Jazz Gardner, top-100 recruit in 2023 class, receives scholarship offer from Dayton Flyers

The Dayton Flyers offered a scholarship to Jazz Gardner, a 6-foot-10 center in the class of 2023, on Saturday. The offer was reported by VerbalCommits.com and by Gardner on his Instagram account.

Gardner ranks 72nd in the 2023 class, according to 247Sports, 82nd in the 2023 class, according to ESPN, and 90th, according to Rivals.com.

Gardner will be a senior next season at Los Altos High School, near San Jose, Calif. He’s the son of Jelani Gardner, a McDonald’s All-American in 1994 who played at California and Pepperdine.

Explore» RECRUITING: Tracking 2023 offers

Jelani Gardner played professional basketball in France in the early 2000s at the same time as Dayton assistant coach Ricardo Greer.

After his son received the scholarship offer from Dayton, Jelani wrote on Twitter, “The Gardner Family would like to thank Coach Greer and Coach Grant for the blessing!”

Jazz also has received offers from Southern California, Pepperdine, Kansas, Illinois and Saint Mary’s among others. He averaged 19 points, 13 rebounds and almost three blocks per game as a junior. He earned a NIL deal earlier this year, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, signing with a local optometry and chiropractic practice.

“I will be looking for a coach I can trust first and foremost,” Gardner told Jamie Shaw, of On3Sports.com, earlier this month. “A coach that I have a good relationship with. I will look closely at the offense to ensure it compliments my game. I want to go to a place that I am comfortable sticking with and winning with no matter how long I am in school.”

Dayton has two scholarships open for the 2022-23 season. It is too early to say how many it will have open in 2023. It has not received a 2023 commitment, but it is still early for that class. Only 18 players in the top 100 on ESPN’s list have picked a school.