2025 Men's Basketball Recruiting

If everyone we expect to stay stays next year, I did say we're done in terms of high-impact freshmen recruits. Just need a few more 4 stars or impact transfers to get our final roster over 10 players.


Patrick Ngongba
Carlos Boozer
Isiah Evans
Caleb Foster
Cayden Boozer

Maliq Brown
Darren Haris

Just wait till Carlos comes back from that foot fracture.

We're going to win a championship...
 
Dwayne Aristode (6-7 SF)

His finalists are Arizona, Duke, Michigan State, USC, and the NBL Next Stars program in Australia. In the past month or so, he took official visits to Duke, Michigan State, and USC, and unofficially visited Arizona back in January. No decision date yet, but he told ZagsBlog he's probably done with the visits.

There is a decision date, and it was earlier today. Dwayne Aristode announced he's going to Arizona.


Aristode told On3 that, as an international player (he's from the Netherlands), Arizona has been an inviting place to a lot of other international players.

Edited to add: The ESPN article posted above by @mr. synellinden has the line, "Arizona has another diverse roster this season, with five international players in Motiejus Krivas (Lithuania), Anthony Dell'Orso (Australia), Henri Veesaar (Estonia), Conrad Martinez (Spain) and Emmanuel Stephen (Nigeria)."
 
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BYU is taking "Come sit with us" outdoors, and to the next level. ESPN's Paul Biancardi posted the video from yesterday:


That's AJ Dybantsa (RSCI #1) and his Utah Prep teammate JJ Mandaquit (RSCI #55) visiting Provo this weekend. Deseret News provides a little background: the two bonded as teammates on USA Basketball's U17 team, and Dybantsa changed schools to keep that going:

The two aren’t necessarily believed to be a package deal, although Dybantsa — who hails from Massachusetts — did recently say that he decided to go to Utah Prep for his senior year of high school to team up with Mandaquit after attending school in California last year.

If they want to continue playing together in college, the only finalist they have in common is BYU.
 
Acaden Lewis (6-3 PG)

He's down to Connecticut, Duke, and Kentucky. (A fourth option of UNC was reportedly cut, not long after combo guard Derek Dixon committed to the Heels.) He visited Connecticut last month, came to Durham for CTC, and celebrated his birthday at Kentucky yesterday, where he attended Big Blue Madness and was serenaded by the team.

In DBR Podcast #651, at around the 52-minute mark, @JasonEvans talked about meeting the fathers of Nate Ament and Acaden Lewis last weekend, and shared a piece of information that may have been reported elsewhere, but I had not previously come across it:


"I get the impression -- I'm not sure if they've released it publicly -- but I believe Acaden will be deciding in about the next month, early November. You know, I don't want to break any news, if that's not official or anything, but his dad did say we they're probably going to decide, and it should be early November."

ZagsBlog doesn't put forth a decision timeline, so maybe that is news.

Six days after the DBR Podcast, and one day after the above post quoting that podcast, ZagsBlog has caught up.


Five-star guard Acaden Lewis enjoyed his visit to Kentucky and is now done with his official visits and is eyeing a decision in the coming weeks...

Lewis is also considering Duke and UConn and has now visited all three schools ahead of a decision in “early November,” he said.

Does Adam Zagoria consume DBR content? If he doesn't, he should. "ZagsBlog: you heard it here third."
 
If the Cheats don't land Caleb Wilson, it will be tough for them to put together a top20 recruiting class. They are still after #16 Braylon Mullins, but so is UConn - and Indiana really wants to keep him in state.

If they lose Ian Jackson and Drake Powell as projected first round draft picks, along with RJ Davis and Jaelyn Withers, they could be facing a pretty big rebuild in the portal.

The cheats have an amazing way of getting their freshmen to become seniors! JR Davis and Armando are great examples!!
 
Shelton Henderson (6-6 SF)

He's choosing between Duke, Louisville, and Texas with no official visits so far. He unofficially visited Duke last weekend for CTC, along with Ament, and this post from HS Top Recruits has something to say about that meeting.


I haven't seen this package deal independently reported anywhere else, and an account called Louisville Updates replied "Don't believe everything you read".

Brandon Jenkins of 247 Sports spoke with Shelton Henderson over the weekend and posted this article.


They discuss all three finalists, but the main takeaway is that "Henderson plans to announce his college decision around the start of November. He says he will pick a school with a coaching staff that he feels is genuine and believes in his abilities the most."

We know that Dwayne Aristode has already declared (to Arizona), and that Shelton Henderson, Nikolas Khamenia, and Acaden Lewis have each expressed an intention to decide his destination in October or early November. Nate Ament, Brayden Burries, Koa Peat, and Caleb Wilson seem to be early enough in the process as to wait until spring to make commitments.
 
[Trilly] Donovan's GIFs hint at a commitment for a player announcing later that day, but they offer no context at all.

I was not expecting to see a Chris Collins GIF this morning:


This means someone is likely declaring for Northwestern today. Keep banging the floor, Coach Collins, while I figure this out.

I went to Inside NU, their SB Nation site, and found this comment under the article in which top 100 recruit Tre Singleton committed to the Wildcats last week (as @JasonEvans posted earlier in this thread):

"It’s going to be interesting to see what Collins plans to do with the remaining two available scholarships for next year. A 6-2 point guard from Philadelphia who is ranked in the 150’s by 247 and a 6-11 kid from Nashville who’s ranked in the top 200 are reportedly interested. (One site claims a Top 50 ranked combo guard from Long Island is interested but no one else is saying that.)"

This is why commenters need to be more specific; by not naming the players, this person is giving me more work to do. The Philly point guard is Jake West (#156 in 247 Sports, #131 in On3), while the Nashville big man is Cade Bennerman (#197 in 247 Sports, #198 in On3).

