Syracuse Basketball: Kamari Lands top 25 in one ranking, plunges in 2nd

Syracuse basketball 2022 commit Kamari Lands is on the cusp of five-star status in one new set of national rankings. But in a second new set of these ratings, the four-star wing oddly dropped a ton.

As I’ve said many, many times, rankings from various recruiting services are somewhat subjective. Plus, given the novel coronavirus pandemic, different recruiting Web sites may not have gotten to watch certain high-school prospects as much as other recruiting services.

So I suggest that we all take these national ratings on Lands with a grain of salt. ESPN recently came out with its latest version of the top-100 prospects in the 2022 cycle, and Lands checks in as four stars, No. 24 overall and No. 9 at small forward.

In ESPN’s rankings, he is only a couple of spots away from possibly grabbing a fifth star and entering the top 20. In previous iterations of ESPN’s national ratings in 2022, Lands was No. 19 and then No. 25 overall.

Syracuse basketball commit Kamari Lands is a premier wing in the 2022 class.

Lands is a junior at Prolific Prep in Napa Valley, Calif., which has a stacked roster and is poised for a terrific upcoming season at the high-school level.

The 247Sports recruiting service dropped Lands down a ton in its most recent ratings, as he fell from No. 30 nationwide to No. 64. I don’t get that at all. That’s a huge slide.

Rivals.com published new 2022 national rankings a few weeks ago, and instead of plummeting as he did with 247Sports, Lands soared. He is now No. 30 overall, a massive rise of 32 spots, according to Rivals.com.

The industry-generated 247Sports Composite says that Lands is No. 37 around the country and No. 10 at small forward in the 2022 cycle. Rivals.com has him as the No. 9 small forward.

While some ‘Cuse fans may bemoan that Lands saw his ranking decline with 247Sports, I say let’s have a little perspective. Lands skyrocketed in the Rivals.com ratings, and he is in the top 25 via ESPN.

He’s also deemed by a lot of recruiting services as a top-10 small forward nationwide in his class. That’s pretty, pretty good. All of us Syracuse basketball fans out there can’t really ask for more than getting a top-10 player at his position, and Lands is exactly that.