Syracuse Basketball: High-major offers pile up for 4-star target J.J. Starling

J.J. Starling, a Syracuse basketball target and Central New York product, is preparing for his junior year at new home La Lumiere in Indiana.

J.J. Starling, a Syracuse basketball high-priority target and four-star point guard in the 2022 class, is seeing his scholarship-offer sheet grow as he gets set to compete this season for a powerhouse prep-school program in Indiana.

The 6-foot-3 Starling, deemed almost universally as a top-100 prospect in this cycle according to the main recruiting services, has landed a couple of impressive offers since we last penned a column on him over the summer.

Most recently, Big Ten Conference heavyweight Ohio State pledged an offer to Starling, according to his bio on the Verbal Commits Web site. Other recent offers include from another Big Ten squad, Penn State, as well as fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Notre Dame.

By my count, he’s up to 14 scholarship offers at this juncture, with other ones having already arrived from teams such as the ACC’s Miami and Wake Forest, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, former Big East Conference rivals Connecticut, Marquette, Providence and St. John’s, and Alabama, which is coached by former Buffalo boss Nate Oats.

Syracuse basketball 2022 target J.J. Starling is gaining a lot of offers and interest on a national scale.

Formerly competing with Charles W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville, N.Y., Starling in July revealed that he would transfer to one of the country’s top men’s basketball programs at the high-school level, the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind.

Presently, Starling is ranked as high as No. 50 overall in the 2022 class by the 247Sports Composite, followed by No. 53 from 247Sports, No. 56 via ESPN.com, No. 99 over at Rivals.com and No. 111 with Prep Hoops.

Starling should perform extremely well at the La Lumiere School, and if his new squad has a strong stanza on a national stage, it’s undeniable that additional high-major offers will come pouring in to him.

Syracuse basketball has one commit in its 2022 cycle, five-star point guard Dior Johnson, although the Orange coaching staff continues to pursue other point guards in the class, including Starling.