A new high school basketball season leads to Rivals' initial 2028 class ranking

On Tuesday, Rivals released its initial 2028 class rankings. This is the first update for the 2028 recruiting cycle.

Rivals’ initial 2028 class rankings

This is the fifth full class that On3/Rivals has worked from start to finish, with the 2024 and 2025 cycles completed and both the 2026 and 2027 class rankings already expanded to a full 150 names. Our national basketball team has spent the past several weeks diving into film and taking in live viewings over the past couple of months from major events like USA Basketball, Nike EYBL, Adidas 3SSB, Under Armour Next, Puma Pro16, June Scholastic Live Periods, Pangos All-American Camp, NBPA Top 100 Camp, and more to evaluate the top 2028 prospects across the full recruiting landscape. 

Player evaluations never stop, and that is especially true as players are just entering their sophomore years of high school. Everyone develops at a different pace, and that is taken into account. Rivals’ national team will get updated viewings of each player throughout the course of their recruiting cycle and be able to document each viewing to truly encapsulate a player’s developmental arc. 

Rivals’ initial 2028 class rankings

Rivals heavily prioritized how players finished their high school and travel seasons, looking at their career’s developmental arcs and how their games project forward. We also looked strongly at each player’s performance during the summer travel ball seasons and how they competed against their peers at elite spring and summer camps. Every viewing of a player plays a role in their evaluation, and it is advantageous to get eyes on a player in multiple settings.

Rivals basketball rankings

The Rivals basketball player rankings scale is as follows: five-star prospects have grades 98-100, four-star recruits have grades 90-97, and three-star recruits have grades 80-89.

There are no players with five-star grades in this initial ranking, players with a rating of 98 or higher. Players ranked No. 1 to 50 are classified as four-stars with grades from 90 to 97. The remainder of the position rankings are considered three-star prospects.

Our goal is to assess a prospect’s long-term potential, ultimately manifested by the NBA Draft. The goal of the ranking is not to assess who had the best high school career or who will be the best college player. This is why we will shoot to have 14 five-star prospects by the end of each recruiting cycle. This follows the lead of the NBA Draft Lottery. Our vision is draft night.

Rivals’ initial 2028 class rankings

Here are some of the storylines surrounding Rivals’ initial 2028 class ranking.  

Florida-based 7-footer Bamba Touray debuts at No. 1

The case for No. 1 in this class was an interesting one. Being this was the debut of the 2028 recruiting cycle’s rankings, there was no set precedent going in. Every player had a clean slate, and with that, multiple players were in the conversation.

While, at the end of the day, it was Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy center Bamba Touray who provided the most upside, wing AJ Williams, shooting guard Colton Hiller, and center Erick Dampier, Jr. all have made their case to be in the top tier. Williams is a 6-foot-7 wing who will play at McDunough (GA) Eagles Landing this season. He won a gold medal with USA Basketball in the U16 FIBA Americas Championship and a Nike E15 Peach Jam title. Hiller, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard at Coatesville (PA) High, also earned a USA Basketball gold medal in the U16 FIBA Americas Championship and made a name for himself, averaging 10.3 points on 41.7 percent shooting from three-point range with the PSA Cardinals program, while playing up two age groups during Nike’s Peach Jam.

Dampier is the son of former NBA center Erick Dampier. Like Hiller and Williams, the 6-foot-10, true low-post player earned a gold medal this summer with USA Basketball in the U16 FIBA Americas Championship. Williams and Hiller provide very intriguing shot-making, pulling off-ball gravity, and Dampier is able to create and erase advantages on the block. The floors are high for each.

Touray is a rare mover for a lengthy 7-footer at the five position. The rising sophomore is already producing numbers at a unique position, checking the highest-level boxes with his size, twitch, and instincts. His physical attributes also allow him to carry a high and attainable ceiling. Still thin, Touray averaged 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks while averaging 9.5 points on 55.3 percent shooting this summer on Puma’s Pro16 15U Circuit. Touray’s long-term outlook remains intriguing as well, showing a couple of different potential playing archetypes and his unique physical disposition.

At this stage of the process, uniqueness with upside is an enticing label for a prospect. Especially when that prospect does so many things naturally that are coveted at the highest levels of the game. When you look at the growth curve that Touray continues to show, you find that the upside is simply too much to ignore, for now.

This is just the beginning for this class. What most players look like as they enter their sophomore years of high school and at the end of the all-star game season their senior years can be drastically different. With between nine and 11 more updates to go in this cycle, we look to continue capturing snapshots in time of each player’s journey.

This update has no five-stars

Going through each ranking is a process, a cycle for each class where each update is built upon the last. The one thing that we do not want to do throughout any process is volatility. Not only are we not looking to have any significant drops, but we also do not want to get in the habit of taking fifth stars away from players. This does not mean that we are hesitant to drop a player if necessary, but what it does mean is that we do significant leg work ahead of time to ensure the players we do give five stars to deserve the rating and are capable of staying there for the long haul.

Ultimately, Rivals’ bases its rankings on the NBA Draft Lottery. We will aim to have no more than 14 players, at the end of each cycle, who are rated as five-star prospects. So, essentially a five-star rating means that we feel a player should be considered a projected lottery pick. Most of the time, it takes time to come to that type of conclusion for a player, and we certainly want to be careful in throwing that moniker around.

Currently in Rivals’ 2026 recruiting rankings there are two five-star prospects, Tyran Stokes and Brandon McCoy. There are currently zero in the 2027 Rivals 150. With that, in this initial 2028 update, this class will need some more time to marinate. While the depth of this class is shaping up to be quite intriguing, the top of the class will need some time to sort itself out. The plan for each class is to update between nine and 11 times from now until the end of the all-star season following their senior year. The next 2028 class update will come in-season. These next few months will be very interesting to watch how each of these players grow and which new names develop onto the radar.

Georgia leads the way with 8 players in the 2028 top 75 debut

Georgia debuted with eight players in Rivals’ 2028 top 75 rankings. The highest-ranked player who is playing in Georgia is 6-foot-7 wing AJ Williams from McDonough (GA) Eagles Landing at No. 2. In total five states have five or more players in this ranking.

Georgia – 8
Texas – 7
California – 6
Florida – 5
North Carolina – 5

Arizona and Pennsylvania each just missed this conversation with four players among the debut rankings. Virginia, New York, and New Jersey each had three.

Michai White top PG in the class

Michai White debuts as Rivals’ top-ranked point guard in the 2028 recruiting cycle. The 6-foot-1 White transferred to Wolfeboro (NH) Brewster Academy this summer. After averaging 26.2 points as a freshman at Neward (NJ) St. Benedict’s, White played 17U all summer with the City Rocks program on Nike’s EYBL Circuit. Playing up two grade levels, White averaged 14.0 points throughout Peach Jam. He also had standout performances with USA Basketball and other Elite camps throughout the summer. He plays a confident game with a nose for creating advantages off the bounce. White debuts at No. 13 overall in the initial 2028 class ranking.

At No. 13, White starts a cluster of point guards. Each of the top five in this class are ranked among the top-20 players overall. Behind White, at No. 14 is Atlanta (GA) Overtime Elite’s Kam Mercer. Then you have Louisville (KY) St. Xavier’s Josh Lindsay at No. 16, Bolingbrook (IL) High’s Brady Pettigrew at No. 19, and Dallas (TX) Faith Assembly’s Josiah Rose at No. 20.