By SAM LANCE
ROCK HILL, SC — Things are getting serious on the recruitment front for Deron Rippey Jr., a five-star point guard out of the 2026 class and consensus top-20 prospect.
Rippey — the 6-foot-2 guard out of Blair Academy (NJ) and the New Heights Adidas 3SSB AAU program — has scheduled more official visits and will be releasing a top schools list next week, he told ZAGSBLOG. The expectation is Rippey will cut it to 12 programs.
Rippey’s official visit series is now as follows:
- Kentucky (Aug. 1-3)
- Miami (Aug. 27)
- North Carolina (Aug. 31-Sept. 2)
- Alabama (Sept. 12-14)
- Texas (Sept. 17-19)
- Syracuse (Sept. 25-27)
- Indiana (Oct. 17-19)
- Tennessee (Oct. 23-25)
Additionally, Rippey said he’s still figuring out dates for official trips to Duke, Kansas and NC State. The five-star added that BYU, Rutgers and Virginia are some of the other programs currently involved. He’s previously tripped Rutgers, St. John’s, UConn and Villanova unofficially and Louisville officially.
So far at the Adidas 3SSB championships, ZAGSBLOG has spotted several head coaches courtside for Rippey including Alabama’s Nate Oats, BYU’s Kevin Young, Duke’s Jon Scheyer, Indiana’s Darian DeVries, Kansas’ Bill Self, Kentucky’s Mark Pope, Louisville’s Pat Kelsey, North Carolina’s Hubert Davis, Syracuse’s Adrian Autry, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes and Texas’ Sean Miller. Assistants from Miami, Rutgers and Virginia have also been present.
Rippey provided his thoughts on a few of the schools in contact:
BYU: Coach [Kevin] Young and coach John [Linehan]. They’re a relatively new program, but they’re trying to get on the map recruiting high-level players. What they’ve preached to me is they want to let their guards play with a lot of space and with the ball in their hands. I’m just trying to find out a little more about their system.”
Kansas: “Coach [Joe] Dooley, he coached my dad while he was at East Carolina. So they sort of already had a relationship from his college days and I’ve been communicating with him the most. Obviously, they’ve been a successful team making the tournament every year. They’ve had a lot of pros. They’re a Blue Blood, so they’re a really high-level program and find a lot of success.”
Rutgers: “They’ve been recruiting me since my freshman year. I’ve been on campus a little bit. Obviously, they had Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, so it’s a program that they’re definitely trying to build up for sure.”
Virginia: “From what I’ve heard, coach [Ryan] Odom has won everywhere he’s been. So definitely a winning coaching staff that just got there. They also said they want to play fast and play through their guards, so I’m just going to look to explore.”
ZAGSBLOG will go in depth with Rippey on his finalists when his list drops next week. For his previous thoughts on some other programs involved click here and here.
As for Rippey’s decision timeline?
“It’s still up in the air, but I definitely want to get this out of the way,” Rippey said. “Maybe before the New Year. I’d say that’s the latest.”
This summer, Rippey has impressed at every stop. He participated in Team USA’s U19 training camp squad and just missed the final roster. For New Heights, Rippey has been a menace, averaging 16.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.9 steals per game. The five-star brought his team all the way to the 3SSB Final Four before falling to Caleb Holt and Game Elite.
“It’s been a great summer,” Rippey said. “A lot of guys on our team put together pretty good performances. Not just with New Heights on the AAU circuit, but also in June. It was more of an independent month with guys going to camps and playing with their schools in live periods. I’m proud of all my guys. But for me, it’s been a blessing of a summer so far. I’ve performed pretty good at a couple events, made USA U19 finalist. So it’s been a blessed summer for sure.”
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