RECRUITING: Texas A&M felt "like home" for Village School's Jada Malone

HOUSTON - Since the fifth grade, Jada Malone has been accustomed to making the two hour trek up to College Station and settling into a seat inside Reed Arena to take in a Texas A&M women's basketball game.

Here first experience came when her older sister Micarah was going through her recruiting process. At the time, Micarah was being recruiting by Lamar and McNeese State but her father wanted to give her what a big college feel would be like. A few years later, Jada's cousin Courtney Williams suited up for the Aggies for four years.

Malone has always been around the Aggie women's basketball program. Now, she will be a part of it.

"It's felt like home for a long time," Malone told VYPE in a text. "I've been around the program since the fifth grade. I decided I wanted to stay close so I could play in front of family and have the chance to compete for a National Championship."

This past season, Malone helped guide The Village School to the TAPPS 6A Women's Basketball State Championship and was named the VYPE Private School Player of the Year.

Malone is the No.34-ranked player in the 2021 ESPN Hoopgurlz rankings.The Aggies signed three players out of ESPN's Top 100 for the 2020 recruiting class, including Summer Creek's Maliyah Johnson.

Texas A&M is led by legendary coach Gary Blair.

Blair has led the Aggies to 14-straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including winning the 2011 National Championship, since taking over the program in 2003.

"I've always been impressed with the way Coach Blair interacts with people," Malone said. "It let me know the way he would treat me. He's very personable, knowledgeable and has a lot of insight into everything."

With her junior season behind her and senior season on the horizon, Malone said she has had a lot of time to evaluate all the schools that had offered her, hence why she made her decision now.

As mentioned earlier, next year will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Aggies winning the national title, which is what Malone wants to help bring back to College Station.

"I believe it's very important to bring the national title back home to A&M because it's been too long," Malone said. "The A&M coaches want to experience another national title and so do I."