DaKari Spear leads Drive Nation in scoring during Session 1, names several schools in contact
By SAM LANCE
MESA, AZ — Top-25 prospect DaKari Spear is one of the purest scorers in the 2026 class. He showed his abilities during the first EYBL session of the summer, leading Drive Nation in scoring.
Across three games, Spear averaged 16.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.0 steals per game. His best outing came in a narrow loss to Team CP3, where Spear poured in 20 points with three triples. Spear said his best trait right now is shooting.
“Just getting to my spots, rising up over defenders and being able to knock down shots,” Spear told ZAGSBLOG.
This past high school season with The Colony (TX) as a junior, Spear was the leader of the team.
“I showcased my ability to score, play defense,” Spear said. “Be a great two-way for my team. Just having leadership, making guys around me better with a high IQ. Ultimately, we didn’t come out with the state championship that we wanted, but we all got better. That’s the main goal every year.”
Spear will be looking to improve upon his game even more this summer with Drive Nation. He’s also after a Peach Jam championship.
Last time ZAGSBLOG caught up with Spear, Alabama, Kentucky, LSU, Miami, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M were some of the schools to reach out when the contact period opened. Many of those schools are still involved.
Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Oklahoma, SMU, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas and Vanderbilt were all in to see Spear during his junior season at The Colony. Both Oklahoma and Vanderbilt have offered in the past week.
Spear has seen SMU, Tennessee and Texas unofficially and will be looking to take some more visits in June when there’s no AAU basketball. Here’s his breakdown of some of the schools in contact most:
Kentucky: “Coach Alvin [Brooks] and coach [Mikhail] McLean. Kentucky obviously is known to be strong in the basketball area and they just made the March Madness. They keep good guys around their squad. They develop well because they put a lot of people in the NBA.”
Louisville: “I’ve been talking to them for a little while. Coach [Ronnie] Hamilton is my guy. So same things really. Just the consistency of staying in touch, coming out to see me at school during my workouts, things like that.”
LSU: “They text me a lot. Just staying in contact obviously shows their interest. They’ll send me little things that they do here and there at their school, whether it’s like a charity event just to help out around. Just the little things like that stand out. They are not just centered on basketball. They really care about the community around them.”
Oklahoma: “I haven’t been out there yet. But I just talk to them. Coach Ryan [Humphrey], he shows interest in me a lot. So just staying in touch.”
SMU: “Obviously, a close to home place. The coaching staff shows a lot of love to me. They make sure I know that I’m one of their main priorities in the class of 2026. So yeah, just them showing love. Being close with the coaching staff. That’s good.”
Syracuse: “Close bond with them for sure. The coaches there, they always show interest and they just talk to me a lot. I talk to the general manager, coach Alex [Kline]. I talk to the head coach [Adrian Autry] and then coach Dan [Engelstad]. So all three of them are tied in close. They just tell me how I could fit into their system, how well I would work with them with the way they play. Yeah, just being close.”
Tennessee: “That was good. I took my visit out there a little minute ago. But I’m just close with the coaching staff because I’ve known [Rod Clark] for a while. He gave me my first offer so he obviously showed interest and trust in me since freshman year. So yeah, just close with those guys. How they carry their program is nice.”
Texas: “They came out to my school. So I’ve been talking to them, coach [Ulric] Maligi, coach [Sean] Miller. My visit to Texas was good. The atmosphere — you can just tell the students there really like going there, whether its for basketball and all that. They enjoy going out to sports. They bring a lot of people. So when I watched a game out there, it was electric. It’s also not too far from home, 2-3 hours away. So it’s good.”
Spear said Miami, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M are still in there for him. He’s heard from Bucky McMillan and the new staff at Texas A&M (they re-offered), but not Miami just yet.
The four-star guard is ranked the No. 25 overall prospect by 247Sports and the No. 2 player out of Texas.
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