Jordan Riley is Getting Ready For The Big Stage

The newly-crowned Mr. New York Basketball has spent his whole high school career flying under the radar, but those days are coming to an end, as Monday's announcement showed.

His game on the court is pretty loud, especially when he dunks the ball, but when it comes to life off the court, Jordan Riley is a pretty quiet guy.

He likes it that way though. He’ll let others do the talking, while he’ll be in the gym continuing to work on his craft.

And even during a season in which he played a shortened high school basketball schedule, despite continually flying under the radar, Riley is starting to see the fruits of his labor begin to show, being named Mr. New York Basketball by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York on Monday afternoon.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg, as far as Riley himself is concerned. He knows he belongs, it’s just on everyone else to get on board with that too.

“I was confident in my game,” said Riley, when asked about the Mr. New York Basketball award. “Especially last year because I felt I was in the run for it last year, but since coronavirus happened, I didn’t get to prove that I should have gotten it.”

But to get to this point, Riley has had to deal with his fair share of snubs along the way. And that’s only fueled his drive to get better on the court, the place where he is spends most of his time these days.

The Long Island native, playing for his hometown high school in Brentwood, New York, was already lacking exposure due to the small school he played at. And then COVID hit, severely hurting his chances at getting that coveted fourth or fifth star as a recruit by playing on the AAU circuit last summer. But Riley has no regrets about the path he took to get to where he is now.

“I stayed local because I loved it [at Brentwood],” explained Riley. “I didn’t feel like leaving.”

Currently, Riley is ranked 128th overall by 247Sports, and is only a three-star recruit.

“I feel like I’ve been at that five-star level, I just haven’t had the exposure to showcase it,” said Riley.

The lack of an AAU season and a proper high school season playing against better competition led to Riley also missing out on being selected to the McDonald’s All-American Game. But he’s not concerned about that.

“I didn’t care about it,” said Riley when asked about the All-American snub. “I knew I wasn’t going to get it because if I wasn’t going to play this year [against better teams out of state], I wasn’t going to be a McDonald’s All-American. So I just had to face the facts. I just had to work harder.”

The lack of exposure didn’t stop powerhouse programs like Kansas and Florida State from offering Riley and trying to lure him out of the Northeast, however. But ultimately it came down to Georgetown and St. John’s, and Riley’s desire to experience life outside of New York, and also learn under Patrick Ewing, led him to choose Georgetown.

“He’s a legend, and I’m coming out to become one of those legends,” said Riley about Ewing.

With his high school career over, it’s full speed ahead to Washington, DC, where Jordan will arrive at on June 5 to begin life on the Hilltop as a Georgetown Hoya. He’s excited to show off the improvements he’s made in the gym since last summer, when he committed to Ewing and Georgetown.

“I’ve been improving on everything. Shooting off the dribble, using more of my left hand, pretty much everything,” said Riley.

“Now I feel like I’m even better than I was, pretty much 100 times better than I was before, last summer to now.”

Be nervous, Big East teams. Be very nervous.

But Jordan knows that to get where he wants to get to, it’s going to take a lot of hard work from everyone on the team.

“All I really want to do is get to where we were before, and then try and get that national championship,” said Riley.

And he’s going to have some talented players coming in with him to help accomplish those goals.

Currently, Georgetown’s 2021 recruiting class of Riley, Aminu Mohammed, Tyler Beard, Jalin Billingsley, and Ryan Mutombo is ranked 14th in the nation. It has the chance to be a transformational class for Georgetown, and Riley has already started developing relationships with his fellow incoming freshmen.

“The guys, they seem pretty cool, so I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a good team this year,” said Riley. “A very good team, as long as we get to work.”

And he’s looking forward to working with the de facto leader of next year’s team, sophomore point guard Dante Harris.

“You have me, Dante, and Aminu out there, so it’s going to be pretty hard to beat I feel like, especially when we gel together and get down to campus.”

It’ll be interesting to see how Patrick Ewing deploys Riley. With Riley’s athleticism and size, he could play the 2 or the 3, and he should excel in Ewing’s fast-paced, open-floor offense. Combined with Mohammed, it’ll be a strong duo that can dominate on both ends of the floor.

But Riley isn’t concerned with that.

“It doesn’t matter to me. Anywhere you want to put me, I’ll produce.”

Riley is hoping to continue what last year’s team did, both in terms of results and also mentality, saying about last year’s team, “I loved it. The played with a lot of heart. Jahvon Blair and [Jamorko] Pickett, they played with a lot of heart. They didn’t give up. I thought they were down and out, but no. They didn’t give up and it showed.”

What can Georgetown fans expect from him as a player?

“I can pretty much do everything on the court. I can pass, I can defend, I can get rebounds, I can score if I need to at will.”

Oh, and what’s Riley’s favorite part about basketball?

“Dunking a lot and just embarrassing people.”

This should be fun.