City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2025-26 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 4. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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Philly hoops are represented throughout the country on Division I programs from coast to coast.

Each year, well over 100 Philly-area ballplayers are spread around Division I rosters, from East Coast to West Coast, North to South, low-major to high-major and everywhere in between. Each fall, CoBL rounds up all of those local prospects to update you on how their careers are going and what’s expected of them in the year to come.

We’ve split the area’s D-I alumni into a four-part list, with all the representation being too big to run at once. Here’s Part 4 of our 2025-26 CoBL alumni roundup, featuring more than 20 players who are on scholarship on a Division I roster this season.

(If we’re missing someone, let us know: cityofbasketballlove@gmail.com)

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2025-26 Men's Alumni Roundup: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

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Daniel Skillings Jr. (Sr. | Baylor)
Skillings comes to Waco (Tex.) after three years at Cincinnati, where the 6-7 wing out of Roman Catholic had a little bit of a bumpy experience. He was strongest as a sophomore, averaging 12.9 ppg and 6.4 rpg in 27.8 mpg, but took a step back last year, averaging 9.2 ppg and 3.8 rpg in 22.8 mpg as a junior. He’s still trying to find his shot at the collegiate level, where he’s a 28.1% 3-point shooter in his career in over 300 attempts.

Zion Stanford (Jr. | Villanova)
Big 5 transfers are becoming more common in this new era of college hoops, and Stanford is the latest, the West Catholic product going from TU to VU this offseason. A 6-4 wing, Stanford built upon a quality freshman season (6.6 ppg, 2.3 rpg), averaging 13.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg and 2.1 apg as a sophomore on .455/.349/.710 splits as he vacillated between starter and super-sub. He surpassed 20 points six times, topping out with 26 against Charlotte.

Amiri Stewart (Gr. | Campbell)
Stewart spent his first three college seasons at D-II Wilmington (Del.), then made the most of his first year at the Division I level last season at Sacred Heart. In 32 games (29 starts), Stewart averaged 12.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg and 2.8 apg, making 44.5% of his shots though only 29.3% of his 3-point attempts. Thanks to playing only eight games his freshman year, he’s got one more season of eligibility left, and he’s using it at Campbell, located in rural North Carolina.

Jaylen Stinson (Gr. | Merrimack)
Stinson missed last season due to injury, but he’s back for a final year at Merrimack, where he’s been since 2022 following a freshman year at James Madison. The 6-2 guard, an Archbishop Wood grad, has played in 67 games for Merrimack between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, averaging 3.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg and 1.4 apg during his junior year, with a season-high 14 points. 

Gabe Tanner (Fr. | Florida Gulf Coast)
The fifth player on this list on the FGCU roster, Tanner is one of three area freshmen on the Eagles’ roster, coming off an impressive couple years at the Perkiomen School. A Northeast PA native, Tanner’s matured into a physical, two-way 6-4 guard who’s turned himself from more of a slashing wing into a confident ball-handler and play-maker who can still score from all three levels. 

Deywilk Tavarez (Jr. | Loyola Chicago)
It seems crazy that it took until the very end of Tavarez’s high school career for him to get a Division I offer, from Delaware State, and just a couple years later he’s suiting up in the Atlantic 10. Hard to say the 6-2 guard doesn’t deserve it, after averaging 13.7 ppg and winning MEAC Rookie of the Year honors at Del State and then averaging 12.9 ppg as a sophomore at Charleston while increasing his shooting percentages and cutting way down on his turnovers.

Ma’Kye Taylor (Soph. | Albany)
Taylor had some serious injuries during his time at Imhotep Charter, and only played in eight games as a freshman at Albany, averaging 1.6 ppg and 0.8 rpg in limited minutes. A skilled 6-7 forward, Taylor is a quality playmaker with the ball in his hands as well as an adept shooter, but the Great Danes do have a lot of veteran experience in the frontcourt.

Deuce Turner (Gr. | Fairfield)
Turner has literally criss-crossed the country during the course of his college career, from his freshman year at Bucknell to stints at San Diego (2022-24) and UC-Santa Barbara last season. The Malvern Prep grad is now back on the East Coast, spending his final collegiate season at Fairfield. His best collegiate season was two years ago at USD (15.5 ppg, .374 3PT%); last year, he averaged 9.6 ppg and shot only 31.6% from deep in 34 games (three starts) at UCSB. 

Cameron Wallace (Fr. | Temple)
It’s a new-look Temple roster, with players coming to Broad and Montgomery from all over the country. Wallace is one of just a few local products on the Owls’ roster, and that’s giving a pretty broad range to the definition of “local.” The 6-4 wing guard, a Westtown graduate, is one of just three freshmen on the TU roster, as the Owls’ coaches brought in a good helping of veteran experience, so it’ll be interesting to see what his role is out of the gate.

Mike Walz (Sr. | Richmond)
A 6-11 center out of Conestoga, Walz has continuously built his role during his first three years at Richmond. Last year was no doubt his most productive yet, as he started 24 of 31 appearances for the Spiders, averaging 7.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 2.6 apg while playing 22.0 mpg, including three triple-doubles, while shooting 20-of-43 (46.5%) from 3-point range. He topped out with 20 points in a game against Loyola (Chicago), while grabbing a career-best 15 rebounds (and scoring just two points) in a win over GW.

