crowe Jr. said. “Obviously the facilities and stuff like that, the coaching staff. Who’s there, how they can help me and the history of the coaching staff.”
One thing is for certain: wherever Crowe Jr. lands, he’ll be ready to leave his mark, just as he’s done at every stop in his career. His journey is far from over.
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