Alabama blew out Mizzou at home on Tuesday night, then the Crimson Tide made a recruiting statement on Wednesday afternoon when 5-star wing Qayden Samuels announced he was heading to Tuscaloosa for the 2026-27 season.
The 6-foot-5 high school phenom out of Bishop McNamara in Maryland chose Alabama and the SEC over prominent local option Georgetown. Samuels also chose Nate Oats’s program over SEC rival Kentucky, with other powerhouses like UConn and North Carolina being in the mix, too.
Samuels took to his own social media account to make the big announcement, posting an intense 41-second video that let it be known he was all about Alabama starting this fall.
With the Early Signing Period being in November, that means Samuels’ recruiting paperwork has been official with Alabama for more than 2 months.
Samuels is the No. 22 overall recruit in the Class of 2026, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. He’s also the 8th-ranked small forward in the 2026 recruiting cycle and the 2nd-ranked player from the state of Maryland, according to those 247 Composite rankings.
The headliner of a recruit for Oats and the Crimson Tide becomes Alabama’s 2nd commitment in this cycle. The other commitment is 4-star small forward Tarris Bouie.
Samuels raised eyebrows this past summer at the NBPA Top-100 Camp, leading everyone in scoring at 26.4 points per game. He also averaged 9.8 rebounds during the high-profile camp, and now he becomes Alabama’s latest basketball prize starting next season.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