Derrius Ward (Gr. | Grambling State)
Since graduating from Sankofa Freedom in 2020, Ward’s bounced around — from La Salle to Harcum College, then UT-Rio Grande Valley and then to Coppin State last year, averaging 13.2 ppg and 5.0 rpg in 11 games (eight starts), missing the majority of the middle of the season due to injury. The 6-6 guard will finish his career up at Grambling, joining a team that went 12-22 (7-11) last year. 

Jalen Warley (Gr. | Gonzaga)
A former five-star recruit out of the Westtown School, Warley played his first three years at Florida State (2021-2024), then has had an interesting road since. He was set to play at Virginia for the 2024-25 season but a coaching change led him to withdraw, then enroll at Gonzaga midway through last season. As a junior at FSU, the 6-5 point guard averaged 7.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg and 2.8 apg; his career-high scoring mark is 23 points, accomplished both as a sophomore and junior.

Kareem Watson (R-Jr. | Delaware State)
For the first time in their basketball careers, the Watson twins will be on separate teams, as Kareem stayed at DSU while Kaseem transferred to UTEP. A 6-7 wing guard, Watson averaged 1.6 ppg and 1.1 rpg in 19 appearances last year; in two seasons on the court between Cal-Bakersfield and DSU, he’s yet to average double-digit minutes or score double figures in any appearance. 

Kaseem Watson (R-Jr. | UTEP)
Watson’s had an interesting collegiate journey so far. He started off with his twin brother (Kareem Watson) at CSU-Bakersfield, averaging 3.4 ppg in 24 games. Then after redshirting the 2023-24 season, he had a big redshirt sophomore year at Delaware State, averaging 15.5 ppg and 5.8 rpg while shooting .509/.364/.775, and now he’s at UTEP to suit up in the Conference USA. 

Jake West (Fr. | Northwestern)
The Penn Charter product grew from a pint-sized freshman into arguably the area’s top point guard by the time he was done in high school. Now 6-3 and 170 pounds, the super-talented and super-confident lead guard — with millions of social media followers to boot — arrives at Northwestern after averaging 18.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 5.0 apg and 1.7 spg during a standout senior year.

Ife West-Ingram (Jr. | Albany)
West-Ingram transferred to Albany after two years at Rider, where he played in 46 games with seven starts. A 6-6 wing from Abington Friends, West-Ingram averaged 4.0 ppg and 2.6 rpg in 26 games (7 starts) as a sophomore, hitting 58.2% of his shots.

Amir Williams (R-Fr. | Hofstra)
A 6-4 wing guard out of Neumann-Goretti, Williams redshirted his true freshman season at Hofstra last year. A high-flyer who can finish above the rim with ease, Williams was also an elite defender in his high school years.

Darren Williams (Soph. | Florida Gulf Coast)
The (alphabetically) last member of a Philly-heavy FGCU crew, Williams averaged 2.1 ppg and 1.0 rpg in 28 appearances as a freshman. The former Archbishop Ryan standout, a 6-4 left-hander, was a promising 16-of-34 (47.1%) from 3-point range, including a 3-for-3 showing from deep against LSU as his current high-water mark.

Ryan WIlliams (Soph. | Northeastern)
A 6-4 guard from Malvern Prep, Williams played in 22 games as a freshman at Northeastern, averaging 2.5 ppg while hitting 31.9% of his shots. Almost half of his points came during a 21-point outburst in a November win over Harvard, where he went 5-of-7 from 3-point range; that was one of his three starts on the year. He’ll be trying to replicate games like that more often as a sophomore.

Robert Wright III (Soph. | BYU)
Wright established himself as one of the top point guards in the 2024 recruiting class and then played like it as a freshman at Baylor. In 35 games (21 starts), the 6-1 guard — who played three seasons at Neumann-Goretti before finishing up at Montverde Academy (Fl.) — averaged 11.5 ppg and 4.2 apg with a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, hitting 35.2% of his 3-pointers and 41.4% overall. Multiple reports had him as one of the hottest names on the transfer market, and in this current landscape of college hoops, that means he’s doing quite well for himself at BYU.  

Malcolm Wrisby-Jefferson (Jr. | Brown)
After playing sparingly in nine games as a freshman, Wrisby-Jefferson had a much more significant role as a sophomore. The 6-4 point guard from the Phelps School started 19 of his 27 appearances, averaging 5.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg and 2.2 apg. Though he hasn’t proven himself an outside shooting threat at the college level, he hit 62.5% of his 2-point attempts as a sophomore. 

Josh Wyche (Jr. | Lafayette)
Wyche lost most of his sophomore year to injury, spending 23 games on the bench; through two seasons at Lafayette, the 6-7 wing from Cristo Rey has averaged 2.6 ppg and 2.8 rpg in 40 games, including five starts last year. His best game was nine points, four rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes, getting the start in a November game against Penn.