Justin Pippen, the youngest son of NBA legend Scottie Pippen, has announced that he will play college basketball at the University of Michigan next season. The 6-foot-4 senior point guard from Sierra Canyon High School (Chatsworth, Calif.) was one of the fastest-improving players in his high school senior class and chose the Wolverines over California, Florida, Texas A&M and Stanford. .
“I’m really excited to be heading to Michigan,” Pippen told Yahoo Sports. “This is a great program and all of our new coaching staff are on the same page and telling us they can come in and make an impact right away.”
Pippen, Sierra Canyon’s leading scorer all season, has attracted interest from several Division I programs across the country, visiting the University of California, Santa Barbara, Texas A&M and most recently Michigan State this past weekend. .
“It was a great visit just to see the campus and meet the coaches,” Pippen said. “They told me to keep working and love the way I look on the court. We’re going to come in and make a statement in the Big Ten next year.”
Pippen did not play for any major AAU team or circuit last summer. Instead, he was in the gym with his older brother Scotty, who played three years at Vanderbilt and led the SEC in scoring (20.4 points per game) during his junior year, but was not drafted in the 2022 NBA Draft. He later played for the Los Angeles Lakers. He played for two seasons before being acquired by the Memphis Grizzlies. Also in the gym with the Pippen brothers at times during the summer were Kenyon Martin Jr., Devin Booker, Jaylen Green and Kevin Durant.
“I feel like my brother has increased my work ethic, for sure,” Justin Pippen said. “Just being in the gym this summer with him and the other pros and his dad. My dad just tells me to get up every day and put in the work.”
Pippen finished his high school career at Sierra Canyon, where he played alongside four-star guard Isaiah Elohim. Pippen also played with Bronny James for three years before James enrolled at the University of Southern California, and Amari Bailey, who was a star freshman at UCLA before being taken in the second round by the Charlotte Hornets in the 2023 NBA Draft. I played.
“Each year, I’ve tried to take as much as I can from the players’ games and try to improve them, primarily defensively, because both Bronny and Amari were very good with the ball in their hands,” Pippen said. Told.
This is the first major recruiting victory for new head coach Dusty May, as he also hired six new assistant coaches as he finalized his coaching staff. Pippen will be a freshman to watch next season, continuing his father’s basketball tradition by playing as the primary ball handler and shooting 3-pointers off the dribble. This is something he learned from some of the best players to ever play the game.
