Alabama Misses Out on Pair of Elite Commitments

While Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide staff have been successful on the 2026 recruiting trail, landing two 4-Star commitments thus far, Alabama received a bit of disappointing news this week as it missed out on two elite prospects in the class.

On Wednesday, October 22, twin brothers Darius and Adonis Ratliff, who are both rated as 4-Star prospects, committed to USC over the Crimson Tide while appearing on a YouTube livestream for CBS Sports. The pair chose the Trojans over not only Alabama, but Texas and Arkansas as well.

Darius, a 7-footer, weighing in at 195 lbs., is listed as a center while Adonis, another 7-footer, is listed at power forward. They are the sons of former NBA All-Star Theo Ratliff who is originally from Demopolis, Alabama, but both currently suit up for Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York.

As a junior for the highly ranked Empire State team, Darius averaged nearly a double-double in points and rebounds with just over nine a piece. He also added impressive block totals, averaging 2.6 per game.

His brother, Adonis, put up a comparable stat line of his own as a junior with 12.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game.

Scouting the Ratliff twins:

Both have extreme overlap of size, mobility, athleticism, hands, & touch.

Darius is the more physical & projects as a modern 5.

Adonis is the more skilled & projects as a jumbo stretch 4/5.

1pm ET 🗣️ https://t.co/nIhRRbnszO pic.twitter.com/MvU19Wbxsb
— Adam Finkelstein (@AdamFinkelstein) October 22, 2025

Each of the Ratliff twins are incredibly high ceiling players with the ability to possibly form one of college basketball's top front courts once they arrive on campus in Los Angeles. Though the Eric Musselman era at USC has not exactly been overly successful so far, missing out on the tournament entirely last season, he has maybe begun to find his footing on the recruiting trail.

While this season has yet to tip off for the two White Plains, New York natives, Archbishop Stepinac finished last year ranked as the No. 24 team in the entire state, according to MaxPreps, and looks to be in store for another massive 2025-26 campaign.

Although missing out on two extremely talented prospects is certainly disappointing, Alabama still looks to be in a strong spot with its 2026 class, holding two other elite commitments in Chris Washington, Jr. and Tarris Bouie.

As of now, the Crimson Tide has the No. 17 ranked class in the nation, according to 247Sports' composite ranking, and is tied for the second most commitments in the SEC behind Missouri, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State who all have three a piece.

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