4-star PG Jaye Nash discusses signing with Tulsa
In its history, the Tulsa men’s basketball program has only landed a handful of 4-star prospects, and the most recent is Powder Springs (GA) McEachern point guard Jaye Nash. The 6-foot-2 and 175-pound floor general signed with Tulsa on Monday after an official visit to the TU campus this past weekend.
“The visit was great,” he told Inside Tulsa Sports on Sunday. “I got to spend a lot of time with the coaches. They really made me feel wanted and needed in the program. I was impressed with the facilities and the campus and the people. I liked the locker room.
"My parents enjoyed it too and thought the campus was nice. My visit was on the same weekend as graduation.”
With a bevy of offers from big-time programs, Nash’s decision was heavily based on his bonds with the TU coaching staff.
“My relationship with all of the coaches,” he explained. “Coach (Eric) Konkol is a great coach with lots of experience, and I look forward to playing for him. His personality, knowledge and realness has been great. I like the basketball opportunity there a lot too. Coach Konkol has done good with freshmen.
“Coach (Desmond) Haymon is real cool, and I just felt at home with all of the coaches when I got to Tulsa.”
Nash visited Tulsa from May 9 to May 11. He had a visit scheduled after that with UAB but cancelled.
Nash also visited LSU, Wake Forest, Florida State and Southern Illinois. He held scholarship offers from Alabama, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Creighton, Florida, Illinois, LSU, Memphis, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Murray State, Northwestern, South Florida, St. John’s, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Wake Forest and others.
As a senior at McEachern, Nash averaged an impressive 12.6 points, 7.8 assists and 5 rebounds per game on a star-studded roster. His team was ranked nationally in the Top 15 for most of the season.
“My strengths are that I’m a tough, physical, true point guard, and I take a lot of pride in my defense and running the team,” he described. “I’m a vocal point guard. I’ve set several assist records while in high school. I can also score the ball and get to my spots on the court, but I take pride in being a point guard. I take pride in winning and doing winning things.”
Nash hopes to carry those ‘winning things’ into his freshman season with the Golden Hurricane.
“The main thing I want to do is play a big part in helping Coach Konkol win some games,” he said. “Personally speaking, I want to make the All-AAC freshman team, I want to establish myself as one of the best defenders in the league, I want to have a really good assist-to-turnover ratio, I want to be the most vocal player on the floor, and I want to shoot at least 35-percent from three.”
In the meantime, Nash is working to improve his overall game.
“I want to work on being a better overall scorer from the three and just from the perimeter,” he said. “I want to continue to work on being a leader.”
Nash is Tulsa’s first 4-star commitment since DJ Jefferson in the 2022 class. However, Jefferson decommitted after Frank Haith resigned at TU. The last 4-star prospect to actually sign with Tulsa was DeAngelo McDaniel in the class of 1998. McDaniel, a 6-9 forward from Oklahoma City, played in 53 games at Tulsa with career averages of 1.9 points and 1.8 rebounds.
Nash is ranked as the No. 110 overall prospect nationally by Rivals and the nation’s No. 23 point guard.