Class of 2026 Offers and Commits

[Blue & Gold]

RJ Jones, G/F, 6-5, St. Ignatius HS, Cleveland, OH

Jashawn Ladd, G, 6-4, Ben Davis HS, Indianapolis, IN

Devan Christion, F, 6-9, Clark HS, Las Vegas, NV

 

 

Edited November 16 by Blue & Gold

[Let'sGoZips94]

 

6'5" G/F from St. Ignatius. Love seeing the NEO kid stay home. 

 

Much like the Columbus duo, not a whole lot out there about RJ in terms of other offers. 

[Slam_Hilliard22]

4 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

6'5" G/F from St. Ignatius. Love seeing the NEO kid stay home. 

 

Much like the Columbus duo, not a whole lot out there about RJ in terms of other offers. 

Jacksonville was his only other offer, looks like a pretty good scorer just going off his tape on X

[Zippy87]

Jashawn Ladd has committed to Akron per his Instagram.

[Let'sGoZips94]

6'4" G from Ben Davis HS in Indiana. If I'm not mistaken, it's one of the bigger and better athletic high schools in the state, most recently winning a state title in 2023 for boys' basketball (won the football state title in the same year).

 

No idea on his other offers.

 

[clarkwgriswold]

13 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

6'4" G from Ben Davis HS in Indiana. If I'm not mistaken, it's one of the bigger and better athletic high schools in the state, most recently winning a state title in 2023 for boys' basketball (won the football state title in the same year).

 

No idea on his other offers.

 

 

 

His X page shows offers from Mr. Pinky, Miami, Indiana State, Ball State, Robert Morris and UI Indy.

[zipinnc]

I thought I saw a commit on socials somewhere, but I can’t find it now. Anybody else see anything?

[Let'sGoZips94]

Zips Basketball posted to their FB story a graphic that read, "Welcome Kaleb Khairi."

 

Anybody know anything about this? Several posts on social media pop up but they're all in Arabic. 

[Zippy87]

1 hour ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

Zips Basketball posted to their FB story a graphic that read, "Welcome Kaleb Khairi."

 

Anybody know anything about this? Several posts on social media pop up but they're all in Arabic. 

 

It looks like Kaleb Thornton 

[Blue & Gold]

Found this scouting report on Jashawn Ladd.  It's from last summer.

"The best player on the best team in the 3 Stripes Gold circuit is no doubt Jashawn Ladd from Ben Davis high school in Indiana. Ladd is a long wing that has a nasty crossover, good Jumpshot, and explosive first move to the hole. He often beats guys with his second move, finishing outside the frame of the backboard with great touch. His athleticism is extremely difficult to stay in front of, and his ability to play above the rim made him a fun watch. It was no surprise that Ladd already has a D1 offer from Miami (OH) and will no doubt collect more as his team finished 8-0 in the circuit, qualifying for the 3SSB finals in July. Ladd was a strong piece to an excellent team, who played the right way and coasted through Adidas Gold like it was nothing."

[Blue & Gold]

Yesterday was NLI day but apparently Ben Davis HS is having their ceremony on 11/20.

[Let'sGoZips94]

Devan Christion- 6'9" F - Vegas

 

Where in the world did this come from? Had offers from George Mason and others, but can't find too much on his recruiting. Looks long and smooth. 

 

 

 

Edited November 13 by Let'sGoZips94

[LZIp]

Seems like another quality overall class. Who are we most excited for? I lean towards Ladd

[Illini Zip]

1 hour ago, LZIp said:

Seems like another quality overall class. Who are we most excited for? I lean towards Ladd

I honestly don’t know enough about them yet. But the video above of Devan is quite impressive. Is he really 6-9? He sure is skilled and athletic for a young forward. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

10 hours ago, LZIp said:

Seems like another quality overall class. Who are we most excited for? I lean towards Ladd

 

All of them until proven otherwise. With Devan coming out of nowhere, there's recency bias for me and I'm really intrigued by a 6'9" F with his level of athleticism. 6'4" and 6'5" guards though maintain fantastic size in our backcourt and everything about Ladd sounds like he's a real player. St. Iggy to Akron is an awesome pipeline I'd like to keep going. The St. Iggy kid Kent has can shoot so if RJ has the ability to contribute like that as a freshman, look out. 

 

We will still have 2 open spots automatically to bring in transfers. This is truly a dynasty being built. 

Edited November 15 by Let'sGoZips94

[Illini Zip]

He’s legit 6-8 according to this article, so he might still have another inch or two in him.

 

I really like that he has shown signs of being able to hit mid-range shots. 

 

https://u1hoops.com/2025/07/14/devan-christion-scouting-report-clark-high-schools-sleeper-with-size-touch-defensive-upside/

 

 

Edited November 15 by Illini Zip

[Illini Zip]

A bit of RJ Jones, #10.

 

 

[Illini Zip]

Groce has said in the past that the criteria to play the point in his system is being able to break down the defense in the half-court, distribute the ball, run the fast break quickly while staying under control and be an efficient 3 point shooter. The deeper the shot the better. It doesn’t matter how they beat their defenders as long as they can do it regularly. For some it’s speed and quickness, others it’s shiftiness or even brute size and strength. All usually have to be good playing off of ball screens as well.

