2026 five-star guard Deron Rippey Jr. has announced his top ten schools still in his recruitment, and the Duke basketball program has made the cut. According to Rippey's father, the elite guard is no longer considering Kansas and Indiana. This leaves his list of schools at ten: Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, Miami, Syracuse, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, and NC State.
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer took an in-home visit with Rippey on September 3rd.
The Blair Academy (NJ) product is the No. 11 overall player, No. 1 point guard, and No. 1 player out of the state of New Jersey according to the 247Sports 2026 Composite Rankings.
Duke in heated battle with UNC for 5-star Deron Rippey Jr.
Several ACC programs are in the mix for the elite guard, but Duke might be fighting with its arch rival, North Carolina. In an interview with On3, Rippey said that UNC was his "dream school," which might put the Blue Devils at a disadvantage.
“They’ve [UNC] been my dream school since growing up, so being able to have an offer from them and a chance to play for them is really big for me,"Rippey told On3's Jamie Shawin a recent interview. "They’ve obviously been a Blue Blood, one of the most historic Blue Bloods since the beginning of college basketball, so I’m definitely gonna pay them a visit and I’m excited. One thing about Hubert Davis, he definitely plays his young guys. You know, looking at , , they’ve definitely been playing since the start of their careers at UNC, so that’s really important.”
5⭐️ Deron Rippey Jr. is no longer considering Kansas and Indiana and has trimmed his list to ten schools, his father tells @Rivals. https://t.co/jhufBLtNhB https://t.co/WKesYYSDNj pic.twitter.com/2RGp8VWl1Q
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) September 4, 2025
Rippey has an official visit scheduled to Duke for October 21st to the 23rd.
The coveted point guard recently took home a major award, winning MVP at Stephen Curry's basketball camp. Rippey beat out several elite prospects who also attended Curry's camp, including 2026 five-star prospect Baba Oladotun and Cole Cloer, a top-25 player in the class of 2026. 2027 five-star recruit Nasir Anderson was also in attendance at the camp.
Jon Scheyer and his staff are starting to hone in on a few prospects in the 2026 recruiting class. Four-star guard Austin Goosby recently went on his official visit to Duke, and Scheyer took an in-home visit with five-star Jordan Smith on September 3rd.