{"id":192140,"date":"2026-04-24T17:57:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T21:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=192140"},"modified":"2026-04-24T17:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T21:57:35","slug":"after-visiting-virginia-visit-2024-consensus-top-65-recruit-is-in-texas-and-heads-to-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/04\/24\/after-visiting-virginia-visit-2024-consensus-top-65-recruit-is-in-texas-and-heads-to-tennessee\/","title":{"rendered":"After Visiting Virginia Visit, 2024 Consensus Top 65 Recruit Is In Texas and Heads To Tennessee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former top 100 recruit Jalen Shelley<\/a> is in the midst of a busy schedule visiting high-major programs.<\/a> According to On3’s Joe Tipton, Shelley is currently in Charlottesville (Va.) visiting with the Virginia Cavaliers. He will swing down to College Station (TX) to visit with the Texas A&M Aggies this weekend, then head up to Nashville (KY) to visit with the Vanderbilt Commodores.<\/p>\n

“LMU transfer forward\u00a0<\/span>Jalen Shelley is seeing his recruitment heat up and has locked in three official visits,” Tipton said<\/a>. “The 6-foot-8 sophomore arrived at\u00a0<\/span>Virginia\u00a0on Wednesday evening and will depart Charlottesville on Friday. He will then head straight to\u00a0<\/span>Texas A&M\u00a0to visit the Aggies through Saturday, before making his final stop in Nashville to see\u00a0<\/span>Vanderbilt from Sunday through Monday.”<\/span><\/p>\n

After Visiting Virginia Visit, 2024 Consensus Top 65 Recruit Is In Texas and Heads To Tennessee<\/h2>\n

Shelley showed tremendous growth in his lone season at Loyola Marymount despite having his campaign cut short due to unspecified injuries. In 25 games, Shelley averaged 13.7 points along with 6.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists. He also made one three-pointer with shooting splits of 45.7\/28.7\/70.4. Additionally, he scored in double figures in 19 games, including four 20-point games and four double-doubles.<\/p>\n

Shelley definitely has the skills, athleticism, and body to justify his rating as the 61st recruit in 2024. Shelley is a straight-line driver with outstanding length at 6-8, 210 pounds. He thrives in transition, is a good rebounder, and has demonstrated the ability to be a secondary playmaker. Defensively, he is versatile.<\/p>\n

Shelley does need to improve as a 3-point shooter and be more consistent as a finisher at the rim. He has struggled against more physical teams during his career.<\/p>\n

Shelley was a four-star out of Link Academy in Missouri and played at USC as a freshman. The Little Elm (Texas) native is ranked No. 29 among small forwards and No. 197 overall\u00a0in On3’s transfer ranking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Bob Donnan, Imagn Images\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

\u00a9 James Snook, Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Teams Interested In Jalen Shelley<\/h3>\n

Shelley has garnered considerable interest in the transfer portal. Shelly reportedly conducted Zoom meetings with Virginia,<\/a> Auburn, Texas A&M, and Mississippi State. He has now visited Auburn and Virginia, with Mississippi State expected to receive one<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Virginia Cavaliers<\/h4>\n

There is good news and bad news on the injury front for coach Ryan Odom. While the Hoos didn’t lose anyone to the transfer portal, they haven’t signed anyone in the 2026 recruiting class yet. They did lose two starters and two key rotational players as the four are out of eligibility.<\/p>\n

Virginia is coming off an excellent season, going 30-6 in Odom’s first season. The Cavaliers finished second in ACC play at 15-3 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M Aggies<\/h4>\n

Texas A&M<\/a> has been consistent over the last five seasons, though the Aggies have won 20 games. But the Aggies have not made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament in four straight years. Coach Bucky McMillan<\/a> lost nine players from this past season’s squad that went 22-12, including 11-7 in the SEC.<\/p>\n

On the positive side, McMillan has signed seven newcomers, four of whom are transfers. Kansas State transfer PJ Haggerty<\/a>, who tallied 20+ points in each of the last three seasons, is the big name. Jalen Reece, the consensus No. 67 recruit in 20025, and 6-9 forward Cade Phillips, from the University of Tennessee, also have transferred in.<\/p>\n

The Aggies, whose class is ranked 35th in the country, also include two four-star recruits, Josh Irving, a 6-11 center, and Neiko Munday, a 6-2 point guard.<\/p>\n

“Pending Warren being granted eligibility to play next season, Texas A&M’s backcourt is already in elite form with Kansas State transfer shooting guard PJ Haggerty also in the fold,” Cameron Ohnysty of Aggies Wire said.\u00a0 “While McMillan and his staff will shift their focus to building the frontcourt, already knowing that forwards Zach Clemence<\/a>, Mackenzie Mgabo<\/a>, and Jamie Vinson will return, and have been consistently connected to Loyola Marymount transfer forward Jalen Shelley.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Vanderbilt Commodores<\/h4>\n

Vanderbilt<\/a> has reached the NCAA Tournament in each of the two seasons under coach Mark Byington, marking the first time that the Commodores made the Tourney in back-to-back seasons since 2015-17.\u00a0 The Commodores are 47-22 over the last two seasons, including 19-17 in the SEC.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt lost a lot of its production from this past season. But they have already brought in seven newcomers, six of whom are transfers.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former top 100 recruit Jalen Shelley is in the midst of a busy schedule visiting high-major programs. According to On3’s Joe Tipton, Shelley is currently in Charlottesville (Va.) visiting with the Virginia Cavaliers. He will swing down to College Station (TX) to visit with the Texas A&M Aggies this weekend, then head up to Nashville […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":192310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,3],"tags":[1412,3772,2903,1506,789,876],"class_list":["post-192140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-news","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-college-basketball-recruiting","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-virginia-cavaliers"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192140"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192312,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192140\/revisions\/192312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}