Jerome Tang lines up rare visit from a five-star basketball recruit to Kansas State
The top-rated uncommitted basketball prospect of the 2022 recruiting cycle will make an official visit to Kansas State later this week before he announces his college decision.
Julian Phillips, a 6-foot-8 and 175-pound small forward from Link Academy, appears to be seriously considering the Wildcats, according to a report from college basketball recruiting expert Joe Tipton.
Phillips is a five-star recruit who is ranked No. 13 nationally in his recruiting class. He played in the McDonald’s high school All-America game earlier this year and was bound for LSU before the Tigers fired coach Will Wade for allegedly committing five Level I NCAA violations.
He is now considering K-State along with Tennessee, USC and Auburn. But he holds scholarship offers from 28 different schools.
His upcoming visit to Manhattan is big news for new basketball coach Jerome Tang. K-State hasn’t landed a five-star recruit since Wally Judge in 2009. And the Wildcats have only signed four over the past 20 years. The others were Michael Beasley (2007), Bill Walker (‘07) and Jason Bennett (‘06).
Phillips is thought to be the first five-star recruit to take an official visit to K-State in 13 years.
Tang has been hard at work on the recruiting trail since he was hired as coach and lost nine scholarship players to the NCAA transfer portal. He has since surrounded returning players Markquis Nowell and Ismael Massoud with five new incoming players.
They are: LSU forward transfer Jerrell Colbert, Mississippi State guard transfer Cam Carter, New Orleans guard Dorian Finister, junior college transfer Nae’qwan Tomlin and Taj Manning, who originally signed with former coach Bruce Weber.
That gives the Wildcats seven players for the 2022-23 season.
Phillips won’t be the only basketball visitor of note for the Wildcats this weekend. Layden Blocker, a 2023 four-star guard from Sunrise Christian Academy just outside Wichita, is also expected to visit Manhattan, according to a report from K-State Online.
The 6-foot-2 and 168-pound athlete previously listed Kansas, Auburn, Arkansas, Memphis, Baylor, Gonzaga and Oklahoma State as the other schools he was considering.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Jerome Tang lines up rare visit from a five-star basketball recruit to Kansas State."