NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — I bear in mind coming to this fitness center the previous two years and realizing that this rumored-about child from middle-of-nowhere Maine was not solely the true deal on the court docket, however had the potential to develop into one of many cooler tales we have seen in basketball prior to now 20 years.
Cooper Flagg, after all.
And in case you’ve been following basketball normally over the previous few weeks, you understand that Flagg’s time has formally come, months earlier than he performs a recreation for Duke. Whereas chatting in chilly gyms in current days on the Nike Peach Jam, I remembered how a lot of Flagg’s origin story got here from the courts right here on the Riverview Park Actions Middle, the place Nike’s held its annual championship basketball occasion for near 30 years. Earlier than Flagg grew to become the newest Subsequent Massive Factor, he was a rising fascination in highschool circles.
He is since morphed from fascination to sensation.
Who is aware of what awaits him within the subsequent 9 months at Duke. However, school basketball has a bona fide star no matter not but having performed a Division I recreation. The build-up for that media sensationalism (a few of it clickbait, however quite a lot of justified as a result of Flagg’s apparent means and potential) begins at this degree, at these occasions. He’ll be a freshman that issues in a manner no one has since one other Dukie: Zion Williamson. The most effective freshman within the nation final season was Reed Sheppard, who was little question adored by Kentucky followers and a widely known expertise … however he additionally solely began 5 video games due to John Calipari’s stubbornness. Even because the nationwide freshman of the yr, Sheppard was one way or the other a Kentucky one-and-doner/top-three NBA decide who nonetheless could not break by means of to widespread nationwide enchantment.
Flagg will.
So, why am I mentioning Flagg in a July recruiting column when he is now not in highschool? As a result of I simply spent 5 days on the street speaking to dozens of school coaches and NBA scouts, and this is probably the most thrilling half: For as superior as Flagg may/ought to be, there’s an opportunity he will not even be the very best freshman in school basketball over the following two seasons. By the top of the 2026-27 season, he won’t even be the second or third-best.
That is an awesome factor for the game. The longer term is vivid (significantly since G League Ignite is now not round to lure away a handful of top-rated prospects yearly).
Faculty basketball does not want freshman stars with a purpose to usher in large viewership, however boy do they assist. And sports activities followers love one thing recent and new. (I level you to none aside from Paul Skenes in MLB.) Males’s school basketball — in a double-edged sword sort of manner — is exclusive in the way it’s boosted off star gamers who arrive with a blast and go away after only one yr. No different sport is troubled with this bittersweet association.
However at the very least they’re getting them, and people, after spending a while on the street to see the following wave of gamers set to enter school basketball in 2025 and 2026, it certain looks as if the following few years could possibly be one thing particular.
The most important title of all of them is the highest-rated participant in highschool, a rising senior named A.J. Dybantsa. The 6-foot-9 taking pictures guard/energy wing is from Massachusetts, performs for the Oakland Troopers on the Nike circuit and would seem like some of the gifted scorers to emerge from the prep ranks prior to now 10-plus years.
Flagg was considered among the finest prospects to come back out of highschool in a era.
Dybantsa may be higher.
That is not merely my projection. I spent 5 days in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and North Augusta and took in Adidas’ 3SSB (Three-Stripe Choose Basketball) championship occasion along with the Peach Jam. I informally polled about two dozen coaches and scouts on the Adidas and Nike occasions about which prospect they appreciated greatest: Flagg, Dybantsa or one other irresistible expertise, 2026 blue-chipper Tyran Stokes (all three being No. 1 of their respective lessons). Dybantsa acquired extra votes than Flagg and Stokes mixed.
Dybantsa and Stokes are taking part in collectively this week at Peach Jam with the Oakland Troopers, offering a team-up so dominant, a championship run would land as no shock. This is an early glimpse of what they’ve carried out in North Augusta.
Dybantsa’s scoring means is outrageous. It is pure to wince at large statements made about youngsters, however this is the fact of what I heard at Peach Jam over the weekend from a number of evaluators: Dybantsa’s offensive affect on the court docket at this degree at this stage of his budding basketball profession is akin to mainly any of the very best prospects to come back by means of the ranks over the previous 20 years. He is that good. He communicates together with his teammates on mainly each possession, has go-go-gadget limbs, loves the mid-range simply as a lot as the three (and is environment friendly at each), and appears to have the flexibility to teleport from one spot to a different in a flash.
“I am only a loud individual,” Dybantsa informed me.
If there’s one adjective to explain Dybantsa’s recreation, loud feels as becoming a descriptor as any.
He has a preternatural means to have an effect on each play. His presence is ever-present. He seems larger/rangier than any 6-9 highschool participant I’ve seen. If he retains on this path, he’ll be the No. 1 decide within the 2026 draft. NBA scouts I talked to framed his potential, in a best-case state of affairs, as being a man who will sooner or later lead the NBA in scoring.
We’re nonetheless 16 months away from Dybantsa taking part in in a school uniform, however sure, in case you had been even a little bit skeptical, he can be a school basketball participant.
