Top '24 prospect Jamari Phillips hearing from Kentucky; talks with TyTy Washington

A top 20 prospect from the class of 2024, Jamari Phillips has already established himself as a player to keep a close eye on moving forward. The 6-foot-3, 170-pound combo guard holds scholarship offers from the likes of Louisville, Oregon, UCLA, LSU, Illinois, Kansas, Texas Tech, USC, and plenty of others. Phillips has built a solid reputation after just two years of high school at Modesto Christian (CA) and has truly made a name for himself this spring on the AAU circuit.

As a sophomore at Modesto this past season, which finished with a 30-6 record, Phillips averaged 23.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.5 steals per game on a shooting split of 51/40/70. He was later named the Modesto Bee District Player of the Year for his impressive efforts.

Suiting up for the Paul George Elite 16U squad on the Nike EYBL circuit, Phillips has performed well against the competition. His best showing was a 32-point outing on 10-14 shooting in April against the Mac Irvin Fire. Phillips has been invited to training camp for the Team USA Men’s U17 squad and was in Las Vegas this past week for another invite-only event, the prestigious Pangos All-American Camp. He averaged 11.0 points per outing across the four camp games while shooting 39.5 percent overall and 30.8 percent from distance, making the Top 60 Cream of the Crop Game in the process.

Phillips’ game is best described as a scoring guard. He sees himself as a point guard and is being recruited as such, but has some developing to do in that area. Right now, he’s a bonafide scorer with underrated passing abilities. He’s considered the No. 19 overall rising junior in the country, per the On3 Consensus, because of it.

“Facilitating on the offense and getting my teammates involved,” Phillips told KSR in regards to his on-court game. “Getting them going, getting in their groove, locking in on defense, talking, coming off the pick-and-roll, having all those reads where I can dish it out to anyone if I wanted to. And then I got my shooting ability and getting to the rim at will.”

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Jamari Phillips
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In terms of his recruitment, the buzz continues to grow. When Phillips spoke with KSR in Las Vegas earlier this week, he said that Oregon, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Texas Tech, UCLA, and Louisville were the schools reaching out to him the most. The UL talk is especially loud, as the Cardinals were the most recent school to offer him and even picked up an early FutureCast from Rivals to land there.

“So the coach (Kenny Payne) is a friend of a friend but before I even knew that he was already on me hard so he’s been recruiting me pretty heavily,” Phillips said of his Louisville recruitment. “He’s looking to win any games to get his player development all the way up and have them go in and out.”

Despite not currently holding an offer from Kentucky, Phillips has been hearing rather consistently from the Wildcats’ coaching staff, mainly assistant coach Orlando Antigua.

“It started with my dad,” Phillips told KSR of his Kentucky interest. “They contacted my dad a little bit. Coach O and Coach (John Calipari) have talked to my dad. Coach O I think has talked to my dad pretty heavily. I talk to Coach O a little bit, just trying to get to know him, just trying to ease into the conversation and stuff. I think they’re looking pretty hard on me because they seen me play out in Indiana with the EYBL.”

Phillips said he’s eager to get more involved with Kentucky as his recruitment heats up. The conversations are light as the two sides build a relationship, but the interest is clearly there. He’s even been talking with former Wildcat and a potential lottery pick in the upcoming 2022 NBA Draft, TyTy Washington. The two have known each other since they were five and share a close connection.

“We talk about recruitment with Kentucky and Kentucky in general,” Phillips said of his conversations with Washington. “How it is over there and the environment and stuff. He gave me all good pointers on it, he didn’t really give me any cons at all. He said he had no cons so that’s good to know.”

Unlike a handful of top recruits, Phillips did not view Kentucky as his “dream school” growing up. In fact, he didn’t have one at all. He did, however, closely watch the Blue Blood programs, including UK, Duke, North Carolina, and UCLA.

“I don’t really have a dream school, I’m just trying to figure out what’s the best fit for me,” Phillips added.

He still has plenty of time to go before he has to figure out that perfect fit, too. So far, Phillips has been on unofficial visits to the likes of UCLA, USC, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, and Wake Forest. He doesn’t have any upcoming visits planned as of right now but did say he intends on visiting Kentucky, UCLA, Gonzaga, Oregon, Texas Tech, and Louisville in the near future. A list of his top schools could drop around the end of his junior season.

Watch him work.