Tennessee basketball is one of the 12 schools that five-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr. will be considering going forward.
Last week, Rippey revealed he is down to the Vols, North Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, Miami, Syracuse, Texas, Duke, Louisville, Kansas, NC State and Indiana, according to Joe Tipton.
Rippey ranks as the No. 16 recruit in the country on 247’s composite rankings. He is the No. 2 point guard in the class and No. 1 player out of New Jersey. He competes for Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey.
Rippey will be taking an official visit to see Tennessee this fall. He has a trip scheduled for Oct. 25-26 to cap off a string of traveling.
He’ll also check out Kentucky, Miami, North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Syracuse and Indiana. The Wildcats will get the first visit on the opening weekend of August. While there is plenty of time left to make pitches, it seems Kentucky will be the team to beat going forward.
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It isn’t expected that the Vols bring in a big high school class for the 2026 cycle after there was a large group signing this past offseason. Rick Barnes landed likely one-and-done five-star forward Nate Ament and likely returners in four-star Amari Evans, three-star DeWayne Brown II and unranked Troy Henderson. Tennessee also adds overseas prospects with professional experience in Clarence Massamba and Ethan Burg, who both will have multiple years of eligibility.
Other likely returners include J.P. Estrella, Cade Phillips, Jaylen Carey and Bishop Boswell.
Outside of Rippey, prospects to watch in this cycle include Gage Mayfield, Sam ‘Deuce’ Simmons Jr. and Junior County, who all have already taken a trip to Knoxville. Miles Sadler also has an official visit scheduled.
While these prospects don’t have visits in the books, Tennessee made the cut for top schools lists for Chris Washington, Latrell Allmond, Taylen Kinney and Bo Ogden. These prospects are primarily point guards and athletic wings with good size.
