Syracuse basketball 2021 targets may reveal choices quicker than usual

The pandemic has created recruiting limitations for Syracuse basketball targets in the 2021 class, which could lead some of them to faster decisions.

A lot of attention lately has swirled around how the novel coronavirus pandemic is affecting football, whether at the pro, college or high-school level, but recruiting by Syracuse basketball and its peers around the country as it pertains to the 2021 cycle is also proving logistically challenging.

To that end, states and school districts nationwide are beginning to take a hard look at their upcoming basketball seasons, which in turn may cause 2021 prospects to speed up their recruiting decisions or maybe even head on to private prep schools.

Zagsblog recently reported that the California Interscholastic Federation, for one, has announced that the state’s basketball term will not commence until at least March of 2021.

The Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference, whose membership of schools in the Washington, D.C., area includes St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Md., said on Twitter that it is planning for a winter-sports season, including hoops, that will run from January to mid-February.

Recent Syracuse basketball commit Benny Williams, a 2021 four-star small forward, is a rising senior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.

Undoubtedly, as record numbers of Covid-19 cases unfortunately are reported in the United States, it’s virtually a guarantee that other states will postpone or maybe even cancel their upcoming basketball campaigns.

If 2021 high-school players see their seasons delayed or nixed altogether, obviously that provides fewer opportunities for them to display their skills on the court. Who knows what will happen with the next AAU circuit.

Some recruiting analysts say that if these high-school prospects won’t have many chances to showcase their talents, improve their positions with collegiate teams that have already offered them, or gain new college scholarship offers, they could decide to announce sooner rather than later to get the process over with.

That especially may hold true if 2021 players are unable to make official or unofficial campus visits anytime in the near future given the pandemic.

Rivals.com noted in a recent roundtable that, to date, “62 players from the 2021 Rivals150 have committed. At the same time last year, only 28 from the class of 2020 had done so.”

Additionally, there are 2021 prospects who may pull the trigger earlier than usual because they want to secure a spot on a specific roster, if the squad that they’re eyeing only has one or two open scholarships in its 2021 recruiting cycle.

We also have to keep in mind that the transfer market is really substantial these days, and if high-school guys wait until the spring, they could see their offers end up getting used by players transferring in.

Now, as far as the Syracuse basketball 2021 class is concerned, it already has Williams on board. If 2022 five-star point guard Dior Johnson reclassifies into the 2021 recruiting cycle, then the Orange may only have one or two additional scholarships available, depending on whether any current players move on from the program after the 2020-21 season.

At present, ‘Cuse coaches are targeting a handful of prospects in the 2021 class, some of whom play for traditional high-school teams, and others of which suit up for prep schools not necessarily impacted by any pending state decisions on postponing or canceling the upcoming term.

From what I’ve read about this topic, experts say that some 2021 players, if their regular seasons are shortened, could forgo their high-school schedules in favor of AAU ball in the spring, or they may opt to transfer to a prep school that doesn’t belong to a state-affiliated organization.

On the flip side, with everything going on these days, college crews may prove more reluctant to sign big classes this fall. Rather, they could wait until the spring to see if they have more opportunities to evaluate their targets.

For Syracuse basketball, its 2021 class may prove fairly small. High-priority targets, such as four-star center Micawber Etienne, the Orange has recruited for a long while.

Ultimately, it won’t come as a surprise if a bevy of ‘Cuse 2021 prospects make their announcements quicker than what is historically the norm.