Syracuse Basketball: A few targets have headed to Oregon in recent years

Franck Kepnang is the most recent prospect offered a scholarship by Syracuse basketball who decided to commit to the Pac-12’s Oregon.

Roughly two years ago, Pac-12 Conference star Oregon did a number to Syracuse basketball in New York City in the inaugural match-up of these two teams on the court.

On the recruiting trail, the Ducks in recent seasons have managed to pick up several high-quality prospects for whom the Orange had also offered scholarships.

The latest example of a high-school player who chose Oregon, Franck Kepnang, probably amounted to a guy whom the ‘Cuse didn’t have much of a shot of landing anyways, whether he went to the Ducks or another group.

Kepnang, a four-star center and top-45 player in the 2021 class, picked the Ducks over the weekend. He held a slew of high-major offers, including from Syracuse basketball, which pledged a scholarship offer to him in September of 2018.

Analysts had indicated for a long duration of time that his recruitment proved difficult to read. In recent months, I didn’t see many predictions from recruiting experts about a potential front-runner, or front-runners, to secure Kepnang.

So while chatter linking him to the ‘Cuse wasn’t all that apparent, I never completely counted the Orange out for Kepnang, because a favorite didn’t seem to emerge.

https://twitter.com/kep_dunker/status/1315005000171614208

In the end, though, this extremely talented big man, who excels at blocking shots, rebounding, and finishing around the rim, opted to travel west to Oregon.

Some of the other impressive offers he received came from the likes of Texas A&M, Alabama, Kansas, Miami, Ohio State, Auburn, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Georgetown, Connecticut, Dayton, Indiana, UCLA and Mike Hopkins-led Washington.

On the AAU circuit, Kepnang competes for the Bronx, N.Y.-based PSA Cardinals, whose roster also includes two other Syracuse basketball targets in 2021 four-star center Micawber Etienne and 2022 four-star small forward Yann Farrell. Both Etienne and Farrell attend the Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H.

Kepnang, meanwhile, is a senior at the Westtown School in West Chester, Pa., where ‘Cuse redshirt freshman center John Bol Ajak also went. In recent campaigns, two other Orange targets who decided to go to Oregon were guards Chris Duarte and Addison Patterson.