Isaac Ellis is one of the most famous recruits in college basketball. Not only is he the little brother of four-star South Carolina commit Eli Ellis, he boasts more than one million followers on TikTok and nearly 500,000 on Instagram.
However, the Class of 2026 prospect often uses questionable tactics to drive engagement on his social media platforms— especially Snapchat.
Both Ellis brothers both played high school basketball at Moravian Prep and together with Overtime Elite. Eli, who also has more than one million followers on TikTok, is known as The Assassin. Isaac is known as The General. They both can hoop. They both have the potential to be high-level contributors on the next level.
Eli is currently committed to play for the Gamecocks as a four-star recruit in the Class of 2025. His little brother is yet to be ranked but he has offers from South Carolina, App State, Eastern Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Indiana State and Radford. He does not have offers from Florida, North Carolina or Duke despite what his Snapchat stories might suggest.
The Ellis brothers are masters of social media at this point. They have huge followings on every platform. Their videos get hundreds of thousands of views. Credit to them.
There are plenty of haters out there. Both Eli and Isaac Ellis are pretty polarizing personalities in the larger sports media world. More Isaac than Eli. Some people love them. A lot of people don’t.
I am an Ellis brother neutral. I do not feel strongly either way, nor do I often consume their content. I’m just not the target demographic and that’s okay. I respect the hustle. I know they can ball.
With that being said, my Snapchat Explore page loves to push Isaac on me. And I’ve noticed a strange trend.
He frequently reports false offers and/or commitments to schools that did not offer. It is a tactic used to drive people to engage. Engagement leads to payouts from the content creator fund. Snapchat typically pays out more money than the other platforms. People do this kind of thing on Snap all the time. I get it! And Isaac may not actually run his own account. It is probably a third party posting on his behalf.
Either way, Isaac Ellis claimed on Snapchat that he committed to North Carolina. There was a photo of the Indiana State basketball court in the background…
And then it was Duke.
He also reported an offer from Florida that he did not receive.
I understand that this is ragebait. Maybe I am falling right into the trap by giving him the exposure. Fine.
I just don’t get it. Would the coach staff at Florida, Duke or North Carolina want Isaac Ellis to fake commit to its school for clout and clicks? I would imagine that they do not even know that this is happening because it is so far removed from their realm of knowledge, but I don’t think so. The same could be said for the schools that actually did give him an offer. There’s no way they appreciate this behavior. It pays, so I can’t completely knock a guy for chasing every possible dollar while he can. It’s still super weird…