Is New England becoming a Basketball recruiting hotbed? (see list) (draft, NCAA)

[BostonBornMassMade]

I realized 3 MA and CT players played in the national championship game, and really it hasn't been uncommon that NE players play in the National Championship game in this past decade. I also realized the #2 player in 2025, #1 player in 2026 and the #1 pick in the WNBA draft were all raised in New England. So I made this thread after some more research...



I'm curious if people realize the Basketball talent coming out of New England. We all know about the prep schools there (Tilton, Brewster, South Kent, St Thomas Moore) but the players actually born and raised there?

To be honest the list of players who transfer into New England prep schools and reach the NBA is incredibly extensive (TJ Warren, Michael Beasley, Devonte Graham, Donovan Mitchell, Yuta Watanabe, Steven Adams, Nik Stauskas, James Bouknight, Jarret Jack etc)

so to be somewhat brief I will only list players actually *raised in* New England more than just HS, with their state of Birth/Origin, school, and current team, HS ranking or highest level of basketball reached.

I will also only list players who've played in College from 2012 or forward. I tried to pick only notable players, or players on notable programs. With very very few exceptions.

To be clear- New England has about 14.85M people. If a state itd be 5th most populous after NY (19.7M) and just ahead of PA (13M). It would be the 18th biggest state by land area- just about tied with Washington State.

** Currently in HS

played college ball in 2022-23

**Cooper Flagg (Born in ME, #2 c/o 2025)

**AJ Dybantsa (Born in MA, #1 c/o 2026)

**Joson Sanon (Born in MA, #12 c/o 2025)

**Kur Teng (Born in NH, #38 c/o 2024, Michigan State)

**JP Estrella (Born in ME, #69 c/o 2023, Tennesseee)

**TJ Power (Born in MA, #29 c/o 2023, Duke)

**Tre Norman (Born in MA ,#89 c/o 2023, Marquette)

**Tyler Betsey (Born in CT ,#24 c/o 2024)

**Badara Diakite (Born in CT #26 c/o 2025)

**Gavin Griffiths (Born in CT , #42 c/o 2024, Rutgers)

**Taylor Bowen, Born in VT, #79 c/o 2023, Florida State)

** Jahki Howard, (Born in MA, #93, c/o 2024)

** Jaylen Harell (Born in MA, c/o 2025, Late-Bloomer Overshadowed by teammate AJ Dybantsa ranked #1 in MA 4-star w/ offers from Alabama, Georgetown, St Johns, Providence, UMass, George Mason- starting to be mentioned with Cooper Flagg, Kiyan Anthony, Cameron Boozer and Jermaine O'Neal JR)

Pat Connaughton (Born in MA, Bucks)

Bruce Brown (Born in MA, Nuggets)

Terrance Mann (Born in NY, raised in MA, Clippers)

David Duke (Born in RI, Nets)

Duncan Robinson (Born in ME, Heat)

AJ Reeves (Born in MA, Providence/ G League)

Kris Dunn (Born in CT, Bulls)

Dominique Bull (born in MA, Mizzou)

Cole Swider (Born in RI, Lakers)

Noah Vonleh (Born in MA, Knicks/Celtics/Twolves/Nets)

Georges Niang (Born in MA, Sixers)

Jared Terell (Born in MA, Timberwolves)

Tremont Waters (Born in CT, Celtics)

Terrence Clarke (Born in MA, Kentucky/Honorary NBA Draftee #LLTC5)

Ricky Ledo (Born in RI, Knicks/Mavericks)

Jermaine Samuels (Born in MA, Villanova/G League)

LJ Figueroa (Born in MA, St Johns/ G League)

Marcus Zegarowski (Born in MA, Creighton/G League)

Alex Oriakhi (Born in MA, Sun)

Kellan Grady (Bron in MA, Kentucky/G League)

*Demarr Langford Jr. (Born in MA, BC/TBD)

*Makai Ashton-Langford (Born in MA, BC/Providence)

Andre Drummond, (Born in NY, Raised in CT, Pistons)

*Alex Karraban (Born in MA, UCONN)

*Adam Seiko (Born in Uganda, raised in Boston, San Diego State)

*Donovan Clingan (Born in CT, UCONN)

*Shy Odom (Born in MA, Howard)

