2025 Men's Basketball Recruiting

Ament had 29 points and 13 rebounds in that game while Dybantsa's Utah Prep won with AJ tallying 18 pts and 5 rebs. The Utah Prep team is a talented crew outside of Ament.

From the highlights, I get the sense from Ament of a player that really understands space and angles. He uses his length to get easier looks at the rim. He moves to open spaces to fire off that quick and high release. Interesting to me is that he's a couple weeks older than Cooper Flagg, believe it or not.
 
247 Sports has its own analysis of the Utah Prep-Highland game, plus a little info about who was in attendance:


The gym wasn't just packed with local fans, but also college coaches from some of the top programs across the country. Kansas State was four deep with head coach Jerome Tang and three assistants. BYU head coach Kevin Young was there with two assistants. Alabama head coach Nate Oats was there with an assistant. Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, and Tennessee also had coaches on hand.

On Nate Ament:

He never got discouraged or let his emotions get the better of him, but there were several occasions where he had a visible physical reaction to the reality that he was getting outplayed early on. Ament's competitiveness was clear and steady, and it was only because he stayed locked in through adversity that was able to put on such a show late...

Ament has exceptionally soft hands and touch, along with a very high release point that allows him to consistently shoot and score over the top of even defenders like Dybantsa, who is 6-foot-9 with a better than 7-foot wingspan...

Down the stretch, Ament did that with deep range, showed great footwork of his own, and plenty of fluidity putting the ball on the floor. His outburst of individual offense stole the show, and delighted a crowd that came with the intention of cheering on his opponent.
 
I'll try to shine a spotlight on Michigan soon.

Michigan made its biggest splash in the 2025 recruiting cycle today, getting a commitment from RSCI #16 Trey McKenney. The other finalists were Georgetown and USC.


He's the third future Wolverine in the class.

16. Trey McKenney (6-4 SG) -- committed 11/9/2024
71. Winters Grady (6-5 SF) -- committed 10/18/2024
NR. Oscar Goodman (6-7 PF) -- committed 10/23/2024 (New Zealand recruit; #91 by On3)

It's a significant gain for Michigan coach Dusty May, and he could make more of them in the spring. It's hard to gauge his level of interest in still-available recruits who were offered when Juwan Howard was still coach:

#8 Nate Ament, #11 Mikel Brown Jr, #28 Jerry Easter, Spencer Ahrens (#93 On3)

Since coming to Ann Arbor, he's made the following offers to still-available recruits:

#14 Brayden Burries, #23 Nikola Bundalo

I'm defining "still-available recruits" as those uncommitted prospects who have not openly ruled out Michigan by naming other schools as finalists. I've included Bundalo, who apparently has reopened his recruitment.
 
01. AJ Dybantsa (6-8 SF): Duke offer, BUT 6 Finalists are Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, BYU, Kansas, Kansas State and UNC

06. Meleek Thomas (6-3 SG): Duke offer, BUT 7 Finalists are Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Connecticut, Kansas, Kansas State, and Pittsburgh

13. Chris Cenac (6-10 PF): 7 Finalists are Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Houston, Kentucky, LSU, and Tennessee

15. Bryson Tiller (6-9 PF): 4 Finalists are Auburn, Georgia Tech, Indiana, and Kansas (11/10 announcement now delayed?)

55. JJ Mandaquit (6-1 PG): 9 Finalists are BYU, California, Creighton, Hawaii, Louisville, Tennessee, USC, Virginia, and Washington (will announce 11/12 at 3pm ET)

56. Kaden Magwood (6-3 CG): 3 Finalists are Auburn, NC State, and Ole Miss (will announce 11/11 11/12 at 3:30pm ET on Overtime Elite)

Okay, some recent developments on the national recruiting front.

RSCI #6 Meleek Thomas committed to Arkansas last night, forming a backcourt with #7 Darius Acuff. A bit of an undersized one for John Calipari; they are listed as 6-3 and 6-1. (If none of his current guards return, expect Cal to add some taller guards in the portal, equipped with all that discount retailer and prepackaged chicken money.) #13 Chris Cenac did the googly eye social media thing, paying close attention to Thomas' announcement, so a package deal may be in the works.

This morning brought three oblique predictions from Trilly Donovan -- a Mountaineer GIF, a Bruce Pearl GIF, and a Washington Husky live mascot GIF. Jamie Shaw appears to agree with the last one by posting an image of UW coach Danny Sprinkle.

The Mountaineer GIF almost certainly means that top 150 recruit Trent MacLean, son of UCLA player Don MacLean, will choose West Virginia over Saint Mary's when he declares on 247 Sports later today. When it comes to folk songs from the year 1971, I guess he's a little less "American Pie" and a little more "Take Me Home, Country Roads".

