Good feeling about Syracuse basketball, five-star Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

Syracuse basketball, Donovan Clingan (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
Syracuse basketball, Donovan Clingan (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Top-10 Brandon Huntley-Hatfield provides warm sentiments on Syracuse basketball.

Syracuse basketball may have gotten into the recruiting sweepstakes for 2022 five-star power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield somewhat late in the process, but better late than never.

Media reports indicate that the 6-foot-9 Huntley-Hatfield isn’t in a rush to announce his collegiate destination, and also that he would like to make visits to every team in his top six, which consists of the Orange, along with Auburn, Kansas, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Wake Forest.

Given the recruiting and travel limitations brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic, it won’t prove so easy for Huntley-Hatfield to make trips to these campuses anytime soon.

However, the junior at Scotland Campus in Scotland, Pa., did recently conduct a Zoom call with the Syracuse basketball coaching staff, as first reported by Jake Weingarten, the founder of Stockrisers.com.

Per various articles, it seems that the virtual meeting between Huntley-Hatfield and Orange coaches went quite well.

According to a story from Mike McAllister, the publisher of SyracuseOnSI, Huntley-Hatfield told Sports Illustrated director of basketball recruiting Jason Jordan, “One of the most genuine conversations I’ve had in a while with a college. Coach Boeheim said I’m their guy in my class.”

Wow. That’s great to hear. Nothing is ever a guarantee in the fickle and often heart-breaking recruiting arena, yet many signs point to the ‘Cuse being in a strong position with Huntley-Hatfield.

Interest level among five-star Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Syracuse basketball appears really solid.

With five-star point guard Dior Johnson off the board for the Orange, the team seems intent on building its 2022 class around Huntley-Hatfield.

He is universally rated a five-star prospect by the main recruiting services as well as a top-10 player across the country in this cycle. Huntley-Hatfield is also the No. 1 power forward in the 2022 class.

Under his bio on the 247Sports Web site, Ole Miss and Syracuse basketball are listed as “warmer.” I’ve read a bunch of pieces in which Ole Miss has received buzz related to Huntley-Hatfield’s recruitment, and the ‘Cuse is reportedly landing buzz of its own.

It stung when Johnson re-opened his recruiting process last November, but Huntley-Hatfield would, if he selected Syracuse basketball, provide an unbelievable foundation for the Orange 2022 cycle.