*Kyle Flipowski (Born in MA, Duke)

Joe Ragland (born in MA, Wichita State)

*Noah Fernandes (Born in MA, Rutgers)

Kyle Casey (Born in MA, Harvard/ G League)

Geo Baker, (Born in NH, Rutgers)

Wenyen Gabriel ( Born in Sudan, Raised in NH, Lakers)

*Akok Akok (born in NH, Uconn/Georgetown)

*Dasonte Bowen (Born in MA, Iowa)

Jake Layman (Born in MA, Trailblazers/Timberwolves)

*Daillon Johnson (Born in MA, Penn State)

*Kyrell Luc (Born in MA, St Bonaventure)

*Moses Flowers (Born in MA, St Bonaventure)

Bonzie Colson (Born in MA, Bucks)

Zach Auguste (Born in MA, Notre Dame, Lakers)

Nerlens Noel (Born in MA, Nets)

*Walter Whyte (born in CT, Boston University)

*Matt Cross (Born in MA, Louisville/UMass)

*Wildens Leveque (Born in MA, South Carolina, UMass)

Jalen Adams (Born in MA, UCONN/Gleague)

Jaylen Brantley (Born in MA, Maryland)

Wayne Selden (born in MA Kansas, Bulls Grizzlies)

Shabazz Napier (Born in MA UCONN/Nets/Heat)

Naadir Tharpe (Born in MA, Kansas)

Michael Carter-Williams (Born in MA, Syracuse/ NBA ROY)

Gerard Coleman (Born in MA, Providence/Gonzaga)

Mustapha Heron (Born in CT, Auburn/St Johns)

Quincy McKnight (Born in CT, Seton Hall/ GL League)

Tyler Kolek (Born in RI, Marquette)



Shey Peddy (Born in MA, Phoenix Mercury)

*Aaliyah Boston (Born in USVI, raised in MA, Indiana Fever)

Katie Benzan (Born in MA, New York Liberty)

Veronica Burton (Born in MA, Dallas Wings)

Blake Dietrick (Born in MA, Atlanta Dream)



Bolded names are ones I think ring a bell. Either they won a major award in College, won a chip, were prolific, were recently on TV, etc.

Here are the 2023 NCAA Tournament players with New England ties
A list of the local kids from Duke to Northern Kentucky


The reason I saw New England is because most of us who are decent ballers from New England play school from all 6 states regularly. The NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council consists of 169 member schools.) It wasn't uncommon for me- in the City of Boston- to travel to Hartford, CT to play Kingswood Oxford on a Wednesday, or to New Hampshire to play St. Pauls on a Friday, or RI to play St. Georges.

Many kids from CT play for MA AAU teams (Tremont Waters) and visa versa. Most if not all NH kids play AAU in MA (Kur Teng, Kaleb Jospeh, Geo Baker, Wenyen Gabriel).

Grass Roots event operators like Zero Gravity New England

Sites like New England Recruiting Report.

There are region-wide AAU teams like the New England Playaz

Team New England

University of New England

New England Basketball Championship

New England Hoops Academy



and so on... I mean New England doesn't even have state fairs ,just one large New England (State) fair.



So what do you all think? Would you say New England is becoming a hotbed, based off the last 10-12 years? Where does it rank? If I missed any players please let me know.

[LexWest]

I never thought of it that way, but it’s an interesting observation. My guess would be New England is a relatively dense area (i.e. several states close in size between coasts might have 1/3 or less population.) Basketball is also probably more popular to play since it doesn’t require fields and can be played year-round. Also rival schools are clustered close bye

The inverse is the states in between are likely to be baseball or football focused being spread out beyond cities. (i.e. South and Midwest)

[nico7]

Great work putting that list together. I've always thought UConn bball has been very popular in CT because the state has not had a men's professional sports team since the Hartford Whalers left town long ago (CT does have the Sun WNBA team, but again basketball). Maybe that starts the locals like Clingan thinking about it early -- of course, anyone his size will be told they should play basketball.

