Aaliyah Chavez, the No. 1 overall player in the Class of 2025, has trimmed her list of suitors down to just six schools, and one of them resides in the Big 12.
A Lubbock (TX) native, Chavez is listed at 5-foot-11 and ranks as the No. 1 point guard in the nation out of Monterey High School. Among her list of finalists — which also includes LSU, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and UCLA — is Texas Tech, which remains in contention, partly thanks to providing Chavez the chance to be a “hometown hero.”
“That’s my hometown, so that has an advantage,” Chavez told On3. “I’d love to be a hometown hero.”
Chavez recently released a list of 10 finalists but has now removed USC, Arizona, Tennessee, and Ohio State from the running, leaving four SEC programs, and one program from both the Big Ten and Big 12.
Among the countless other factors that go into a recruiting decision, Chavez says that finding a place with “high energy” is priority No. 1.
“The most important thing is to make sure I’m in a place where I have high energy,” Chavez told On3. “I don’t want a coach that’s low energy, and I need to make sure that they’re going to be there the whole time [I am]. I don’t want a coach that’s just going to be there for two years… I want them to be there all four years. Because that’s what I’m getting recruited off of, right? I want to be there all four years.”
According to predictions placed at On3, LSU is the heavy favorite to land the top-overall player in the 2025 class. When talking about her visit to Baton Rouge, Chavez noted that the energy level there doesn’t seem to be an issue.
“They’ve recruited me very well. I think I talk to at least an assistant coach every day. They definitely talk to my parents a lot. They’re also a winning program, and I would love to win… [The visit] was fun. It was definitely different than the other visits. They had all the girls there when I was there, so they were in my photoshoots. It was definitely a different vibe. I like their energy as well – at the photoshoot, it was so high. There was no low energy at all.”
To this point, Chavez has unofficially visited Texas Tech and LSU but will plan visits to the other remaining schools as well. There is no timetable for a decision.
