Five-star prospect Nate Ament at the NCAA college basketball game between Tennessee Kentucky on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Louisville '25 Target Nate Ament Pushes Back Commitment Date

Originally posted on Louisville Cardinals on SI
By Matthew McGavic | Last updated Mar 31, 2025 2:11 PM ET

The Louisville men's basketball program's already lengthy pursuit of Nate Ament will last a little bit longer.

The Warrenton (Va.) Highland School forward and top-five prospect in the Class of 2025 announced Monday during a media availability ahead of the McDonald's All-American Game that he is going to push back his commitment to an unspecified date. He was originally set to announced his college decision during the annual high school All-Star exhibition, which is set for Tuesday, Apr. 1 at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Louisville is one of five schools in Ament's list of top choices, joining Arkansas, Duke, Kentucky and Tennessee. In recent weeks, it has been viewed as mainly a two-horse race between the Cardinals and Blue Devils for Ament, with the Razorbacks and Wildcats lurking as dark horse options.

In an interview with Louisville Cardinals On SI last month, On3 national basketball reporter and recruiting insider Joe Tipton said that, while an extremely fluid recruitment, he was leaning towards UofL being the frontrunner.

"I know Louisville is towards the top of his list," Tipton said. "I even wrote recently on On3 that if I had to pick a school that Nate Ament picks, I would probably lean towards Louisville."

The consensus five-star prospect was one of the first high school recruits to receive a scholarship offer from first year head coach Pat Kelsey, and the recruitment has been in high gear ever since. Ament was offered back on Apr. 23, less than a month after Kelsey formally accepted the job, and later took an official visit to campus on Oct. 11. Kelsey and assistant Thomas Carr also paid an in-home visit back in January.

The 6-foot-9, 185-pound small forward ranks as the No. 4 recruit nationally according to the 247Sports Composite. He's a consensus top-five prospect by all four of the major recruiting services.

With a Composite rating of 0.9990, should Ament commit to Louisville, he would be the highest-ranked recruit to commit to the Cardinals in the modern recruiting era. Samardo Samuels and his 0.9985 rating in the Class of 2008 currently holds that distinction.

Ament stuffed the stat sheet during his junior season at Highland School. He averaged 19.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.0 blocks and 3.7 assists per game, while guiding the Hawks to a 24-12 record. This included a berth in the VISAA Division II State Championship game.

So far, Louisville currently hold two commitments in their 2025 class: Daytona Beach (Fla.) DME Academy point guard Mikel Brown Jr. and German forward Sananda Fru. While Fru has yet to put pen to paper, Brown signed back in November.