Ole Miss hasn’t had many nights to celebrate on the court this season, but the program might be inching toward a win that would matter a whole lot more than a mid‑February box score.
Chris Beard and his staff are suddenly staring at the possibility of landing the kind of recruit who can change the entire trajectory of a roster.
Last cycle, Beard pulled off the biggest recruiting moment in program history when he signed Niko Bundalo late. Bundalo was the No. 35 player in the 2025 class, the highest‑rated signee Ole Miss had ever brought in. And now the Rebels are taking a swing at someone who would blow that record out of the water.
Ryan Hampton, the DME Academy shooting guard ranked No. 3 nationally in the 2027 class, has booked an official visit to Oxford next week, according to OMSpirit’s Zach Berry. If Ole Miss somehow gets this across the finish line, Hampton wouldn’t just be the highest‑rated signee in school history. He’d be the type of prospect you usually only see at bluebloods, a likely one‑and‑done talent with NBA tools written all over him.
Of course, getting him is the hard part.
Hampton is squeezing four official visits into seven days, and NC State, SMU, and Nebraska all get their shot. But Beard and assistant Al Pinkins have been in this one for a while. They scouted him heavily on the AAU circuit and offered last summer, long before the rest of the country fully caught on.
And the rest of the country has definitely caught on. According to Rivals’ Jamie Shaw, Hampton holds offers from Kansas, Tennessee, Texas, Baylor, Auburn, Louisville, Texas A&M, Indiana, USC, Missouri, Maryland, Villanova, Florida State, LSU, Memphis, Rutgers…basically every program with a pulse.
Shaw saw him plenty last summer, and the numbers back up the hype. On Nike’s E16 Circuit, Hampton averaged 22.5 points on 48.1 percent shooting. After transferring to DME Academy, he kept producing at a ridiculous clip.
“The 6-foot-6 wing has great length and a twitchy first step,” Shaw said. “He averaged 26.8 points while shooting 61.4 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from three for the week. He also stuck his nose in there to rebound. While he is going to need to continue adding strength and getting down with his footwork and balance in the paint, he continues to produce at a high rate.”
And if that’s not enough, former 19‑year NBA veteran Jermaine O’Neal offered a scouting report that reads like something out of a lottery‑pick preview.
“[Ryan] is still scratching the surface,” O’Neal said. “He’s still raw, to be honest. He’s an elite-level scorer, he’s a tough shot taker, and also a tough shot maker. Very few people can do that.
“Paul Pierce took a lot of tough shots, but he made a lot of tough shots,” O’Neal said. “Ryan is going to be a tough shot maker. At his size, 6-foot-6, 6-foot-7, he’s long and can raise up over everybody. He can really shoot the ball, really score, and has a knack for being able to put the ball on the floor, getting to the basket, or pulling up.”
That’s the kind of evaluation that makes you forget the current record and start thinking about what the roster could look like a year from now.