Bennerman (nicknamed "Li'l Wemby" in the headline of this 247 article behind a paywall) officially visited Northwestern in September, but it still seems early in the process. West, however, narrowed down his choices to Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Florida, Northwestern, and VCU, according to ZagsBlog, and is deciding later today in a MADE Hoops livestream:

 
I was not expecting to see a Chris Collins GIF this morning...

This means someone is likely declaring for Northwestern today.

Trilly doesn't miss. Jake West committed to Northwestern.


It's not quite the string of success that Notre Dame had with recruits last month, but Chris Collins has had a very good October.

10/04: Tyler Kropp, 6-7 PF (#187 in 247 Sports composite, #178 in On3 composite)
10/09: Tre Singleton, 6-8 PF (#72 in 247 Sports, #95 in On3)
10/15: Jake West, 6-3 PG (#156 in 247 Sports composite, #131 in On3 composite)

He also signed Phoenix Gill (#238 in 247 Sports composite, #261 in On3 composite), son of 1980s Illinois star Kendall Gill, back in June.

Based on Verbal Commits, the last 2 available players in the 2025 class with Northwestern offers are 7-0 center Xavion Staton, who has narrowed his choices to BYU, Michigan, Stanford, and UNLV, and 6-11 Cade Bennerman, who I mentioned in my previous post.
 
The Boozer twin's Florida Explorers play AJ Dybantsa's Utah Prep tonight at 9:00 on ESPN2
Utah Prep won by 1 and Dybansa scored 28pts and got game MVP.

Cam and Cayden looked good. Cam is such a better fit for Duke than AJ. Cam is very fundamentally sound and makes winning plays on both ends just like Cooper.

AJ, well.....he is an incredible talent but he spends a lot of time floating on the perimeter waiting to make a spectacular play. It will be interesting to see how he integrates into a team for his one year of college ball.
 
The Boozer twin's Florida Explorers play AJ Dybantsa's Utah Prep tonight at 9:00 on ESPN2

Utah Prep won by 1 and Dybansa scored 28pts and got game MVP.

Cam and Cayden looked good. Cam is such a better fit for Duke than AJ. Cam is very fundamentally sound and makes winning plays on both ends just like Cooper.

AJ, well.....he is an incredible talent but he spends a lot of time floating on the perimeter waiting to make a spectacular play. It will be interesting to see how he integrates into a team for his one year of college ball.

League Ready has the highlights and a post with some stats. The final score was Utah Prep over Florida Explorers 69-68, but no one scored in the final minute, and the Explorers' last possession ended in a shot clock violation. Anticlimactic.


AJ Dybantsa: 28 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast

Cameron Boozer: 20 pts, 10 reb
Cayden Boozer: 17 pts, 9 ast
 
Utah Prep won by 1 and Dybansa scored 28pts and got game MVP.

Cam and Cayden looked good. Cam is such a better fit for Duke than AJ. Cam is very fundamentally sound and makes winning plays on both ends just like Cooper.

AJ, well.....he is an incredible talent but he spends a lot of time floating on the perimeter waiting to make a spectacular play. It will be interesting to see how he integrates into a team for his one year of college ball.
Sounds like A J would fit the Prima Donna roll o at unCheat.
 
.... the Explorers' last possession ended in a shot clock violation. Anticlimactic.
Explorers’ coach had his team hold the ball, delaying initiation of final O-set, presumably to assure Cam got last shot. Disastrous, as Utah Prep disrupted the O, so neither Cam nor anyone else was anywhere close to even getting off a shot. Anticlimactic, yes, and also head-scratching final-shot strategy. I suppose one could claim the Explorers simply didn’t execute the delayed play; but imo the coach messed up.
 
Explorers’ coach had his team hold the ball, delaying initiation of final O-set, presumably to assure Cam got last shot. Disastrous, as Utah Prep disrupted the O, so neither Cam nor anyone else was anywhere close to even getting off a shot. Anticlimactic, yes, and also head-scratching final-shot strategy. I suppose one could claim the Explorers simply didn’t execute the delayed play; but imo the coach messed up.
I've never understood the idea of changing things for a last shot (or use of prevent defense in football). I always agreed with the overall philosophy of Bones McKinney: You gotta dance with who brung ya.
Getting all cute seem to mostly fail.
 
Nik Khamenia is announcing tomorrow (tuesday) afternoon, his final three are Duke, Gonzaga and UCLA (link).

We could go from having a season of Khaman Mania to a season of Khamenia.

Nice find. 247 Sports put up an early link to Nikolas Khamenia's announcement video set for 5:30pm ET tomorrow.


He eliminated Arizona and UNC from his previous list of 5. Losing the Wildcats was probably expected, with the commitment of small forward Dwayne Aristode, but the UNC omission is a little surprising. Welcome, mind you, but a little surprising.
 
Sounds like A J would fit the Prima Donna roll o at unCheat.
Prima Donna is the term. He's the type of player right now who takes plays off. Some of that may be his current coaching. But it made me really happy we've got Boozer and not Dybansa headed to Duke.

One of the announcers last night compared Cayden to Tre Jones. I think that's a pretty fair comp on the offensive end. I'm not sure yet if Cayden will be as good a defender, but he was on Dybansa for a lot of the night.
 
Regarding Khamenia -- there have been 2 crystal balls for UCLA that were logged about an hour or so ago.

The 247 article posted earlier by @UrinalCake features some telling quotes from Khamenia. They boil down to this...

UCLA: the hometown favorite, two of his prep teammates are there now, kept in contact for 3 years
Gonzaga: they'll make him the main guy, kept in contact for 2 years
Duke: he's talked to the Boozer twins, and it would be cool to play with them
 
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