Cincinnati kept building its 2027 basketball class on Friday, landing four-star guard Joshua Tyson and giving head coach Jerrod Calhoun another local recruiting win in his first year on the job.
Tyson, who played for Lakota West in Ohio before moving on to La Lumiere School in Florida, chose the Bearcats over Xavier. That decision adds another layer to the Crosstown Shootout conversation, especially with Calhoun already leaning into the rivalry this week.
"The blue school a couple miles away, I can't wait to kick their a** here real soon," Calhoun said at the UC Season Tip-Off Dinner
Tyson arrives with plenty of national respect. According to 247Sports, he is ranked No. 54 overall in the 2027 class and No. 12 among point guards. His offer list included 17 schools, among them Arizona State, Ohio State, Penn State, and Virginia Tech.
The 6-2 guard joins Kam Mercer in Cincinnati’s 2027 group. Mercer, who committed in the spring, has since dropped from five-star status but remains a top-55 prospect on most major recruiting sites. For Calhoun, the pairing gives UC two high-upside high school pieces to build around while the staff continues to work the transfer portal.
That balance matters for Cincinnati right now. This year’s roster is entirely made up of transfers as Calhoun pushes to establish himself in the Big 12 coaching ranks. He has been open about the challenge and the opportunity that comes with the league.
"This league is full of Hall of Famers. That's really what stood out to me.
When you really dissect the Big 12, you've got surefire Hall of Famers already, then you've got a whole batch of coaches that are kind of that next generation of guys in the league," Calhoun said earlier this offseason. "It's been phenomenal, all of those guys, from Coach Self to Coach Sampson to Kevin Young, those guys have been great to me.
"I think it's really a brotherhood of coaches in the Big 12. I think all of us want what's best for the league, but it really starts and ends with our commissioner.
He's the real deal. He's forward-thinking, but yeah, we have our work cut out for us.
We did when we went into the Mountain West ... So I think you have to be convicted on the way you play, but you also have to change some things up as well."
With Tyson on board, Cincinnati has added another name to a class that already features one of the program’s more important long-term building blocks.
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His pledge gives first-year coach Jerrod Calhoun another early building block in the 2027 class, where Tyson joins Kam Mercer. For a program trying to establish momentum under a new staff, landing a high-profile local talent adds both credibility and a clear reminder that the Bearcats can still compete for top prospects close to home. [Read more 🡒]
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