CINCINNATI — Princeton High School five-star guard Kam Mercer has given a verbal commitment to play basketball at the University of Cincinnati. He also plans to reclassify from the 2028 to the 2027 class.
Mercer is believed to be the first high school basketball player to give a verbal commitment to UC under the leadership of new head coach Jerrod Calhoun.
He is UC's highest-rated men's basketball recruit since Lance Stephenson committed to the Bearcats in 2009. Mercer is also the first five-star player to verbally commit to the Bearcats since Shon Abaev in November 2024. Abaev, who is now at Florida State, was ranked a consensus top-30 prospect.
We spoke with Mercer about the commitment here:
.@kameron_mercer discussing his verbal commitment to @GoBEARCATS. @WCPO pic.twitter.com/5E3r7d3H3G
— Mike Dyer (@MikeDyer) May 21, 2026
A 6-foot-5 guard, he helped to lead Princeton to its first boys basketball state championship this past March. The Vikings defeated Hilliard Bradley 59-28 March 22 in the Division I state final at University of Dayton Arena.
He averaged 14.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.4 steals for Princeton (25-3) during its state championship season.
Mercer had scholarship offers that included UC, Florida State, Memphis, Louisville, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Central Florida, Georgia State, Villanova and Xavier, according to 247 Sports and WCPO 9 Sports.
He and his family visited UC May 5 and were very impressed with the Bearcats’ program led by Calhoun. Mercer’s visit occurred during the afternoon hours of May 5; Calhoun and Mercer watched film and discussed the game at length.
"Great staff — great visit," Mercer's father, Craig Mercer, said.
Mercer expressed his admiration for UC on social media, including changing his X profile photo to a snapshot wearing Bearcats gear and dribbling a basketball. He tweeted Thursday morning that a significant announcement on ESPN was scheduled.
The Bearcats offered a scholarship to Mercer on May 5, the second time UC offered a scholarship offer to the Princeton star and the first time with Calhoun as the head coach. Mercer built a strong connection with UC.
Mercer, ranked the nation's No. 7 player nationally in the 2028 class by ESPN, completed his first season this past winter competing for Princeton High School. He enrolled at Princeton in December after he had been at Atlanta-based Overtime Elite prior to that.
Named a Jersey Mike’s Naismith Boys' High School All-America Underclassman Honorable Mention selection, he is very familiar to Greater Cincinnati high school basketball fans. He starred at Winton Woods Middle School. He averaged 11 points, six rebounds and five assists during the 2024-25 season for Huntington (W. Va.) Expression Prep before he committed to Overtime Elite in May 2025.
The basketball star has multiple name, image and likeness deals such as Bose, 24 Apparel, Pahhni and Panini America. He has 66,000 Instagram followers.
Mercer helped USA Basketball’s U16 National Team win a gold medal at the FIBA U16 Men’s AmeriCup in Juárez, Mexico in June 2025. Mercer averaged 5.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.2 steals in six games off the bench.
He was invited to the USA Basketball Junior National Team Minicamp earlier this month in Indianapolis. The USA Basketball U17 Men’s Basketball trials roster is expected to be announced the first week of June.
