Ralph Scott first dribbled a basketball around the age of five. That might be the only traditional part of his journey to blue-chip basketball recruit.
Scott was one of the most sought after recruits in the 2026 recruiting class, committing to Tennessee on Tuesday afternoon over Houston, Purdue and Texas A&M. But Scott’s basketball journey began over 1,200 miles east of Knoxville in Bermuda.
Cricket and soccer are the two most popular sports in the island nation of Bermuda. But the basketball roots run deep in Scott’s family.
“My family has always been in basketball,” Scott told RTI. “My grandfather coached the Bermuda National basketball team. I’ve always been around him, watching basketball like that and seeing him in that environment. I obviously liked other sports when I was younger but I felt like I gravitated towards basketball.”
Because of his family’s love of basketball, Scott has played since he was little. While he enjoyed other sports, Scott gravitated towards basketball. Now a 6-foot-8 wing, Scott has always been tall for his age and a gifted basketball player.
However, Scott did not get a formal basketball start until later in his life. Bermuda is a tiny island nation in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a total of just 20.6 square miles and has a population of just 63,779 according to the 2016 census. To put that into perspective, the entire population couldn’t fill up the Food City Center three separate times.
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“I grew up around basketball,” Scott said. “But there’s not a lot of people in Bermuda so I didn’t play organized, in a proper gym basketball until I was like 10 or 11.”
Scott moved to the United States to further develop his basketball skills ahead of his sophomore season of high school. He spent one season at Lakeland Christian School in Florida before transferring to IMG Academy for his junior and now senior season.
There was an adjustment period for Scott in America but his game has blossomed and he’s turned into one of the top prep players in the country.
“I’ve made a massive improvement in my game,” Scott said. “I would say last year, obviously physically my body has developed but also my game. My ability to shoot. My ability to stretch the floor. My intensity and defensive presence, if you want to say, has all improved in the last year or two. It all took a while to adjust to American basketball from Bermuda.”
Scott now has a unique opportunity of representing his nation on a national stage. Bermuda has never produced a Division I men’s college basketball player. Its national team currently ranks 129th in the FIBA World Rankings. Scott is walking on a previously uncharted path to Tennessee but believes that he’s found the program that’s right for him.
“I feel like, just being able to learn from someone that’s had that much success with players at my position and putting them in the next level— it would be crazy not to pick the guy who has the most accomplishments,” Scott said.
