Syracuse Basketball: All-star event to feature 2022 4-star big man targets

Four-star center Donovan Clingan and four-star power forward Kyle Filipowski are two priority targets for Syracuse basketball in the 2022 class, and they are expected to suit up later this month at a premier event in New York City, according to an analyst.

Jonathan Givony, an NBA Draft analyst for ESPN, recently sent out a tweet detailing some of the anticipated participants at the 2021 Omni Elite Classic, which he describes as an “all-star showcase” for some of the best high-school players in the New York Tri-State area.

Per Givony, the 2021 Omni Elite Classic will take place on May 26 at the Gauchos Gym in the Bronx, N.Y. The Gauchos Gym, located a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, is home to the New York Gauchos, an AAU team.

Givony writes in his tweet that some of the players who are planning to compete in this showcase are Clingan and Filipowski, two elite big men in the 2022 cycle.

Also expected to play is 2021 four-star big man Samson Johnson, a senior at The Patrick School in Hillside, N.J. Johnson, who had an Orange offer but committed to Connecticut, recently checked in at No. 66 nationally within his class, according to rankings published by recruiting service Rivals.com.

Syracuse basketball remains in pursuit of four-stars Donovan Clingan and Kyle Filipowski.

The 7-foot-1 Clingan is a junior at Bristol Central High School in Bristol, Conn., and received All-American honors this past season. He plays for the Boston-based Team Spartans on the AAU circuit.

Clingan, a consensus top-60 prospect in the 2022 class, has the ‘Cuse in his top eight, along with Michigan, Ohio State, Georgetown, Connecticut, Providence, Rutgers and fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Notre Dame.

Some analysts and recruiting insiders have prognosticated that his home-state group, UConn, as well as Big Ten Conference powerhouse Michigan, are perhaps the two favorites for Clingan. We’ll have to wait and see on that.

The 6-foot-10 Filipowski, meanwhile, is a junior at the Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Wilbraham, Mass. His AAU squad is the New York City-based NY Renaissance.

Filipowski, who is slated to take an official visit to the Hill in June, has an abundance of scholarship offers, and that list continues to grow. Several recent offers include from the ACC’s Miami and the Big Ten’s Indiana and Rutgers.

Ranked as high as No. 31 overall in the 2022 cycle by ESPN, Filipowski has additional offers from teams such as Ohio State, UCLA, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Iowa, Louisville, Purdue, Creighton, Marquette, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Providence and Stanford.