“He’s positively going to varsity,” his father, Ace, informed me.
So we have that coming in school basketball in 2025-26, which is electrifying. As for the place we’ll see Dybantsa play subsequent yr, he stated a trimmed record of “5 to seven faculties” can be publicized by the top of the month. As of now, the record of hopeful faculties is greater than a dozen lengthy, together with virtually all of the blue blood names you’d anticipate to be in there, along with the likes of Alabama, Auburn and BYU.
Dybantsa informed me this course of has “been powerful” as he is adjusted to being a high-profile highschool athlete, however the insulation in his recruitment supplied by his mother and father has made quite a lot of his day-to-day rather more manageable. He’ll be tracked by scouts, followers and coaches, basically day by day, from now till the evening he is picked within the draft. The hype has already begun, however it can most positively improve between now and his school debut in November of 2025.
The thrill about the way forward for basketball isn’t just with Dybantsa. The highest of the 2025 class has immense potential — and will have extra affect in school hoops than any freshman group in five-plus years by the point they enroll. That is an enormous takeaway from lots of people this July. In recent times, juniors and seniors have run the game, harkening again to the best way it was within the Sixties, 70s, 80s, 90s and into the 2000s.
Will that change a bit in 2024, 2025 and 2026? Keep in mind, this upcoming season is the final in school basketball with the bonus COVID yr for all gamers. Come 2025-26, we’ll be again to regular, and the common age within the sport will downswing.
It may result in a number of freshmen being impactful at an All-American degree.
This class — led by Dybantsa (wing) — can also be highlighted by Cameron Boozer (energy ahead) and Darryn Peterson (combo guard). On the prime, some scouts assume it could possibly be an epic group for each school basketball and the NBA Draft. Toss in stud level guard Darius Acuff Jr. and large man Koa Peat to spherical out the highest 5 in 2025, and you realize what it looks like? A freshman class on the prime finish that could possibly be as impactful as among the late 2000s and 2010 years, after we had first-year gamers able to not solely being actually good, however mattering on a nationwide degree and competing for nationwide participant of the yr.
Nike
Freshmen have develop into much less valued within the hyper-transfer portal period, and for probably the most half I feel their affect stands to be extra muted than we noticed from 2006-2019. The highest of the 2025 class appears completely different.
Boozer and his brother, Cayden, have been dominant gamers for his or her complete run in highschool, be it on the summer time circuit or in prep play. For all of the Dybantsa hype, Boozer’s thought-about by some to be a surer factor in school, the place his position, knack for profitable and reliability for taking part in his greatest towards the very best competitors is taken into account tantalizing. Duke, Florida and Miami are thought-about the three faculties with lifelike probabilities to land the Boozer twins.
Cameron Boozer’s productiveness and translatable expertise to the faculty degree could have him getting into the 2025-26 season with simply as a lot intrigue as Dybantsa. Boozer had beforehand been linked with Flagg, as a result of being in the identical class till Flagg reclassified, however we must always see Boozer vs. Dybantsa at Peach Jam later this week, which might be among the many extra anticipated head-to-heads within the occasion’s historical past.
As for Peterson, who performs on the Adidas circuit, he is not as large as the opposite two … however he may be simply as sturdy. He has an NBA-ready physique proper now. Peterson cuts a powerful determine and has traits as a combo guard that make him virtually unimaginable to protect at this degree. Some assume Peterson ought to be on the identical tier as Boozer and Dybantsa, and after seeing him dominate in Rock Hill, I am unable to disagree. If he is actually the third-best participant on this class, then school basketball’s freshman crop a yr from now will most likely be higher than the terrific group we’re getting this yr in Flagg, Rutgers’ duo of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, plus Baylor stud V.J. Edgecomb.
As a number of coaches and NBA scouts informed me: If Dybantsa, Boozer and Peterson had been all eligible for the 2024 draft, all of them might properly have gone within the prime 5. Dybantsa virtually actually would have been No. 1.
As I watched Boozer, Dybantsa, Peterson, Peat and others, I remembered how there isn’t any scarcity of cautionary tales with regards to overhyping prospects. Let’s hold that at entrance of thoughts, too. Not ALL of those guys are going to proceed to develop, get higher and switch into All-NBA gamers or top-10 school guys. However there may be an accepted fact amongst just about everybody in basketball that the 2025 class is healthier than many we have seen lately.
What do we’ve got to thank for that? Greater than something: NIL. With G League Ignite gone and Extra time Elite now allowed to usher in gamers however nonetheless have them be eligible to play in school, school basketball is benefiting from star expertise in a manner that it hasn’t in a while. From a star energy perspective, it is getting into into one other actually good period.
So in case you thought Flagg’s inbound season at Duke can be a one-year burst for faculty basketball, assume once more. He ought to be super. However there is a good probability we see even higher gamers. The way forward for school basketball for the following three years seems vivid — and poised to ship on freshman star energy in a manner we have not seen since Zion. That is an enormous victory for American basketball throughout the board.