The Syracuse basketball coaching staff is visiting a key 2026 recruiting target on Wednesday.
Head coach Adrian Autry, assistant coach Allen Griffin and general manager Alex Kline will be in on Wednesday for 2026 five-star point guard and top-10 national prospect Deron Rippey Jr., his dad confirmed to me via text message.
The Orange coaches are headed to Rippey's house at 12:00 pm to meet his dad, Deron Rippey Sr., and then they will travel to Deron Rippey Jr.'s prep school, the Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., to visit with him. Rippey and his family live in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The 6-foot-2 Rippey, the No. 1 point guard in the high school senior class according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, has been a top 2026 recruit for the 'Cuse staff for quite some time. Syracuse basketball offered Rippey a scholarship in late August of 2023.
In late February of 2024, on Jim Boeheim Day, Rippey took an unofficial visit to the Hill. As I first reported earlier this summer, he will officially visit the Orange program during the weekend that begins on September 26.
The Syracuse basketball staff is out and about for fall recruiting.
The fall recruiting period began a week ago, on September 3. This enables Orange coaches and their peers to make in-person, off-campus contact with high school prospects, in the form of conducting in-home visits and going to open gyms.
Other recruiting targets whom the Syracuse basketball staff has visited so far during the fall recruiting period, per media reports and analysts, include 2026 five-star shooting guard Jordan Smith Jr. of St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Va., 2027 four-star center Theo Edema of the Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass., 2027 four-star point guard J'Lon Lyons of the Clinton Grace Christian School in Clinton, Md., and 2026 five-star forward Christian Collins of St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif.
In mid-July, Rippey dropped a top 12 of Syracuse basketball, Alabama, Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State, Tennessee and Texas. Earlier this month, according to Rivals national reporter Joe Tipton, Rippey eliminated Indiana and Kansas from consideration. The Orange remains in his new top 10.
When Rippey officially visits the 'Cuse in late September, he will do so on the same weekend as another Syracuse basketball 2026 priority target, four-star wing/small forward Vaughn Karvala of CIA Bella Vista in Phoenix.