Florida Gators Make Top-10 for Legacy Basketball Recruit

The son of Cornelius Ingram is a two-sport star with a world of options in front of him.

Florida Gators recruit CJ Ingram is this year’s Gainesville Sun Boys Basketball Player of the Year. / Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun / USA TODAY

There’s not many athletes in the country who have had a whirlwind recruit quite like Hawthorne (Fla.) guard CJ Ingram. 

A two-sport athlete, Ingram (6-6, 200 pounds) led the Hornets to back-to-back state titles as the quarterback and even began to receive interest from FBS programs, including the Florida Gators, who offered him as a receiver. 

Now, though, Ingram has shifted his focus to his basketball recruitment and is in the midst of a stellar summer with Oak Ridge (Orlando, Fla.) and AAU Florida Rebels. On Sunday, he released his top-10 schools. 

Among them are Florida, Pitt, Texas A&M, Michigan, Kansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Georgetown and Mississippi State. 

NEWS: CJ Ingram, a 6-foot-6 stockrising shooting guard, has cut his list to 10 schools, he tells @On3Recruits.

Ingram is projected to be a top-50 prospect when On3 updates its 2025 rankings.

Story: https://t.co/8WKq53JZs4 pic.twitter.com/vq0d6hLzTA

— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) July 28, 2024

Despite a late entry into the basketball recruiting world, Ingram quickly rose in the rankings. He’s considered a top-100 player nationally by ESPN and 247 Sports, and is expected to be a top-50 player when On3 updates its rankings. 

Ingram’s father, Cornelius, a former football and briefly a basketball player during his time at UF, spoke to Gators Illustrated in spring about his son’s recruitment. 

“First thing I told him was how hard it is to do both, but it can be done… I want him to enjoy it and not put pressure on himself,” he said. “Whether it's basketball, whether it's football, whether it's both, enjoy the process because at the end of the day, he'll have to live with his decision. He's a very bright kid. He'll make the right choice. Whatever he ends up doing, he’ll definitely be successful.”

Strong Recruiting for Gators Basketball

The Gators are in the midst of strong recruiting under Todd Golden and his current staff. Florida has found success through the transfer portal with Will Richard, Walter Clayton Jr., Tyrese Samuel and Zyon Pullen while supplementing it with talented high school recruits such as Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh. 

This past class was much of the same with transfers Alijah Martin, Reuben Chinyelu and Sam Alexis alongside freshmen Isaiah Brown and Oliver Rioux. 

In this upcoming class, Florida has begun to target other high-profile recruits. Currently, the Gators are considered finalists for five-star twins Cameron and Cayden Boozer. Florida has one commit in its 2025 class, four-star guard Alex Lloyd.