My impression is that football is more popular in the South. Baseball more popular in the Midwest, with hockey increasing in popularity as you go north.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by LexWest

I never thought of it that way, but it’s an interesting observation. My guess would be New England is a relatively dense area (i.e. several states close in size between coasts might have 1/3 or less population.) Basketball is also probably more popular to play since it doesn’t require fields and can be played year-round. Also rival schools are clustered close bye

The inverse is the states in between are likely to be baseball or football focused being spread out beyond cities. (i.e. South and Midwest)

Couple things

1. It's a wealthy area with poor urban locales not far from extremely wealthy towns. The landscape of Southern NE is dotted with urban areas like Springfield Hartford Providence Lynn Boston New Haven New Bedford etc, to mine recruits and the move to a boarding school is easy. No big swaths of poor rural counties util far Northern Maine.

2. Private and Boarding Schools are abundant. Especially in a deeply wooded boarding school area- Basketball is the most accessible form of live entertainment for the student body and the town. Add to this you only need to make allowances for 3-4 players to have a really good team. For the day schools in the Boston area, this is fertile ground.

3. It's cold like you said, Basketball comes in Hand when it's quite literally DARK as hell outside at 404pm in Boston on December 20th.

4. There's a bunch of school and colleges all over like you said

5. It home to the Celtics, UCONN, Basketball Hall of Fame, its the birthplace of Basketball.

When I played ball in New England boarding school there was nothing cooler than seeing the visiting team arrive and walk through the halls. You kind of know you're in for a show.

6. A lack of traditional large urban high schools makes for an artificially weak Public School circuit. Most urban districts in New England have very small and very many HS and Boston MA only has 2 open enrollment high schools of more than 100 students. BPS only has one AD for all sports, all of its 128 schools. Thats where private schools fill the void.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by nico7

Great work putting that list together. I've always thought UConn bball has been very popular in CT because the state has not had a men's professional sports team since the Hartford Whalers left town long ago (CT does have the Sun WNBA team, but again basketball). Maybe that starts the locals like Clingan thinking about it early -- of course, anyone his size will be told they should play basketball.

My impression is that football is more popular in the South. Baseball more popular in the Midwest, with hockey increasing in popularity as you go north.

Its funny football carries no clout in New England high schools. However, recruits from MA and CT have begun picking up steam there in the last decade as well. With those states producing their first 5 star recruits recently.

I think most of New England cities are dense and usually have many basketball courts and few open fields. Many urban up there have no fields to speak of whatsoever. Many private schools are too small for football and dont field teams.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Forgot the current Miami Hurricane, Benlsey Joseph- from Arlington MA

[ckhthankgod]

I think a lot of has to do with more players going the prep route and people are starting to take notice of the talent in other parts of the Northeast like New England and Upstate NY, another area making waves in terms of Basketball talent. So, I think those are couple of things that play a part in that.

[Yippeekayay]

Very nice list. Looks like it. Man, AJ Dybantsa is going to be a beast.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Yippeekayay

Very nice list. Looks like it. Man, AJ Dybantsa is going to be a beast.

AJ is nice with it, Terrence Clarke was his "big brother". Both are close with and practice(d) with Jaylen Brown at the Vie Street Community Center in Roxbury.

A bunch of other high-major players being recruited rn who aren't named here..... Jaylen Harrell, Isaiah Langham, Tyrese Melo Gracia, Warren Keel, Desmond Ballot, John Kallon and so on.

The number #15 in 2024 is from Lynn MA but attends prep school in Arizona, just committed to Baylor. Hell Be joining George Turkson (Lowell, MA) and Andre Mills (Boston, MA) in the state of Texas. both of those young men just commited to Texas A&M.

[BostonBornMassMade]

ESPN Top 100 for Class of 2024.

5 of the top 100 are natives to the Boston area. One from Hartford area.



No. 26 Jason Asemota- Prep School in AZ. Native to Lynn, MA (Boston MSA)

No. 44 Kur Teng- Prep School In Mass. Native to Manchester, NH (Boston MSA)

No. 50 Jahki Howard- Overtime Elite in Atlanta. Native to Boston, MA (Boston MSA)

No. 66 George Turkson - Prep School in Mass. Native to Haverhill, MA (Boston MSA)

No. 67 Kayvaun Mulready- Prep School in Mass. Native to Worcester, MA (Boston CSA)



No. 56 Tyler Betsey- Prep School in CT. Native to Windsor, CT (Hartford MSA)