Syracuse Basketball: 4-stars Maliq Brown, Justin Taylor a dream 2022 duo

Syracuse basketball offered a scholarship to 2022 four-star power forward Maliq Brown in late February, and the talented prospect is seeing his recruitment continue to expand.

The 6-foot-9 Brown, a junior at the Blue Ridge School in St. George, Va., has competed on the AAU circuit and is good friends with Justin Taylor.

The 6-foot-6 Taylor, a junior at the St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Va., is an elite four-star wing and high-priority target for the Orange in the 2022 recruiting cycle.

I don’t want to sound greedy, but the potential of both Taylor and Brown suiting up on the Hill is really enticing. It’s also not completely out of the realm of possibilities, although the recruiting business is fluid and rapidly changes all the time.

Mike McAllister, the publisher of SyracuseOnSI, recently published an excellent piece on Brown, and McAllister got a bunch of nice insights on the ‘Cuse 2022 prospect from Cade Lemcke, the head coach at the Blue Ridge School.

"When asked about Brown and Taylor, Lemcke said in part, “They don’t have to play together by any stretch of the imaginations. But I think if one of them decides on a school, I think that would be helpful for the other one. They played together on the AAU side back when they were ninth graders, and they really enjoyed playing together. … I could see them really enjoying playing together at the next level as well. I don’t think they’re going to make a decision together, but I could see if one of them makes a decision before the other one, that school could be helped by that player in terms of convincing the other one to come on board as well.”"

Syracuse basketball is in the mix for 2022 four-stars Maliq Brown and Justin Taylor.

Brown is ranked No. 105 nationally in his class, No. 20 at power forward and No. 6 in Virginia, according to the 247Sports Composite. His other offers include from Texas A&M, Georgetown, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Penn State, TCU, VCU, Richmond, Old Dominion and Murray State.

Taylor, meanwhile, is a top-100 prospect in the 2022 class, per the majority of recruiting Web sites. He has numerous other high-major offers, from teams such as North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana and Virginia Tech.

We’ve also detailed a couple of times lately that Taylor has forged an excellent relationship with Orange 2021 five-star commit Benny Williams, who is a senior at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

Williams talks to Taylor about the ‘Cuse 2022 class, and Williams has said he is hopeful that Taylor will come on board. If Taylor does, maybe Brown will join him.

With Williams in the Syracuse basketball 2021 class, and should Brown and Taylor don an Orange uniform in the squad’s 2022 cycle, that is a ton of talent for Syracuse basketball fans to get excited about in the coming years.