Coach Dave Smart continues bring in high quality talent to his first Tigers roster most recently with the commitment of 7’0” Jazz “Big” Gardner from Pasadena, CA where he had a stellar high school career culminating in an MVP selection at the 2023 Iverson Classic (26 pts/22 rbs/5 blocks) plus being named three-time San Gabriel Valley all-First Team. Most recently Gardner spent his true freshman season at Nevada in the Mountain West conference.
Once again Coach Smart was thrilled with his newest addition: “Jazz is a super talented big man, strong, with a great attitude who can shoot the ball. We expect him to play meaningful minutes for us and be a big part of what we are working to accomplish here.”
Smart and staff appear to have become involved with Gardner fairly recently: as late as April 11, 2024, Tobias Bass on X announced that Gardner did not have Pacific on his radar, at that time cutting his list to Iona, Loyola Marymount, Boise State and St. Joseph’s. Jazz was rated #138 nationally in the Class of 2023 by 247Sports and considered Oregon, Ole Miss, Georgia Tech and San Francisco prior to committing to Nevada.
This is an impact recruiting win for the staff.
Gardner appeared in 20 games during his freshman season for Steve Alford’s WolfPack, averaging 2.5 ppg/2.0 rpg on a roster that had six seniors and graduate students in their seven-player rotation as Nevada finished 26-8 (13-5 in Mountain West) including an 88-39 victory over Pacific in which Jazz had 8 points/7 rebounds. Gardner had a season-high 13 points in just 11 minutes on 6-7 shooting vs. Portland in a November affair which turned out to be his best output. His playing time dwindled toward the end of the season as Alford shortened the bench with his upper classmen resulting in several DNPs including Nevada’s Round-of-64 NCAA tournament loss to Dayton in Salt Lake City.
Jazz’s father, Jelani Gardner, was a California hoops star in his own right, prepping at prestigious St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Ca.) in the early 1990’s, moving on to an NCAA career at California and Pepperdine before embarking on a long professional career overseas. Jazz’s younger brother, 6’4” JaiYon “Pop” Gardner (Class of 2026), is considered a promising point guard.
Gardner joins fellow bigs 6’9” Solomon Ominu and 6’11” Burke Smith, a holdover from Tigers ‘23-’24 roster in what is shaping up into a formidable Pacific front line. Expect Jazz to compete for a starting role and display his versatile offensive game facing and with his back to the basket.
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