Odom offers top 5 PG from Blair Academy

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia is the latest to extend an offer to class of 2026 point guard Deron Rippey Jr. of Blair Academy in New Jersey.

Rippey is a 6-foot-2, 175-pound 4-star, a consensus recruiting industry top-25 prospect who is smothered in offers from college hoop powers.

Among those in pursuit other than Virginia are: Villanova, North Carolina, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Seton Hall, Georgia, Washington, Purdue, St. John’s, Kansas, Illinois, TCU, Syracuse, Stanford, SMU, LSU, Wake Forest, Maryland, Michigan, Alabama and others.

247Sports’ consensus rates Rippey as the No. 19 overall recruit in his class nationally, the No. 5 point guard and the top prospect in New Jersey.

Rippey has been invited to the 2025 USA Men’s Junior National Team mini-camp this month in Texas, and participated in the team’s mini-camp in Colorado last October.

“He’s growing up, maturing and playing with a lot of poise,” said Blair Academy coach Joe Mantegna. “He’s exactly the guard you want right now. He can score, he makes some of those dime cross-court passes. Those are passes that sophomores in college are learning to make. He’s a dog on defense and that’s what travels to the next level.”