Syracuse Basketball: Let’s review some (mostly) positive recruiting news

It’s proven a rough go of late for the Syracuse basketball squad, but we have a few juicy morsels on the recruiting trail to share here.

I think that we should put Darius Bazley’s recent announcement that he has de-committed from SU in the rear-view mirror, wish him all the best, and focus on moving forward.

Sound good?

To that end, we’ve got a handful of nuggets to discuss as it pertains to the Orange basketball team’s recruiting efforts.

For one, 2018 power forward Bryce Golden, who in mid-March de-committed from Atlantic Coast Conference rival Pittsburgh, has reportedly trimmed his list to Butler, Connecticut, Georgetown, Illinois, Syracuse and Wichita State, according to this tweet, which notes that the 6-9 Golden plans to schedule several official visits this week.

Rated as either three or four stars depending on the recruiting service, Golden currently attends the Saint James School in Hagerstown, Md. Nationally in his class, he is slotted 203^rd by the 247Sports Composite.

Interestingly enough, just in the past few days, three analysts on the 247Sports Web site have

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predicted that Golden will ultimately suit up for the ‘Cuse this fall.

But we should take these projections with a grain of salt, because the recruiting business is extremely fickle and quite fluid.

Still, with Bazley out of the mix and redshirt freshman forward Matthew Moyer electing to transfer, head coach Jim Boeheim and his assistants have, by my count, three open scholarships for the 2018-19 campaign.

Landing Golden this late in the recruiting cycle would absolutely give the SU hoops outfit a jolt following a tad of downer developments.

Speaking of Moyer, Corey Evans of Rivals.com is reporting that he has scheduled official visits to Xavier this weekend and Vanderbilt on May 7. Evans writes that Moyer is also looking to arrange two other officials visits to Kansas State and Texas. I am super excited for Moyer and hope that he is happy wherever he ends up.

Jumping ahead to the 2019 class, five-star center Isaiah Stewart met with Boeheim on April 5, per Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog. Additionally, on that same day, Stewart visited with Duke boss Mike Krzyzewski, according to Zagoria.

The 6-8 Stewart, whose hails from Rochester, N.Y., and is presently a junior at the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind., had this to say of SU in the Zagsblog article: “[Coach Boeheim’s] message to me was that I’m their No. 1 target for the 2019 class.”

Make sense, as Stewart is generally regarded as one of the top-25 talents in his class. He holds scholarship offers from a bevy of programs beyond the Blue Devils and the Orange, including Florida, Georgetown, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Purdue, Virginia, Washington and Xavier.

If we are assessing things honestly, nabbing Stewart will prove hugely difficult, given the fierce competition for his services, but that JB is proactively getting in front of him greatly encourages me.

Meanwhile, Jalen Carey, a 6-3 guard in the ‘Cuse’s 2018 class, unfortunately suffered a recent injury to the middle finger on his right hand and will need approximately eight weeks to fully recover, Syracuse.com reported.

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Although this is not-so-fun news, when he got asked about Bazley in a separate Syracuse.com story, the four-star Carey said: “I hope his plan works. But he’s going to miss something big next year.”

Now that’s what I like to hear!

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