Both #15 Bryson Tiller (originally scheduled for last Sunday) and #56 Kaden Magwood (originally scheduled for yesterday) delayed their announcements, but Magwood rescheduled for today, while Tiller's new decision date is unknown. Both include Auburn as a finalist. So I'm thinking the Bruce Pearl GIF is for Magwood.

Finally, a potentially big one. The Husky GIF/Sprinkle image is probably about #55 JJ Mandaquit, and if it is, then he and his prep teammate, #1 AJ Dybantsa, will NOT join forces at BYU, as has been speculated here and many other places. What does it mean? Does Dybantsa spend next year in Provo anyway, or is there now an opening for one of the other finalists? Or, heck, does he ditch his finalists and follow Mandaquit to Washington? The Husky collective may have to give him at least twice as much as the $2 million they gave Great Osobor.

Magwood and Mandaquit are probably announcing on social media, but in behavior befitting sports message boards everywhere, they neglected to provide a link. If you're interested, you can try Overtime Elite Instagram (Magwood) and JJ Mandaquit Instagram, or you can wait a few minutes (like I will) for On3 to report it on their BB Recruiting News Feed.
 
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The Mountaineer GIF almost certainly means that top 150 recruit Trent MacLean, son of UCLA player Don MacLean, will choose West Virginia over Saint Mary's when he declares on 247 Sports later today. When it comes to folk songs from the year 1971, I guess he's a little less "American Pie" and a little more "Take Me Home, Country Roads".
Haha...loved the reference
 
I would think it would be a major recruiting edge for us that in the Champions Classic with all blue bloods, we’re always in the last game and the first game usually starts half empty in the stands.
 
86. BJ Davis-Ray (6-5 SG):

Earlier today RSCI #86 BJ Davis-Ray committed to SMU. That's the fourth player to do so: three in the RSCI Top 100 and one probably just outside it, and the lone Lone Star ACC team may not be done.

#14 Brayden Burries (6-4 CG) -- offered
#28 Jerry Easter (6-4 CG) -- offered
Deondrea Lindsey (6-7 PF) -- offered (#110 On3)
Parker Jefferson (6-10 C) -- offered (#142 On3)
Jordan Lowery (6-1 PG) -- offered (#198 On3)

Call me crazy, but I think that Andy Enfield and the Mustangs might already have the second best recruiting class among ACC teams.

1. Duke

Cameron Boozer (6-9 PF) -- #2 RSCI, #2 On3
Cayden Boozer (6-3 PG) -- #18 RSCI, #20 On3
Shelton Henderson (6-6 SF) -- #26 RSCI, #16 On3
Nikolas Khamenia (6-8 SF) -- #30 RSCI, #26 On3


2. SMU


Jaden Toombs (6-9 C) -- #43 RSCI, #43 On3
Nigel Walls (6-10 PF) -- #51 RSCI, #57 On3
BJ Davis-Ray (6-5 SG) -- #86 RSCI, #115 On3
Jermaine O'Neal Jr (6-5 SF) -- #99 On3

3. Notre Dame

Jalen Haralson (6-6 SF) -- #9 RSCI, #13 On3
Brady Koehler (6-9 PF) -- #90 RSCI, #90 On3
Ryder Frost (6-6 SF) -- #88 On3
Tommy Ahneman (6-11 C) -- #171 On3

4. UNC

Derek Dixon (6-3 CG) -- #57 RSCI, #48 On3
Isaiah Denis (6-5 CG) -- #70 RSCI, #56 On3

5. Syracuse

Sadiq White Jr (6-8 PF) -- #20 RSCI, #24 On3
Aaron Womack (6-5 SF) -- #279 On3
Luke Fennell (6-5 PG) -- unranked On3 (Australia)

Putting UNC ahead of Syracuse for today, but RSCI #32 Kiyan Anthony decides tomorrow. He's announcing on his father Carmelo Anthony's podcast, and it's widely believed he'll pick the Orange over USC and Auburn.
 
Do we think that the portal will not be quite as busy and productive as past years since the COVID year has expired?
 
It will be by definition less productive. No Mason Gillis or Sion James in next year's portal.
Yeah, there will be no (or at least far fewer; maybe a few people with a redshirt year on top of the COVID year?) super seniors and thus fewer people in the portal overall. But I'm guessing you'll see similar amounts of moment just with players who are (in aggregate) of lower quality. So some guys who in past years would have ended up in D2 will end up at a low major, some low majors guys ending up at a mid major, and some mid major guys ending up at high majors. Smaller labor pool for the same number of spots. Love that tight labor market!
 
Yeah, there will be no (or at least far fewer; maybe a few people with a redshirt year on top of the COVID year?) super seniors and thus fewer people in the portal overall. But I'm guessing you'll see similar amounts of moment just with players who are (in aggregate) of lower quality. So some guys who in past years would have ended up in D2 will end up at a low major, some low majors guys ending up at a mid major, and some mid major guys ending up at high majors. Smaller labor pool for the same number of spots. Love that tight labor market!
Or players like Jaylen Blakes who graduated in three years and are going to grad school. Probably not a lot of those.
 
