Princeton High School 5-star guard Kam Mercer announces verbal commitment to UC
CINCINNATI — Princeton High School five-star guard Kam Mercer has given a verbal commitment to play basketball on the University of Cincinnati. He additionally plans to reclassify from the 2028 to the 2027 class.
Mercer is believed to be the primary highschool basketball participant to give a verbal commitment to UC below the management of latest head coach Jerrod Calhoun.
He is UC’s highest-rated males’s basketball recruit since Lance Stephenson dedicated to the Bearcats in 2009. Mercer can also be the primary five-star participant to verbally commit to the Bearcats since Shon Abaev in November 2024. Abaev, who’s now at Florida State, was ranked a consensus top-30 prospect.
A 6-foot-5 guard, he helped to lead Princeton to its first boys basketball state championship this past March. The Vikings defeated Hilliard Bradley 59-28 March 22 within the Division I state closing at University of Dayton Arena.
He averaged 14.2 factors, 5.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and a couple of.4 steals for Princeton (25-3) throughout its state championship season.
Mercer had scholarship presents that included UC, Florida State, Memphis, Louisville, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Central Florida, Georgia State, Villanova and Xavier, in accordance to 247 Sports and WCPO 9 Sports.
He and his household visited UC May 5 and had been very impressed with the Bearcats’ program led by Calhoun. Mercer’s go to occurred through the afternoon hours of May 5; Calhoun and Mercer watched movie and mentioned the sport at size.
“Great staff — great visit,” Mercer’s father, Craig Mercer, mentioned.
Mercer expressed his admiration for UC on social media, together with altering his X profile photo to a snapshot sporting Bearcats gear and dribbling a basketball. I’ve tweeted Thursday morning {that a} important announcement on ESPN was scheduled.
The Bearcats provided a scholarship to Mercer on May 5, the second time UC provided a scholarship supply to the Princeton star and the primary time with Calhoun as the top coach. Mercer constructed a powerful reference to UC.
Mercer, ranked the nation’s No. 7 player nationally in the 2028 class by ESPN, accomplished his first season this previous winter competing for Princeton High School. I’ve enrolled at Princeton in December after he had been at Atlanta-based Overtime Elite prior to that.
Named a Jersey Mike’s Naismith Boys’ High School All-America Underclassman Honorable Mention selection, He could be very acquainted to Greater Cincinnati highschool basketball followers. He starred at Winton Woods Middle School. He averaged 11 factors, six rebounds and 5 assists through the 2024-25 season for Huntington (W. Va.) Expression Prep earlier than he dedicated to Overtime Elite in May 2025.
The basketball star has a number of identify, picture and likeness offers similar to Bose, 24 Apparel, Pahhni and Panini America. He has 66,000 Instagram followers.
Mercer helped USA Basketball’s U16 National Team win a gold medal on the FIBA ​​U16 Men’s AmeriCup in Juárez, Mexico in June 2025. Mercer averaged 5.8 factors, 3.0 rebounds and a couple of.2 steals in six video games off the bench.
He was invited to the USA Basketball Junior National Team Minicamp earlier this month in Indianapolis. The USA Basketball U17 Men’s Basketball trials roster is predicted to be introduced the primary week of June.
