Deron Rippey Jr. is seeing his recruitment take off, with the New Jersey class of 2026 prospect shooting up the national rankings. He is one of the top recruitings targets for Rutgers in the 2026 class.
Rippey, who visited Rutgers in February for an 82-52 win over Michigan, is a 6-foot-2 guard from Blair Academy (Blairstown, New Jersey). A strong summer has translated to a nice rise in the recruiting rankings for one of the top guards in the nation.
The move up the rankings sees Rippey jump from No. 39 in the nation to now being No. 21 in the 247Sports Rankings. He is the top-ranked player in New Jersey
He has an offer list that includes Georgia Tech, Illinois, LSU, Maryland, St. John’s, Providence, Syracuse, TCU, Villanova and West Virginia among others.
In March, Rippey talked with Rutgers Wire about his official visit to the Big Ten program.
“It’s been surprising to see how much coach Pike has been keeping up on my game and my development. I knew that he came to watch some of my games.
“But I didn’t know that he’s been recruiting me for a long time, been watching some of my games and film and that he knew about my development,” Rippey told Rutgers Wire in mid-March.
“And also just the way they play. Coming into the game, I thought it’d be a good rivalry between Rutgers and Michigan.
“Michigan has always been really good, but just seeing how Rutgers – like they took the game seriously and they’re very competitive. It really surprised me. It honestly makes me excited to see how much they’re growing. You know, like Michigan is a major school, just seeing Rutgers be able to overpower (them)…it was just interesting to see how much they’re growing. And even in the next few years like, Dylan (Harper) being committed – just to see the growth is pretty amazing.”
Rutgers currently has a top-10 recruiting class with the five-star duo of freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper already on campus.
ESPN ranks Rippey as the No. 40 player in their ESPN 60 rankings.