No teams like Kentucky, who has six 5th year seniors…

Kentucky fans are grasping onto Mark Pope like he’s a star already, but it will be interesting to see what he does once he has to work with star freshmen, which I assume UK will at least some degree go back to recruiting.
 
No teams like Kentucky, who has six 5th year seniors…

Kentucky fans are grasping onto Mark Pope like he’s a star already, but it will be interesting to see what he does once he has to work with star freshmen, which I assume UK will at least some degree go back to recruiting.
With the COVID year riding off into the sunset there will be fewer older guys kicking around, so competition for their services will be fiercer. But Pope and others could still stock their team with traditional seniors via transfer, probably to similar advantage.

That said, Kentucky currently has commits from three top-30ish players and is going hard after Caleb Wilson and Koa Peat among others, so you're right that Pope may transition to more "traditional" one-and-done era team building.
 
Do we think that the portal will not be quite as busy and productive as past years since the COVID year has expired?

Yeah, there will be no (or at least far fewer; maybe a few people with a redshirt year on top of the COVID year?) super seniors and thus fewer people in the portal overall. But I'm guessing you'll see similar amounts of moment just with players who are (in aggregate) of lower quality. So some guys who in past years would have ended up in D2 will end up at a low major, some low majors guys ending up at a mid major, and some mid major guys ending up at high majors. Smaller labor pool for the same number of spots. Love that tight labor market!

Lower supply, equivalent demand. It's a recipe for more tampering.

No teams like Kentucky, who has six 5th year seniors…

Kentucky has seven such players. I've linked to Andrew Parrish's 2024-25 NCAA Scholarship Tracker a few times, and it comes in handy here. Just go by conference, find the team, and count the number of names in green to determine how many are on their last year of eligibility (grad students, super seniors, redshirt seniors, regular seniors, whatever).

Mark Pope's win on Tuesday reinforced the idea that putting together a team of experienced players entirely through the transfer portal can be very successful. When recruiting Acaden Lewis, he basically told him that he expects next year's team to have 5 returning players, 4 freshmen, and up to 4 incoming transfers.

So Kentucky will be a significant player in the portal, but there are others who will have even more spots to fill. Louisville, for example, has 10 names in green, though 2 of them (Aly Khalifa and Kobe Rodgers) are redshirting this year. So that's 8 open scholarships, and so far, Louisville has zero freshmen coming in.

Here are some power conference teams who, as of right now, have 4 or more known scholarship openings for next season (a quick calculation of the number of players with remaining eligibility on the Scholarship Tracker, plus the number of committed incoming freshmen from Verbal Commits, all subtracted from 13).

8: Auburn, Louisville, USC
7: Nebraska, Oregon, Texas Tech
6: Arizona State, Miami, Minnesota, Ole Miss, Tennessee
5: Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, NC State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Utah, Villanova, West Virginia, Xavier
4: Cincinnati, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, UCF, Washington
 
Here are some power conference teams who, as of right now, have 4 or more known scholarship openings for next season (a quick calculation of the number of players with remaining eligibility on the Scholarship Tracker, plus the number of committed incoming freshmen from Verbal Commits, all subtracted from 13).

8: Auburn, Louisville, USC
7: Nebraska, Oregon, Texas Tech
6: Arizona State, Miami, Minnesota, Ole Miss, Tennessee
5: Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, NC State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Utah, Villanova, West Virginia, Xavier
4: Cincinnati, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, UCF, Washington
Looks like men's bball scholarships increase to max of 15 for 2025-26 season.

 
Looks like men's bball scholarships increase to max of 15 for 2025-26 season.


Wow, I didn't realize the increased scholarship limit was starting next year. That alone could increase the demand for transfers, though I think a lot of coaches are creatures of habit and won't take advantage immediately.

Bill Self is not one of those coaches. Kansas will have 5 open scholarships, and he'll find a way to use them on 7 players.
 
Doesn't quite make sense to me. If a coach gives out 15 scholarships, how many of them will not see any game time... 5? 7? 8? Like Coach Cal said, he only needs 8-9 scholarship players and fill up the rest with "walk-ons" [something like that, anyway]. But no margin for injuries. Also, how does the mid-majors afford 15 scholarships? This increase in scholarship limits, I think, benefit all other sports most aside from football and basketball.
 
The limit cuts both ways, now that the roster limit and the scholarship limit are the same. So, Army can no longer have 24(?) players on its roster, and SEC schools in football can no longer have tons of “walk-ons” that aren’t on scholarship but can be encouraged to be on the team through NIL.
 
The limit cuts both ways, now that the roster limit and the scholarship limit are the same. So, Army can no longer have 24(?) players on its roster, and SEC schools in football can no longer have tons of “walk-ons” that aren’t on scholarship but can be encouraged to be on the team through NIL.
Why does Army have 24 players?
 
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