Turbulent recruiting process culminated with ‘no-brainer’ decision for new Gonzaga big man Parker Jefferson

Parker Jefferson invested in “a couple of big coats” earlier this year, preparing for the climate change that would inevitably greet the Texas native when he arrived at college this fall.

At that time, Jefferson was still banking on playing his college basketball at Minnesota, known for brutally cold temperatures and icy conditions in the winter months.

Then the forecast changed on the young center’s career.

Jefferson had been committed to Minnesota for roughly five months when the Golden Gophers fired fourth-year coach Ben Johnson on the heels of a 15-17 regular-season record and 16th-place finish in the Big Ten Conference.

Jefferson, whose loyalty to Minnesota largely stemmed from the relationship he’d built with Johnson, announced he was reopening his recruitment nearly two weeks later.

Once Jefferson was officially released from his National Letter of Intent, he heard from a number of college coaches who still had room, or a need, for a high school center on their roster. That included a phone call from Gonzaga assistant Brian Michaelson.

It wasn’t Jefferson’s first point of contact with GU’s coaching staff. The Zags were lightly scouting him in high school and Jefferson had multiple conversations with assistant Stephen Gentry, but the recruitment fizzled out.

Still, many in his basketball circle had already spent years trying to manifest a career for Jefferson at Gonzaga, a program known for molding and developing big men with quality footwork, solid feel around the rim and a soft touch.

“I always knew Gonzaga was a great program,” Jefferson told The Spokesman-Review earlier this week. “It was kind of funny how it all went down, because when I first ever started getting recruited everybody told me I should go to Gonzaga and that I was a Gonzaga prototype big. So kind of just getting to see it for myself, it was everything I wanted it to be and I trust the coaching staff.”

That’s in part why Jefferson’s recruitment with Gonzaga went from nonexistent in mid-April to a full-on sprint by early May. By April 28, it was widely known the 6-foot-10 prospect was planning to take an official visit to Gonzaga. Four days later, with Jefferson less than 24 hours into his recruiting trip, the Inglewood (Calif.) High standout gave a commitment to Mark Few’s staff.

Jefferson won’t have to return the winter coats he purchased and the freshman expects it’ll be a seamless fit joining one of college basketball’s top frontcourts, with a chance to learn under and potentially play behind presumed starters Graham Ike and Braden Huff.

“They’ve done incredible things with guys that are just like me and have a skillset as a big man and they use them,” he said. “So I think it was kind of just a no-brainer for me.”

Jefferson heard about numerous success stories involving Gonzaga bigs, but the most relatable one for the Waxahachie, Texas, native involves another product of the Lone Star State who resides in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex and happens to train at the same Southlake, Texas, facility, Built 4 It Performance Center.

“Big Drew (Timme),” Jefferson laughed.

Jefferson was receiving treatment at Built 4 It one morning in late April while waiting to meet with Michaelson, who was on an inbound flight to Dallas to watch the forward work out. Timme, who was back home for a short visit following his rookie season with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, swung by the facility the same day to get some work in.

The two spoke briefly and swapped phone numbers. Jefferson still plans to set up a call with Timme in the near future to get the former Zag’s perspective on what he should expect as a freshman in Few’s program.

Jefferson’s followed Timme’s career for the better part of a decade, dating back to the forward’s time with the Dallas-based Drive Nation AAU squad. The two have another connection through Victor Iwuakor, a Nigeria native and former Oklahoma, UNLV and Southern Miss forward who lived with Jefferson’s family while playing on a Drive Nation team that included Timme and NBA All-Stars Cade Cunningham and Tyrese Maxey.

“He was just like, you can’t really deny what coach Few has done,” Jefferson said of his conversation with Timme. “He was like, if you look what they did with me, it’s a perfect example that they bring you in, develop you and he uses his bigs and he likes skilled guys.”

Jefferson is considered a three-star prospect by On3 and 247Sports and a four-star recruit by ESPN. In 2021, an ESPN list of the top class of 2025 recruits slotted him at No. 17, two spots higher than Kansas-bound guard Darryn Peterson, who’s now considered the nation’s No. 2 overall recruit.

The following spring, after his freshman year at Waxahachie (Texas) High School, Jefferson tumbled down many of the same rankings and recruiting lists as the result of a leg injury.

“He got to actually experience the negative side of that when he was injured and it was out of sight, out of mind,” said mother Carrie, who played center at Arkansas from 1993-97. “And to help him kind of mentally think through the fact you’ve got to use that as fire and as kind of a chip on your shoulder, when people basically just dropped you off the face of the earth.”

Jefferson gained traction on the recruiting trail through his first three seasons at Waxahachie, grabbing offers from programs like Florida, USC, Texas Tech and Arkansas, where his parents met as college athletes in the 1990s. Jefferson’s father, Mike, was a left tackle for the Razorbacks’ football team and his older siblings, Michael and Kaylee, respectively played college hoops at Iona and Sam Houston State.

Feeling he could take another step in his game and seeking better competition, Jefferson left Waxahachie – where he averaged 16.7 points and 9.5 rebounds as a senior – to spend his senior season at Inglewood. Jefferson had a connection to Inglewood coach Jason Crowe after playing with Crowe’s son, Jason Jr., at a Nike Elite 100 Camp and during a foreign trip to Lithuania.

He reunited with Crowe Jr., On3.com’s sixth-rated prospect in the class of 2026, to help Inglewood tally a 26-7 record, notching five 30-plus point games and 17 double-doubles while averaging 16.3 ppg and 11.2 rpg according to MaxPreps.com.

“I kind of grew up I would say,” Jefferson said of his experience at Inglewood.

Jefferson is enjoying a few more days with family in the Dallas area before he reports to Gonzaga on Monday. He doesn’t have any expectations regarding his role as a freshman, but suggested he is open to all options, whether that’s developing through a redshirt year the way many other GU bigs have or playing spot minutes off the bench.

“It’s kind of crazy looking back, Drew Timme went through the same thing is what the situation would be,” Jefferson said. “Kind of playing under the older guy, getting the experience, getting basically to know what the program is and what it stands for.”

The Jeffersons got a small glimpse of that during their recent trip to Spokane.

“Everything from their strength coach to their entire organization, it just seems like they take a very holistic approach,” Carrie said. “I was really impressed by the strength coach basically sitting down and talking about doing a personality test to figure out how do you best connect and how do I best get the most out of you.

“For Parker, he is that type of kid. He needs someone to feed the whole person, not just what’s on the court and so for me as a mom, that’s what I came with is this is a program that’s going to feed his entire being rather than just what he does on the court.”

Jefferson’s passion for the outdoors came up in conversations with Few, an avid fly fisher and outdoorsman. Mike Jefferson owns a wagyu beef ranch in East Texas and Parker helps his father hunt the feral hogs that destroy livestock and crops on their land. Jefferson has also hunted ducks in Texas and looks forward to expanding his horizons in the PNW, anticipating opportunities to hunt deer and potentially swing a fly-fishing invite from Few.

“It’s got more of a spacious, country feel to it,” Jefferson said of Spokane. “I like some nice land, so I think Spokane’s a great place. … They told us basically they want me and it’ll work out and it was everything I thought it would be and we all wanted it to be, so there was no reason to delay it or anything. I kind of wanted to go ahead and pull the trigger.”