By SAM LANCE
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Four-star class of 2026 shooting guard DaKari Spear has been hearing from Alabama, Kentucky, LSU, Miami, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M since the contact period opened up on June 15.
Spear — the 6-foot-4, 165-pound guard from The Colony (TX) and the Drive Nation Nike EYBL AAU program — enjoyed a successful Peach Jam where he was among the leaders in 16u scoring. Spear averaged 12.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game during the tournament. He also shot 40.4% from the field.
Most recently, Spear has been playing with The Circuit All-Stars at The Circuit Championship in Dallas. His last game he scored 17 points on 7-of-8 field goals in a win.
“My game really is getting to my spots,” Spear said. “I can go left to right just attacking, pull-up. I got a solid three so really just scoring at three levels. You have to guard a lot of aspects of my game.”
As for his recruitment, Spear said “it’s a lot” to handle right now. In addition to the schools named above, Spear mentioned UCF and Vanderbilt as well.
“I probably won’t remember all of them,” Spear said of schools in contact. “But I’ll name a few.”
Spear has taken unofficial visits to SMU (with new staff), Texas A&M and Tennessee so far. He also later named UCF and Vanderbilt as schools in contact. He broke down some of these programs to ZAGSBLOG at Peach:
Oklahoma State: “It’s like a fun process, and then the coaches are always staying in touch with me. Like after this game we just played — like four different coaches and even the head coach — texted me congratulating me. Telling me they were all locked in. So they keep up with me, stay in touch and it means a lot, shows that they really care.”
Tennessee: “The same thing, coach is always in touch with me. He was actually down here watching and so was Oklahoma State whenever the live period was going on at Peach Jam this last weekend. And they hit me up after the game as well. They stay in touch too. The academics are good, like the experience really because I went to a football game when I was out there and like I said the experience was crazy. The atmosphere. The fans. It was fun.”
Texas A&M: “It was fun too. Their coaches actually let me go to a practice and watch how they do it, the film sessions too. They had me sit close to the field so I could see what the atmosphere and experience was like at a football game. I’ve been to a basketball game when they played Kentucky and it was live. I actually went over to the student section. They welcomed me over. So yeah it was cool.”
SMU: “They have a really good coaching staff. Most of them came from USC and they’ve got a lot of people in the NBA. I want to say 10 in the past 11 years. So coach [Andy] Enfield, he definitely does the job. He knows what he’s doing with basketball and I got a lot of people from SMU that just keep up with me. Like coach Andy, and then coach [Jeremie] Hart. They keep up with me. They always call me. They called me before this, telling me good luck with all that. I really like how they run stuff around there.”
Miami: “I’ve talked to them briefly, not a lot. I’ve talked to the head coach [Jim Larranaga] and he was just checking in with me saying he’d be watching me at Peach. I talked to coach Kotie [Kimble] and yea it was good basically just touching base with me, letting me know they’re recruiting me, things like that.”
Kentucky: “The same thing. Coach Alvin [Brooks], he was touching base with me, letting me know that they’re recruiting me hard and he’s seen me grow last year to this year. So it was good to know he was keeping up with me even with the change of schools going from Baylor to Kentucky.”
The head coaches of all these programs above were spotted at some in North Augusta during Peach Jam.
Spear is ranked the No. 35 player in the 2026 class by 247Sports and the No. 1 player in the state of Texas. Spear said getting downhill, as well as his IQ and vision are what separates him from other prospects.
Spear claims to be unbeatable in Madden or College Football 25.
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