Syracuse Basketball: Former Bishop Ludden star Jai Smith ranking soars

Syracuse basketball has shown interest in 2022 three-star power forward Jai Smith, whose recruitment is blowing up.

Syracuse native Jai Smith is seeing his scholarship-offer sheet grow seemingly all the time as he soars up the national ratings, and Syracuse basketball hopefully will offer the 2022 three-star power forward.

As we recently penned a column on, the 6-foot-9 Smith has received interest from the Orange, but the ‘Cuse still has yet to pledge him a scholarship offer.

Per the primary recruiting services, Smith’s offers are nearing 30, from a bevy of high-major programs like Marquette, Arizona, Seton Hall, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Texas A&M, Alabama, Memphis, Houston and Atlantic Coast Conference squads Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.

More recent offers to Smith, according to the main recruiting Web sites and his own Twitter page, have arrived from Maryland, Georgia, Missouri, LSU, N.C. State and St. John’s.

A boatload of other groups has interest in Smith besides the Orange, such as Duke, Kansas, Louisville, Florida State, Texas Tech, Florida, Connecticut, Oregon, Virginia Tech, Miami and Clemson.

Maryland out of the Big Ten Conference is the sole team listed as “warm” under his bio on the 247Sports Web site. I’ve read numerous articles where Smith has spoken highly of the Terrapins, among other teams.

It remains to be seen whether Syracuse basketball will offer 2022 three-star power forward Jai Smith.

In the newly updated national rankings for the 2022 recruiting cycle from 247Sports, Smith moved up 85 spots to No. 150 overall. He is also rated No. 150 nationally by Rivals.com and No. 156 from the 247Sports Composite.

Smith in the past played for Bishop Ludden Junior-Senior High School in Syracuse and is now a junior at Bull City Prep Academy in Durham, N.C.

Both the 247Sports Composite and 247Sports itself rank Smith as a top-30 power forward around the country in his class, as well as a top-five prospect in the state of New York.

Smith has spoken highly of Orange head coach Jim Boeheim and the ‘Cuse system, including its vaunted 2-3 zone. Smith has also said that his friend, 2022 five-star point guard Dior Johnson, having already committed to Syracuse basketball could prove a factor.