 

You combine what @Blue & Gold posted with the fact that Jashawn Ladd shot 41% from deep last year and you have another point guard in the making. Maybe not his first couple of years, but very likely in time.

 

https://bleacherprospect.com/2025/05/27/top-performers-from-the-3-stripes-gold-session-ii/

 

https://gatorswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/high-school/2025/11/11/indiana-basketball-recruiting-rankings-top-30-players-in-class-of-2026/87204242007/

 

I know what you’re thinking…everyone can’t play point guard. True. Jashawn would likely have double-duty, half the time run the point and the other half play as a shooting guard. I think the smaller, quicker 6 foot guard is the mainstay at the position and I can see us bringing one in every 2 years. If they redshirt for a year even better. The other years, bring in true combo guards. At Illinois, I witnessed 6-1 point guard Tracy Abrams share the job with 6-4 ultra athletic, shooting guard Brandon Paul. It was kind of like the thunder and lightning dynamic you see football teams utilize with running backs. I bring up Brandon Paul because Jashawn looks like a poor man’s Brandon Paul. Expect to see this guy hanging on the rim quite often.

 

Look at how easy dunking is for this guy. He’s just a junior in high school here. 
 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/basketball/friday-night-fast-break-play-of-the-game-nominee-ben-davis-jashawn-ladd/vi-AA1xpj26

 

This dynamic of a point guard and combo guard sharing lead guard duties is nothing new during Groce’s Akron era. We started out with Virshon Cotton and Malcolm Duvivier. Then LCJ and Tyler Cheese. We then struggled partly due to Covid and partly due to Garvin Clarke’s failure to get north and south in the half-court. Thank God for Xavier Castaneda. As a shooting guard he held down the lead guard duties mostly by himself. Tavari was a freshman, but not at all ready for prime time. Since Tavari has taken the reigns he has shared the job with Tribble, Nate Johnson and now Shammah Scott. So don’t be surprised if the 5th year senior version of 6-5 Josh Henderson or RJ Jones becomes the next Tyler Cheese. 

I witnessed injury (and other shenanigans) at the point guard position derail Groce and Co. at Illinois. Together we witnessed Garvin Clarke’s failure handicap the Zips for a year or two. And now we are in the NIL era where you could see our future point guard leave at any time. In my opinion you can’t have enough lead guards on the roster. I suggest we grab one per recruiting class of alternating skill sets and size. And I think that’s exactly what we’re doing. 🙏

[Blue & Gold]

To illustrate @Illini Zip's insights, this year (albeit only 3 games into the season) our starting backcourt duo is averaging:

 

Tavari: 13.3 PPG, 5 APG

Scott: 14.3 PPG, 4.3 APG

[Blue & Gold]

RJ Jones & St. Ignatius is playing at STVM tonight.

[Let'sGoZips94]

On 12/22/2025 at 4:48 PM, Blue & Gold said:

RJ Jones & St. Ignatius is playing at STVM tonight.

 

How did RJ do?

[Blue & Gold]

20 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

How did RJ do?

All things considered he played well & showed huge potential. He probably only finished with 10 points but I actually found that encouraging because even though St. Ignatius is one of the more complete teams in the state, it was obvious from the opening tip that Coach Dru was solely focussed on not letting RJ beat them. STVM has a player named DeCarlo Prince who is 6-4 and supremely athletic & already has a grown man's body. This year & last I'd say DeCarlo has been one of the two best players in the city -  along w/ Garfield's Rayshawn Hamilton, IMHO. Anyway, Coach Dru had DeCarlo sticking to RJ like glue all night long. All. Night. Long. Hounding him. Denying him the ball. Fouling him. Any & everything. Played RJ extremely physically all night... literally every second RJ was on the floor. Coach Dru was going to let anyone but RJ beat them. That's the first I'd seen St. Ignatius play and so even though it kept RJ's numbers down I left the game excited that Coach Dru centered his entire defensive game plan on denying RJ the ball.

 

RJ's going to have to add muscle to contribute at the next level as he's still pretty skinny. So he'll almost certainly redshirt next season. But I think most of us expected that anyway.

 

He's a legit 6-6 and can jump out of the gym. He almost had two head-at-the-rim highlight dunks but was fouled pretty hard on both attempts. He can handle the ball & has a left hand & often ran the point & brought the ball up the court to initiate the offense.  He didn't shoot a 3 all night, which I wanted to see, but in warmups he's got a smooth stroke. His free throws are kind of knuckle-balls, but they went in.  He's a good and willing passer.

 

He's got super quick feet, can move side to side on defense & gets his hips low without effort. (He was also usually assigned to guarding DeCarlo on defense, so those two kind of negated each other). 

 

You can tell he's an Akron Zips-type of personality. During warmups & even during the game he was smiling a lot & encouraging his teammates; appears to be super friendly. So John Groce got another high-caliber young man.

Edited 9 hours ago by Blue & Gold