South Carolina basketball has the #1-ranked recruiting class in the 2025 cycle. Sure, it's early in the process, but the Gamecocks are the only program in the country to have two 4-star players committed in the '25 class.
The first pledge in the class is Hayden Assemian, a power forward who is playing for a state championship in South Carolina this weekend. The big man plays hard and has a good combination of length and strength that should translate well to SEC basketball. He is already the all-time leader in rebounds and blocks at Powdersville High School.
The other commitment in the class is guard Eli Ellis. Ellis is a dynamic scoring guard who plays with Overtime Elite. The top-100 player is a bit undersized and is not a major athletic threat. However, he is one of the most skilled players in the country as he has remarkable ballhandling ability, can score at the rim with elite touch, and is a dead-eye shooter from behind the 3-point arc.
On Wednesday, it was announced that Ellis was named the MVP of Overtime Elite. He was the league's Most Improved Player last season.
Ellis plays against some of the top young players in the world in the professional prep league, and his YNG Dreamerz squad is in 1st place heading into the league semi-finals. He has averaged 33.4 points per game, 6.1 rebounds per game, and 5.1 assists per game on the season.
Though Ellis plays in professional prep league (one that allows post-graduate high school students to play for a salary; Ausar and Amen Thompson did this last year before being drafted in the NBA Draft's 1st round last summer), he is still eligible to play in college. He forfeits his salary to preserve his amateur status.
Though there have been some rumors of reclassification around Ellis, he is still part of the class of 2025 and won't be in Columbia until next summer.