Class of 2026 consensus top-25 point guard Deron Rippey confirmed with The Daily Hoosier on Thursday he’s got an October official visit planned in Bloomington.
Why is that a visit he wants to take?
“I’ve watched Coach DeVries since he was at West Virginia and was looking at the way he played his guards over there and it’s definitely a school I want to see,” Rippey told TDH at the Adidas 3SSB Circuit in Rock Hill, S.C.
Rippey said the IU staff has sent him a lot of film on Javon Small, who earned first-team All-Big 12 honors under DeVries last year and was drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies last month. Small averaged 18.6 points, 5.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting 35.3% from three on more than seven attempts per game from long range.
Small and Rippey have similar compact, strong frames, and there are a lot of similarities in their games, especially their quick twitch. To this point Rippey doesn’t shoot as high of a volume from three as Small, preferring instead to push the pace and beat everyone down the court, something he does with regularity on the Adidas Circuit. He’s looking for a wide open, up-tempo offense that accentuates that strength at the next level.
“I’m a downhill point guard, I like to play fast,” he said. “I don’t really like to slow the ball down every possession, so being out in transition is definitely going to help me showcase my talent. I’m a gritty, aggressive point guard. I think I can do a lot of things well. I’ve definitely shown strides of being able to shoot the ball, defend, pass and score when needed. I think I’m a very well-rounded point guard. I think my biggest attributes are my athleticism, my play-making, and my defense.
The Brooklyn N.Y. product starting talking to the IU staff after they watched him at the NBPA Top-100 Camp in June. His highlights from that and the rest of the spring and summer are below.
Rippey has noticed how passionate people in Indiana are about basketball.
“It’s definitely an underrated blue blood that not a lot of people know about, and the Indiana fans, from the Pacers to the Hoosiers, they definitely love basketball over there,” Rippey told TDH.
The Blair Academy product is also going to visit Kentucky, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, Miami and maybe others as part of what is shaping up to be a busy later summer and fall. Duke is also in the mix, and he previously visited Louisville.
Rippey says he plans to announce a list of finalists in the next couple weeks. He says his visits should end around Thanksgiving, and he hopes to reach a decision by the end of the year.
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