Ralph Scott is inching closer to making a decision on his basketball future after locking in official visits to American NCAA Division I colleges.

Scott’s tour started on August 28 when Scott and his family visited the University of Houston before dropping in to Texas A&M last Friday.

On Tuesday, a day before he visited Louisiana State University, the small forward received an offer from Syracuse.

The University of Tennessee is next on the 17-year-old’s schedule this Friday before he heads to Syracuse on October 17. Scott is also planning visits to Purdue, University of Texas and Stanford, with those dates yet to be finalised.

Giving an update on the recruitment of her son, Shanay Scott, the athlete’s mother, indicated that they were only stopping at institutions keen to have the Bermudian in their ranks.

“Official school visits have begun to schools that have expressed interest in Ralph being a part of their programme,” she said.

“In addition to the school meeting certain criteria that are critical to Ralph’s journey, such as his development as a person, student and basketball player, it must also provide support for him academically, socially, spiritually and mentally.

“He currently has five visits lined up, but there is the potential for change in some of the visits depending on Ralph and when he feels he has found the right fit for him and his development.

“He is making these visits while balancing schoolwork and national team basketball training at IMG Academy. This is the top tier or premier team at the school, who will be playing approximately 30 games this season, with several of these games being outside Florida.

“The training and play on this team will help to continue to lay a solid foundation for Ralph to build upon once in college. Some visits have had to be rescheduled as the IMG national team will be travelling to Abu Dhabi at the end of September for one week to play exhibition games while there.”

Accompanied by his mother, aunt Shari Scott and grandmother Carla Scott, the Connecticut-born youngster met with Cougars’ long-serving coach Kelvin Sampson, who has been at the helm since 2014.

Scott had a feel of the Cougars accolades collection, which includes the silver-plated runner-up trophy they received for their effort in a closely-contested national championship final against Florida in April.

“Thank you to coach Sampson and all the staff for hosting me and my family's official visit to Houston this weekend,” Scott posted on X.

Newly appointed Aggies coach Bucky McMillan was on hand to receive the highly rated rising star when he and his family made the short trip from Houston to College Station.

“Thank you coach Bucky and the entire staff for hosting me and my family on an official visit this weekend,” Scott posted.

Scott, who had a busy summer which began with his participation at the Basketball Without Borders Americas camp in El Salvador, has so far received 11 offers from Division I teams.

According to 247 Sports, an American network of websites specialising mainly on athletic recruitment, the IMG student surged from 44th to 35th in the US among the 2026 freshmen. Scott is rated sixteenth among small forwards.

Scott’s mother stated that they will be meticulous before arriving at a decision on where the aspiring engineer is heading to next year.

“Following a lot of research and much prayer as we continue to work through this recruitment process,” she said.

“We are looking forward to Ralph selecting the school that is the best fit for him as we wrap up visits across the United States over the next few months. Ralph’s desired degree programme is in civil-structural engineering.”