Syracuse Basketball: Mike Hopkins has a legit shot at 5-star Dior Johnson

Former Syracuse basketball long-time assistant coach Mike Hopkins will soon find out whether former Orange 2022 commit Dior Johnson is taking his talents to Hopkins and Washington.

The 6-foot-3 Johnson, an elite five-star point guard and overall prospect in his class, plans to announce his ultimate decision on June 25, according to a recent tweet from Tipton Edits.

As we previously noted, Johnson’s five finalists were Washington, Alabama, Kentucky, Oregon and the National Basketball League (NBL), a professional basketball league based in Melbourne, Australia. However, Tipton Edits did say in a tweet that “Alabama is no longer being considered.”

Alex Karamanos, a national analyst, recently said via Twitter that Johnson is slated to take an official visit to Washington on June 22-24. That’s a good sign for Hopkins & Co.

Johnson gave a verbal commitment to Syracuse basketball in February of 2020, but then he re-opened his recruiting process back up last November.

Many ‘Cuse fanatics are convinced that Johnson will never set foot on a college campus, and that he’s headed straight from high school to the professional ranks. We’ll learn if that’s true on June 25.

Former Syracuse basketball commit Dior Johnson has Mike Hopkins in the mix.

Johnson, without question, is a supremely gifted basketball player. He is rated the No. 1 point guard in the 2022 cycle, according to the 247Sports Composite, 247Sports and Rivals.com.

Additionally, Johnson is a consensus top-15 prospect nationally in his class, and the majority of recruiting services place him in the top-five overall across the country.

It’s certainly understandable if folks think that Johnson will forgo a year of college for the pro ranks. I could also see him selecting Kentucky, as the Wildcats are a blue-blood school churning out NBA players right and left.

But I wouldn’t discount the possibility of Johnson selecting Washington. The junior at Corona Centennial High School in Corona, Calif., is a native of Saugerties, N.Y., and he’s likely known Hopkins for a while now.

A campaign ago, the Huskies really struggled. However, since Hopkins left Central New York for the Pac-12 Conference, he’s brought in numerous top-flight prospects who have gone on to the NBA.

A notable example is 2019 five-star center Isaiah Stewart, a native of Rochester, N.Y., who picked Washington over a small group of finalists that included Syracuse basketball.

Both Stewart and Johnson have suited up on the AAU circuit for the Albany City Rocks, a team whose alumni base features a bunch of current and former Orange players.