Syracuse women’s basketball is growing into a recruiting powerhouse, which could help propel the Orange to sustained national success over the long term.
Syracuse women’s basketball may have registered a so-so campaign in 2019-20, but the Orange is positioned to have a stellar upcoming campaign, assuming the season isn’t halted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Taking a look toward the future, and the ‘Cuse is doing an unbelievable job on the recruiting trail that rivals pretty much any other program across collegiate hoops, including heavyweights such as Baylor, Connecticut and Oregon.
If head coach Quentin Hillsman and his assistants can keep up their recent efforts, then it’s entirely feasible that Syracuse women’s basketball can, and will, replicate what it did in 2016 – that is, advance to a Final Four and seriously contend for a NCAA championship.
Let’s rewind a tad. For the Orange’s stanza that hopefully will commence in a few months, the ‘Cuse 2020 recruiting class features five-star post Kamilla Cardoso and five-star guard Priscilla Williams.
In the HoopGurlz ratings for this class, Cardoso is No. 5 overall and Williams checks in at No. 9. Syracuse, as my Inside The Loud House colleague Mat Mlodzinski pointed out on Sunday, is the sole squad in the country to have two recruits within the top 10 of these espnW 100 rankings.
UConn didn’t do this. Neither did Baylor, Oregon, Stanford, Maryland, Louisville or anyone else for that matter. Additionally, the Orange’s class has in it four-star guard Faith Blackstone, slotted at No. 84 nationally by HoopGurlz.
A ton of credit should head to the ‘Cuse for this excellent 2020 class. But there’s more. As Mlodzinski covered, in a development first reported by CuseNation.com analyst Mike McAllister, Syracuse landed a pair of terrific 2021 commitments, from high-school teammates nonetheless, this past weekend.
Five-star forward Latasha Lattimore, No. 11 in the 2021 class according to HoopGurlz, and four-star point guard Shayeann Day-Wilson, No. 73 in that class, have both agreed to don an Orange uniform. They attend the Crestwood Secondary School in Ontario, Canada.
Lattimore and Day-Wilson join four-star guard Nyah Wilson, No. 85 in the espnW 100 ratings, within the ‘Cuse class of 2021. Per my colleague Mlodzinski, Syracuse’s three top-100 players in the 2021 class are for now only equaled by Connecticut and West Virginia.
The Orange has recruited tremendously in the 2020 and 2021 cycles, and if it can continue this, that will translate to Atlantic Coast Conference titles and deep March Madness runs for many years to come. It’s truly an exciting time for ‘Cuse women’s hoops.