Marcellous “Cello“ Jackson Jr. is coming home.

Jackson, a four-star prospect in the Class of 2026 and Memphis native, has committed to the Memphis Tigers, he announced on Saturday afternoon during a ceremony at Big Bill’s Bar-Be-Que in East Memphis.

Freshman duo is the future — and the present — of FACS hoops

The 6-foot-4 combo guard — ranked No. 126 overall in his class by 247Sports Composite — chose the Tigers over Texas State, Murray State and Arkansas State.

Jackson played his first two seasons of high school basketball at First Assembly Christian School and won a TSSAA Division II-A state championship as a sophomore in 2024, but he transferred to Miami’s Christopher Columbus High School ahead of his junior season.

Jackson’s announced homecoming gives coach Penny Hardaway the first commit of his 2026 recruiting class.

“I feel like the grit and grind with Memphis basketball’s been gone for a minute,” Jackson said to reporters shortly after putting on a blue Tigers hat and unzipping a black hoodie to reveal the gray throwback Memphis State T-shirt he’d worn underneath. “I’m finna bring that back. And the Memphis Tigers are gonna get a dog.”

Jackson’s pledge snaps a recent trend of local high school talent choosing to play college basketball outside of Memphis and continues an effort by the Tigers to reconnect the program to the city. He becomes the first high school recruit from Memphis to commit to the Tigers since then-four star prospect Johnathan Lawson in April 2021.

It was just two years ago, in October 2023, when Memphis native and then-four star recruit Curtis Givens III surprisingly chose LSU over Memphis, an announcement also made at Big Bill’s Bar-Be-Que. A little more than six months after that, then-five star recruit Billy Richmond III, another Memphian, picked Arkansas over Memphis.

But Givens transferred to Memphis in May, one month after fellow Memphis native and former Western Kentucky guard Julius Thedford did the same and a month before Hardaway added fellow 901 product Darrell Brown Jr. to his staff as director of player development.

“There haven’t been that many people coming back and playing for the city,” Jackson said. “I feel like I can be that first guy to start it off (again).”

Memphis natives Fred Smith Jr., Cello Jackson set to visit Tigers, per report

Jackson will close out his high school career at Columbus after averaging 7.5 points and 3.1 rebounds a season ago to help the team finish 30-3 and win a Florida High School Athletic Association Class 7A title and a Chipotle High School Nationals championship alongside current Duke star freshmen Cameron and Cayden Boozer.

But Jackson is no stranger to shining in his hometown.

When FACS won the 2024 TSSAA Division II-A state title two seasons ago, it was Jackson who made a layup with two seconds left that allowed the Crusaders to secure a 57-55 victory against Providence Christian Academy.

Jackson hopes to pick up where he left off when he makes his return to the city.

“Coach Hardaway ... he’s a legend in Memphis,” Jackson said, “and I plan to be one as well.”

Jackson’s announcement may be just the first piece of good recruiting news to come in the next few months for Memphis.

Class of 2026 four-star forward Fred Smith Jr. — another Memphis native and a Briarcrest Christian School star — also has an offer from the Tigers, among ones from Ole Miss, Missouri, West Virginia, Virginia and others.

Smith, who took a joint official visit to Memphis with Jackson from Sept. 19-21 and has been close friends with Jackson for years, was in attendance Saturday at Big Bill’s Bar-Be-Que.

Even he couldn’t help but imagine the possibility of teaming up with Jackson at Memphis.

“The city would be lit,” said Smith, who added that he plans to make a decision himself “pretty soon.”

It would certainly be another step in Jackson’s process of restoring something in Memphis’ program that he feels has been gone for too long.

“I feel like Memphis basketball would come back together, more fans would come back out,” Jackson said. “Because it’s for Memphis.”