2026 Philadelphia Big 5 Recruiting Big Board

17 recruits are set to join the Philadelphia Big 5 ahead of the 2026-27 men’s basketball season, joining out of high school or following an additional year at a college prep school. The University of Pennsylvania leads the way with a class of six recruits, erasing their need to deal with the transfer portal — at least for this season — in this transient era of college sports.

Drexel and La Salle both leaned heavily into recruiting as well, reducing their need to try to compete with the bigger fish for high-priced transfers as they try to maintain some semblance of program culture from year to year. Villanova and Temple, meanwhile, only picked up one recruit apiece… and even after raiding the transfer portal, they have the most roster construction remaining of any program in the Big 5.

Here’s each recruit committed to one of the five programs: their height, position, high school and hometown; click here for a corresponding list of incoming transfers.

Philadelphia Big 5 2026 Recruiting Big Board

Drexel

• 6-foot-4 shooting guard BJ Brown: Sumter HS (Sumter, S.C.)
• 6-foot-4 shooting guard/small forward Latief Lorenzano-White: Imhotep Charter (Philadelphia)
• 6-foot-5 small forward Tre Paulding: Lee’s Summit North (Lee’s Summit, Mo.)

La Salle

• 6-foot-6 shooting guard Mason Blazer: Harrisburg, Pa. (JUCO)
• 6-foot-11 forward Francois Nkoy-Eale: Cork, Ireland (JUCO)
• 5-foot-9 guard RJ Smith: Roman Catholic (Philadelphia)
• 6-foot-7 shooting guard Braylon Webb: Seattle, Wash. (JUCO)

Penn

• 6-foot-7 power forward Finley Billy: St. John’s College HS (Washington, D.C.)
• 6-foot-6 small forward Isaiah Carroll: Blair Academy (Blairstown, N.J.)
• 6-foot-2 guard Chase Geremia: The Newman School (Boston, Mass.)
• 6-foot-0 point guard Johnny Keenan: Iona Prep (Westchester, N.Y.)
• 6-foot-5 point guard Ethan Lin: Montgomery HS (Skillman, N.J.)
• 6-foot-10 big man Mike Pereira: Plymouth-Whitemarsh (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.)

Temple

• 6-foot-4 shooting guard Derrick Morton-Rivera: Father Judge (Philadelphia)

Saint Joseph’s

• 6-foot-3 point guard BJ Ranson: Mount Saint Joseph (Baltimore)
• 6-foot-8 power forward Keoni Sacco: Fork Union (Va.)

Villanova

• 6-foot-5 shooting guard/small forward Adam Oumiddoch: Overtime Elite Academy (Atlanta, Ga.)