Five-star 2028 prospect Shalen Sheppard details early recruitment, summer

It’s been a busy summer for class of 2028 five-star forward Shalen Sheppard.

From receiving coaches' calls when the June 15 contact period opened to competing with Vegas Elite on the Nike EYBL circuit and Team USA, the 6-foot-8 Los Angeles native has spent the past few months on the move.

Most recently, Sheppard attended the Team USA U17 training camp, but an ankle sprain held him out after the first day, and he wasn’t able to compete any further. Still, he learned many valuable lessons from the experience.

“I learned that even if I'm not playing I can still impact the camp with my voice, impact it with my energy and body language,” Sheppard said. “And I just learned competing. I feel like whenever I go to USA I learn a new style of competing, whether it’s crashing for a rebound, being the first one in the gym and locked in. It just gives you such a good mental state because you're trying to give a good impression and make the team. It gives you a different level of competitiveness for sure."

While the injury held him back from making Team USA this go-around, Sheppard helped the USA Men's U16 National Team win gold at the 2025 FIBA U16 Men's AmeriCup in Juarez, Mexico. He’s considered a top 20 player nationwide in the 2028 class and has averaged 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists with Vegas Elite 16u so far this summer across seven games.

“I think I've been able to showcase my versatility this summer like my shooting, my rebounding and my defense,” Sheppard said. “I want to show a little bit more of my wing skills, my on the ball skills, especially at Peach Jam. The goal is to go out there and win Peach Jam.”

When asked to describe his game, Sheppard pointed first to his basketball IQ.

“I feel like my feel for the game is very advanced,” Sheppard said. “I think that I'm somebody who's easy to play with because I make my teammates better. I think that I'm definitely a threat on offense, not just because of my passing, but if only one person is guarding me I attract a lot of double teams... The defense always has to worry where I am, and I'm becoming a better knockdown shooter. And I think just a 3-5, 2-5 defender really, being able to switch out on guards and move my feet and guard bigs too."

As far as his recruitment, the five-star forward has already taken an unofficial visit to USC and holds offers from Arizona State, Cal, Florida State, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, San Diego, Stanford, UConn, USC, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.

Since the June 15 contact period opened for 2028 prospects, Sheppard has heard from Arizona, Boston College, Florida State, Miami, Minnesota, Missouri, Purdue, Texas and USC.

Sheppard said he’s looking to take some more visits this summer and specifically mentioned he’d like to see Miami, Oregon and Purdue.

He broke down some of the schools involved:

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.