The freshman class during the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season has been one of the best in years, headlined by projected NBA lottery picks who are making enormous impacts for NCAA Tournament-bound teams.
BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Duke’s Cameron Boozer are two of the top five leading scorers in the sport this season, and are among the small handful of favorites for various national player of the year awards while leading top-15 teams. Caleb Wilson has been a revelation for North Carolina, a rangy 6-foot-10 forward who’s averaging nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
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Despite missing nearly half the season thus far with a nagging injury, Darryn Peterson, the No. 1 player in the class, has been as good as advertised for Kansas, averaging 21.6 points per game. Even players nowhere near the top of the recruiting rankings have thrived, such as Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie, who is ninth among all Division I players in scoring despite being the No. 119 prospect in 247Sports’ rankings coming out of high school.
This week, one of the top recruits from that class is set to make his long-awaited college debut.
Alijah Arenas, a 6-foot-6 guard who was the No. 10 player in 247’s rankings of the 2025 recruiting class, is set to make his college debut on Wednesday, Jan. 21 when his USC team hosts Northwestern.
Arenas had been sidelined since July, when he suffered a torn meniscus during a summer practice that ultimately kept him out six months. The injury came three months after Arenas was in an April car wreck that put him in a coma.
He’ll return to a USC team that’s 14-4 in its second season under coach Eric Musselman, but could use the contributions of his talent and versatility. After a 12-1 start to the season, the Trojans have dropped three of their past five games, though each loss came against teams ranked in the top 10 of the latest USA TODAY Sports Caches Poll.
As he prepares for his first college game, here’s a closer look at Arenas:
Are Alijah Arenas, Gilbert Arenas related?
If Arenas’ last name seems familiar, especially for a standout basketball player, there’s a good reason for it.
Arenas is the son of three-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas. His father’s not the only athlete in the family, either: Alijah Arenas’ mother, Laura Govan, played basketball at New Mexico State from 1999-2001 and his older sister, Izela, is a former top-100 recruit who is a sophomore guard at Kansas State.
Arenas is one of several freshmen in college basketball this season who are the sons of former NBA stars. Duke’s Cameron and Cayden Boozer are the sons of two-time NBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist Carlos Boozer, who also played for the Blue Devils.
Kiyan Anthony, the No. 32 recruit in the 2025 class, is a freshman guard at Syracuse, where his father, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony, won a national championship as a freshman in 2003. Georgia’s Jake Wilkins is also following in the footsteps of his father, playing for the same Bulldogs program that Dominique Wilkins suited up for before being enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Alijah Arenas high school
Arenas attended Chatsworth High School in California, where he scored 3,002 points in just three seasons to become the No. 14 career scorer in California boys’ high school basketball history.
His high school production helped him get selected for the 2025 McDonald’s All-American Game.
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Alijah Arenas injury
Last July, USC announced that Arenas had suffered a knee injury during a practice that required surgery and was projected to sideline him for six to eight months.
“Alijah is a tremendous worker, teammate, competitor, and person,” Musselman said at the time. “He is understandably disappointed that he will not be able to take the court to start the season, but his health is our No. 1 priority. We have no doubt that he will come back even stronger. We look forward to supporting him during this process.”
Arenas recovered quickly, as his return to game action will come fewer than six full months since the injury occurred.
It wasn’t the only setback Arenas endured last year. Last April in Reseda, California, Arenas lost control of his Tesla Cybertruck and crashed into a fire hydrant and tree. The car caught on fire, but Arenas was able to get out through the driver’s side window with the help of two onlookers. He was transported to a local hospital and placed in a coma. When he came out of the coma one day later, he was unable to speak.
By June, he was able to rejoin the team for practice.
“Seeing my teammates has really motivated me a lot to push forward and keep up with the team,” Arenas said in June. “When I got out of the hospital, I was already thinking about the team…My work ethic hasn’t changed. I still workout every morning.”
REQUIRED READING: USC recruit Alijah Arenas out of coma, making progress after car crash
Alijah Arenas height
Arenas is listed at 6-foot-6 on USC’s official roster.
Alijah Arenas age
Arenas is 18 years old and will turn 19 on March 16. He was originally set to be in the 2026 recruiting class before reclassifying to the 2025 class in December 2024.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alijah Arenas is making his USC debut tonight. Who is basketball star?
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