Jerzy Robinson, the No. 5-ranked player in the girls’ SportsCenter NEXT 100 class of 2026, has committed to South Carolina, she announced Tuesday.
“I chose South Carolina because I had a sense of peace when it came down to the decision for me,” Robinson said to ESPN shortly before announcing her decision on “NBA Today.”
Robinson added, “I was guided by my faith throughout my recruitment. I just consulted the Lord. I sought him out, asked for direction and some guidance. And after talking to him and my family, we came to the decision that South Carolina was home for me.”
The 6-foot-2 guard from Sierra Canyon High School in California becomes Dawn Staley’s highest-rated recruit in the 2026 class (No. 17 Kaeli Wynn and No. 18 Kelsi Andrews committed this fall). Robinson, 17, was the final five-star recruit in the 2026 class to commit to a program.
In late October, Robinson made her official visit to South Carolina. Prior to visiting the Gamecocks program, she had also visited UConn and LSU.
“It was all in God’s time,” said Robinson. “You can’t rush that, you can’t stop that, you can’t speed that up. … When I visited South Carolina, I was already home. I was already valued there. … I felt like this was where I needed to be for the next four years.”
No. 3-ranked South Carolina (12-1) won the SEC championship and made the NCAA Final Four last season. The Gamecocks have an 89-game win streak against unranked opponents, the longest current streak in Division I. Staley has coached South Carolina to three NCAA titles since she was hired in 2008.
After first meeting Staley over a phone call at the age of 14, Robinson said her commitment to Staley’s program feels like a “full-circle moment.”
“Playing basketball has always been my love and my passion and what I put my time into,” said Robinson. “To see it pay off and the hard work and the hours pay off, in the sense of I get to play for one of the best universities in the country, I just have so much gratitude.”
Robinson is known for her physical presence on the court and volume approach to scoring.
“She is a confrontational defender and rebounds extremely well for her position,” said ESPN women’s basketball recruiting analyst Shane Laflin. “She brings an in-your-face competitive nature to the floor and backs down from no matchup defensively.”
Robinson, who recently returned from a leg injury, is the captain for her varsity team. With her return to the court, Robinson said she hopes to finish her senior year with a championship title. Before her junior season, her ranking dropped from No. 1, a position she’d held since she was 13, to No. 3. Later in the year, her ranking dropped to No. 5.
“It’s not about a player dropping, right? Some of it is about a player rising” Laflin told ESPN last year. “[No.1] Saniyah Hall and [No.4] Kate Harpring had tremendous [2024] summers. And there, we’re talking about growth in game, we’re talking about all the things that would be on your theoretical ranking rubric with physical attributes, growth in game.”
Robinson finished her junior year averaging 27 points and 10.2 rebounds, and then joined the U17 Sports Academy Swish team, one of 32 Nike Girls EYBL teams. Robinson told ESPN that after taking a short hiatus from EYBL, she returned to continue to grow and develop her game against the best in the country. She averaged 24.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists before heading to U19 women’s national team basketball camp.
“The rankings drop was really just a number for me because whether it be No. 1, whether it be No. 3, whether it be No. 5,” Robinson told ESPN this fall before the start of her senior season. “For me, my identity isn’t tied to a ranking.”
Robinson has won three gold medals with Team USA, including at this year’s FIBA U19 World Cup in Brno, Czechia, where she averaged 7.7 points and four rebounds.
Before joining Sierra Canyon as a sophomore, Robinson, who had been dominant as a freshman at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, signed with Klutch Sports Group. She has an NIL deal with Nike, becoming one of the first high school girls to receive a major shoe endorsement.