By SAM LANCE
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Few players at the 16u level had a more productive Peach Jam than Team CP3’s Cole Cloer. The 6-foot-6, 180-pound four-star small forward from Caldwell Academy (NC) finished second on Team CP3 in scoring and lead them all the way to the championship game.
Team CP3 fell to Bradley Beal Elite, 74-67, in a thrilling 16u title game. Cloer had a team-high 15 points in the loss. For the tournament, he averaged 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 21.1 minutes per contest.
“I feel like versatile is the best word,” Cloer said of his game. “I feel like I can do whatever the team needs, whether that’s scoring or guarding or facilitating, whatever that may be. I feel like you don’t see too many people at this age that are 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8 that can really handle the ball, facilitate.”
Since the contact period opened up on June 15, Cloer has been hearing from a number of schools. He named several including Alabama, Appalachian State, Highpoint, Iowa, Louisville, Mississippi State, NC State, North Carolina, Ohio State, VCU and Wake Forest.
“That’s just a few- I have some more that I’m forgetting,” Cloer said.
Visit wise, Cloer has been to NC State, North Carolina and Tennessee, all unofficially. He plans on taking some official visits this fall.
“I’m definitely gonna head back up to Tennessee, definitely going to hit up NC State and Carolina again,” Cloer said. “But the new ones I’d really like to go to are definitely Alabama, Ohio State and Mississippi State. But really all the schools, it’s not any in particular.”
Cloer broke down some of these programs to ZAGSBLOG at Peach Jam:
Alabama: “It’s a new up and coming program. A lot of people look at it as a football school, but honestly now in the last five years it’s really turned into a basketball school. Love coach [Nate] Oats. Great coach, put out a lot of NBA players. I really like the system they run. They had a great run this year, losing in the Final Four. I just love the overall program. Alabama seems like a cool school even if you weren’t an athlete so, yeah.”
Louisville: “Great program, historic program. Being in Kentucky with — alongside with Kentucky — two big programs I love. I mean, I love Louisville. It seems like a great basketball- it’s a really basketball city, basketball town. So I love that of course.”
On the new staff: ” It’s very exciting. They’ve had a rough year the past two years, which is unlike them because they’re normally a pretty good team. I’m definitely excited to see what they can do.”
North Carolina: “Coach [Hubert] Davis and UNC speaks for itself. Historic program. Top program in the country of course, so. But I love coach Davis. He seems like a great guy. He’s a grounded man. He’s a really good guy to talk to. Coach [Jeff] Lebo, he’s also been recruiting me for a long time. And obviously it’s blue blood. It’s Jordan brand. Winning program. National Championships. All that comes with it, but I really love the coaching staff.”
NC State: [The Final Four run], I feel like that tells a lot about their program, tells a lot about their guys. They kind of had a rough year leading up to it. They weren’t really expected to make it out of the ACC tournament, but then they all stuck together. They trusted the process. I love coach [Kevin] Keatts. Coach Keatts is a great guy, great coach who obviously brought them to the Final Four with a team people wouldn’t expect. And then the players seem like they love him, seems like he’s a great guy to hang out with. Coach [Brett] Nelson, who also just came in, great guy. Great guy to talk to. I talked to him a lot the past few weeks, and coach Nelson was an All-American. So I mean he’s a great coach.”
Ohio State: “Coach [Joel] Justus who was at NC State was the one who recruited me to NC State before he left. And he left and went to Ohio State to be an associate head coach. So then he recruited me at Ohio State. So obviously I love coach Justice, have built a relationship with him for a long time. I mean, it’s just a historic school. It’s a big school. Big Ten. Winning program. So I mean it’s nice.”
On Jake Diebler stepping in as head coach: “He seems like a very good coach, seems like a cool guy just to talk to. Players seem like they love him.”
Cloer is ranked the No. 16 overall prospect in the 2026 class by 247Sports and the No. 1 player out of North Carolina.
Something you may not know about Cloer is he loves to play the guitar. He has learned some songs and is learning a little country music now. Cloer may just join a band one day.
“Oh I’d love to,” Cloer said. “That’s definitely a dream of mine. If I wasn’t a basketball player or any sort of sports athlete, I’d definitely love to do that.”
As for Cloer’s family, both his mom and dad played sports in high school. His mom ran track and was a cheerleader while his dad played football, basketball and baseball. Cloer also has two older brothers and both are currently firefighters. One of his brothers, Garrett Cloer, played wide receiver for Cornell.
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