West Virginia’s footprint in the updated 2027 basketball rankings is still there, even after a summer shake-up pushed a few names around the board.
CBS Sports’ Adam Finkelstein used the end of the summer circuit to refresh the national top 10, and the change at the very top started with Marcus Spears Jr. reclassifying to the 2026 class and signing with Texas earlier this month. That opened the door for Beckham Black to move into No. 1, with Southeastern Prep teammate CJ Rosser right behind him at No. 2.
The biggest mover in the group was Cayden Daughtry, who climbed from No. 9 to No. 3 after a huge EYBL run. He was the league’s MVP and leading scorer, then helped his team win the league championship.
Finkelstein said, "That performance has catapulted him all the way into the top three - a completely unprecedented feat in the history of 247Sports for a player his 6-foot, 155-pound size,". Daughtry, a Florida native at Calvary Christian Academy, is one of three players in the new top 10 who already hold WVU offers.
The other two are Compass Prep forward DeMarcus Henry, who sits at No. 4, and Millennium guard Adan Diggs, now No. 5 after dropping two spots. Diggs and Daughtry were both offered by West Virginia’s previous staff, while Henry - the son of former WVU receiver Chris Henry - was offered by the current staff. Even so, Henry did not include the Mountaineers in a recent top eight.
West Virginia had another top-10 target before the reshuffle, but Paul Osaruyi slid to No. 12 after a rough Peach Jam showing. He averaged 6.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 4.2 steals/blocks as his team went 0-5 and missed the playoffs. Osaruyi, a center at Bella Vista Prep in Arizona, had been ranked No. 1 at his position before being passed by Prolific Prep’s Lewis Uvwo, who now checks in at No. 6 overall after being No. 93 in the middle of May.
Osaruyi still looks like a name worth tracking for West Virginia, especially given the ties already in place at Bella Vista. "There's significant mutual interest here, as Osaruyi, a native of Canada, is very familiar with assistant coach Yusuf Ali thanks to his ties to the Toronto area," our Andrew Corbett wrote in his Big Board.
"Osaruyi was also the high school teammate of current WVU signees Miles Sadler, Aliou Dioum and Amadou Seini at CIA Bella Vista this season. They won the Chipotle Nationals title together.
There is a host of blue bloods in on his recruitment, though."
Another player to keep on the radar is Malachi Jordan, who plays next to Uvwo and also picked up a WVU offer recently. Ali was on the staff at Arizona State when the Sun Devils offered Jordan in May 2024.
Jordan moved down one spot to No. 17, but he was also No. 17 in June. He has been inside the top 20 since November and has never been ranked lower than No.
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