Five-star 2020 guard Jaden Springer names final five schools, cuts Villanova

The Villanova Wildcats’ hunt for their first class of 2020 commit will have to take place elsewhere, as five-star guard Jaden Springer (Charlotte, N.C./IMG Academy) cut his list from 11 schools to just five on Monday night.

Springer named Florida, Michigan, Memphis, North Carolina, and Tennessee as his final five schools.

Springer is a consensus top 15-ranked recruit, nationally, in the class of 2020. This past season, as a junior at IMG Academy, he averaged 15.6 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

Villanova came onto the scene late for Springer, although it was already familiar with him from scouting and watching high school teammate Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. The Wildcats formally offered Springer on May 11, 2019, just days before he first trimmed his list down to 11 schools.

Auburn, N.C. State, Maryland, Texas, Kansas, and Wake Forest were other schools that accompanied Villanova in the initial list of finalists, before being axed on Monday night. Interestingly, Michigan was never mentioned in Springer’s final 11 list, but it seems that maybe the hiring of Juwan Howard has changed his perception of the Wolverines.

As for the Wildcats, they still have three other 2020 offers on the table: five-star guard Jalen Green (Fresno, Calif./Prolific Prep), four-star forward Jabri Abdur-Rahim (Atlanta, Ga./Blair Academy), and four-star center Elijah Hutchins-Everett (Wayne, N.J./Immaculate Conception).