One of the best players in the 2026 class is on campus for his official visit during BYU\u2019s biggest game of the year. 5-Star wing Bruce Branch is currently on BYU campus for his official and will be in attendance for the BYU-Arizona game. Joe Tipton of On3 first reported the news.<\/p>\n
Branch was the #1 player in the 2027 class until he reclassified to the 2026 class a couple months ago. The 6-foot-7, 5-Star wing is now the #5 player in the 2026 class according to 247 Composite rankings. Branch currently plays at Prolific Prep in Florida, but played at Perry HS in Gilbert, Arizona last year and is from Arizona.<\/p>\n
BYU has made Branch a top priority and sources have told me Kevin Young and BYU\u2019s staff is in a full-court press to land Branch. BYU has travelled multiple times to see Branch in person, including last week in Boston. Kevin Young\u2019s use of AJ Dybantsa and development of Egor Demin and Richie Saunders are really resonating with Branch. Branch is a knockdown shooter and a very talented scoring wing who could challenge to be the #1 pick in the 2027 NBA Draft. He will need to get stronger and add more refinement to his game, but he is a high-end shooter and scorer who could be a top two scoring option on next year\u2019s team with Rob Wright if he were to sign.<\/p>\n
Industry sources tell me BYU, Louisville, USC, and Kansas are some of the top schools to watch. I am also keeping an eye on Arizona, who is the hometown school and where his Perry HS teammate Koa Peat plays, as well as Duke if they enter his recruitment. Branch may still be a couple months away from a decision, but multiple sources tell me that BYU should be considered the early favorite for Branch. Kevin Young\u2019s NBA scheme and player development is a main driver here, and Branch\u2019s familiarity with the LDS Church from his time in Gilbert doesn\u2019t hurt either. Perry HS has release time seminary, meaning there are lots of LDS kids at the school.<\/p>\n
BYU is the first official visit for Branch, which is notable. If BYU can land Branch, he will be a focal point of next year\u2019s team and carry on BYU\u2019s NBA and lottery pipeline.<\/p>\n
You can watch highlights of Bruce below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the best players in the 2026 class is on campus for his official visit during BYU\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,5150,23490],"class_list":{"0":"post-562774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-byu-basketball","10":"tag-byu-basketball-recruiting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}