Syracuse Basketball: Big Ten power enters fray for 4-star Donovan Clingan

In August of 2019, Syracuse basketball was the first to offer four-star center Donovan Clingan, a top-60 prospect in the 2022 class and one of the best bigs nationally in this cycle.

Hopefully, that Orange coaches got in early with the 7-foot-1 Clingan will prove beneficial as his recruiting process continues onward, but competition for him keeps on expanding.

Clingan sent out a tweet earlier this week that he has received a scholarship offer from Michigan. The Wolverines, a squad that competes in the rugged Big Ten Conference, are one of the country’s top teams to date in the 2020-21 campaign, and Michigan has also performed really well of late on the recruiting trail.

Another recent offer to Clingan arrived from Ohio State, which like Michigan is among the premier groups in 2020-21. Both Big Ten powerhouses are, at this juncture, vying for No. 1 seeds in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Overall, Clingan possesses more than a dozen offers from a range of high-major programs. Besides Syracuse basketball, Ohio State and Michigan, they include Connecticut, Georgetown, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.

Clingan, a junior at Bristol Central High School in Bristol, Conn., who runs on the AAU circuit with the Boston-based Team Spartans, hasn’t formulated any sort of list of finalists yet, and analysts have described his recruitment on more than one occasion as tough to read.

For now, the ‘Cuse thankfully remains in contention for Clingan, although a lot of Orange fans, myself included, believe that the team faces an extremely tall task to ultimately land him.

Syracuse basketball four-star target Donovan Clingan is seeing his offer sheet grow.

At the end of January, a really intriguing story came out on Clingan from Shawn McFarland of the Hartford Courant. I highly recommend reading this piece, because it provides insight into Clingan the basketball player and the person.

I’ve read a ton of stories on Clingan, and he appears to be a confident, but humble, young man. In the Hartford Courant article, Clingan discusses recruiting rankings, and his take is well-said.

According to McFarland, Clingan’s mom sadly passed away in 2018. His mom, Stacey Clingan, “set numerous records at Bristol Central” while a player there, and her name is in the rafters at the high school’s gym. That’s beautiful.

"Donovan Clingan said of Bristol Central High School to McFarland, “It feels like family. My mom was a big basketball player there. I met coach when I was young. It just feels like family. My mom went here, and she still holds many, many records. I want to get those and be up there with her.”"

How can you not root for Clingan? I so want him to come to the Hill, however, I’m wishing him all the best wherever he ends up, and his list of suitors is extensive.

There’s an interesting nugget from the Hartford Courant story, which details that Clingan, given his reputation as one of the top centers in his class, has been recruited by other high school players.

Per McFarland’s reporting, former Orange 2022 commit Dior Johnson, a five-star point guard who reopened his recruiting process last year, “once sent Clingan ‘16 straight texts,’ recruiting him to Syracuse, where Johnson was once committed.”

Johnson may no longer be coming to the ‘Cuse, but I’m hopeful that Syracuse basketball has a shot at picking up Clingan.