Syracuse Basketball: Two-team race for 4-star big Donovan Clingan?

Syracuse basketball was the first college squad to offer 2022 four-star big man Donovan Clingan, which is nice.

And the 7-foot-1 Clingan is reportedly planning to take an official visit to the Hill sometime next month, per Mike Waters of Syracuse.com. That is also encouraging.

Clingan, a four-star center and consensus top-60 prospect in the 2022 cycle, has a top eight of the ‘Cuse, Michigan, Ohio State, Georgetown, Connecticut, Providence, Rutgers and fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Notre Dame.

That the junior at Bristol Central High School in Bristol, Conn., put Syracuse basketball among his eight finalists is a promising development, at least in my humble opinion.

Yet for a while now, even before Clingan revealed his top eight, a lot of Orange fans on social media and in multiple chat rooms have been prognosticating that the recruiting sweepstakes over Clingan will likely come down to a pair of teams.

Those squads are his home-state group, UConn, as well as Big Ten Conference powerhouse Michigan, which had a stellar 2020-21 season and has absolutely crushed things on the recruiting trail of late.

The Wolverines, too, are quite proficient at developing big men and sending them on to the professional ranks. You can’t blame Clingan for being attracted to that sort of potential situation.

Syracuse basketball has a big challenge in landing four-star center Donovan Clingan.

Clingan, an All-American in his junior stanza, suits up for the Boston-based Team Spartans on the AAU circuit. He performed quite well at the recent KC Classic in Kansas City, Mo., according to Eric Bossi, the national basketball director for 247Sports.

Now, both Connecticut and Michigan are listed as “warm” as it pertains to interest level under Clingan’s bio on the 247Sports Web site. That being said, I’ve yet to see any analyst predictions regarding Clingan on either the 247Sports Web site or Rivals.com.

Part of that could amount to the often discussed theme that Clingan keeps his recruiting process pretty close to the vest, he doesn’t talk favorites or front-runners in interviews (at least as far as I can tell), and analysts characterize his recruitment as tough to read.

From my perspective, he can’t go wrong choosing any of the eight finalists on his list. Naturally, I hope that he selects the Orange. My fellow ‘Cuse fanatics don’t seem so optimistic at this juncture.

Frankly, this tweet from Pro Insight director of scouting Andrew Slater is likely adding fuel to the fire among Syracuse basketball fans who believe Clingan will end up with the Huskies or the Wolverines.

Then again, until Clingan makes his collegiate destination known, Syracuse basketball is technically in the running. At least I’ll keep telling myself that.