Syracuse Basketball: At 6-foot-6, PG Quadir Copeland is perfect for zone

Syracuse basketball is aggressively recruiting new target Quadir Copeland, a 2022 point guard.

Syracuse basketball is among the high-major teams pushing the hardest for fast-rising 2022 point guard Quadir Copeland, who attends the same high school as former Orange star Dion Waiters.

Between Copeland, long-time ‘Cuse target J.J. Starling and potentially Bryce Lindsay from Baltimore, that’s three really good point guards to focus on in the 2022 cycle, now that five-star Dior Johnson has reopened his recruitment.

As I’ve said on several occasions, Lindsay is really under-rated on a national scale within this class, and hopefully Syracuse basketball offers him a scholarship soon.

Copeland, meanwhile, received his offer from the Orange on Friday, according to multiple reports, which the talented 2022 player confirmed via his Twitter page.

For the moment, not all of the main recruiting services rank Copeland, but I expect that to change. The 247Sports Composite rates him No. 170 overall in the 2022 cycle, as well as the No. 27 combo guard and the No. 9 prospect in the state of New Jersey.

The 247Sports recruiting service has Copeland as the No. 28 combo guard and the No. 9 player in New Jersey.

While these and other recruiting Web sites may label him as a combo guard, Copeland emphatically said in several interviews that he’s a point guard.

Per this article, last season Copeland averaged 22.1 points per contest and helped guide Gettysburg Area High School in Gettysburg, Pa., to an undefeated regular stanza. However, Copeland has since transferred to the Life Center Academy in Burlington, N.J., where Waiters played.

Waiters would prove critical in Syracuse basketball’s run to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight during the 2011-12 term, when the ‘Cuse finished 34-3. He then got selected with the No. 4 pick of the first round in the 2012 NBA Draft.

I’m all for Copeland following a similar path, from the Life Center Academy to a successful tenure on the Hill, and then on to the professional ranks.

Syracuse basketball is turning its attention toward 2022 point guard Quadir Copeland.

Per a review of the primary recruiting services, it seems that Copeland has eight scholarship offers at this juncture, and they’re from the Orange, Miami, Maryland, Oregon, Penn State, Saint Joseph’s, La Salle and Siena. His bio on the 247Sports Web site says that he also holds interest from Michigan and Virginia Tech.

From a handful of pieces that I’ve read on Copeland, recruiting analysts say that he is super athletic and a terrific passer. Copeland also uses his height to his advantage when going up against smaller-sized guards, and I think that he would thrive at the top of the ‘Cuse 2-3 zone.

"Check out what Copeland had to say in a story by Mike McAllister, the publisher of SyracuseOnSI. “To be able to get an offer from Syracuse. That’s big time. High division one school. Dion Waiters went there, I’m at Dion Waiters’ high school right now. That’s big too. Everybody knows that and everybody roots for Syracuse and they’re all Cuse fans where my school is. So that’s an amazing feeling.”"

While it’s early on in the recruiting process with the Orange, McAllister writes that Syracuse basketball, Oregon and Miami are “recruiting him the hardest right now.”