Lancaster's Madison Francis' SEC commitment all part of the plan

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — It's always been part of the plan for Madison Francis.

Francis, a senior at Lancaster High School, recently committed to play basketball at Mississippi State. Getting to this point is something she and her family have been working on since she was just beginning to play basketball.

Last week, she verbally committed to the Bulldogs, playing in a powerhouse SEC that has produced the past three NCAA women's basketball national champions. She is currently ranked No. 33 in the ESPN top 100 Hoopgurlz rankings for the class of 2025. According to recruiting website On3, she also held offers from Michigan State, Ohio State, Illinois, Louisville, North Carolina and others. She is the highest ranked of three top-100 recruits joining the program in 2025.

"Leading up to here and committing, it felt like a family environment," she said. "When I went there, you can definitely tell by the atmosphere there so that's what led me to making the decision. Coach Sam [Purcell] is a great guy, he was letting me go through my process and didn't stress me out about it. He wanted me to know for sure and I definitely knew for sure."

"From day one, this was part of the plan, part of the process," said Francis' father Tony, who played basketball at Niagara from 1985-89. "I said, we're going to train and become an all-around player, someone that can score, shoot, rebound, dribble, just a lot of the intangibles you need, especially with how the game has evolved."

That training led to Francis making the Lancaster varsity team as an eighth grader. She is about to enter her fifth season playing for the Legends. In four seasons, she has scored 1,732 points, grabbed nearly 1,000 rebounds, and recorded over 300 steals and nearly 300 assists. She led all of Section VI last season at 29.0 points per game, helping lead Lancaster to a third straight sectional title and a trip to the state semifinals.

"If you didn't know what her recruiting was like and how good she was, you wouldn't know," Lancaster coach Jayson Jaskier said. "She is incredibly humble, she is incredibly selfless. Interacting with her teammates during practice she's always looking for ways to help them get better. There's been multiple times during her career where I've had to tell her she's allowed to shoot the ball and score during practice."

Francis also plays volleyball for the Legends, and has won state qualifiers in track and field in the 200m dash and the triple jump. Playing multiple sports throughout high school has been important for her and her development. Tony played baseball in high school.

"I definitely feel like it plays a factor just to get different aspects of conditioning and different aspects of learning a new sport," she said.

"I think that's crucial for teenage athletes to play multiple sports, for a lot of reasons," Jaskier said. "Not only is she getting exposure to something maybe she's not that great at, but learning new skills and learning new sports only helps you get better at whatever your quote-unquote main sport is."

Earlier this year she was one of 12 players selected to play for the USA Women's 18U National Team, playing in the FIBA U18 Women's AmeriCup in Colombia.

"It was a great experience. I was glad to be a part of the 12 people selected and I had a great time with the girls, making new connections, meeting new people and to get out of the country and see the world as a whole, to get to see different competition on other teams," she said. "It was just a great experience."

All in all, she is getting ready for her final season of high school basketball and getting prepared to make the transition to high-level college basketball.

"The SEC is tough, it's grit, so I feel like I've had good mechanics with my dad coaching me in our workouts," she said. "It'll be an adjustment, college is no matter what, but I feel like overall it'll be a good thing for me."