Syracuse Basketball: Analyst says 4-star targets should soar in rankings

I’ve been saying for a while now that I believe Syracuse basketball 2022 high-priority target Kyle Filipowski will end up as a top-15 player in his class, and a national recruiting analyst seems to agree with me.

Rob Cassidy, a national analyst and the basketball recruiting director for Rivals.com, recently penned a column where he looked at five high-school prospects whom he thinks are in line for a rankings jump.

Cassidy is basing his piece, in part, on how these prospects are faring in front of college coaches at the 2021 Peach Jam tournament and other AAU events during the July live period.

One of the players in the Rivals.com piece is the 6-foot-10 Filipowski, a four-star power forward who is a junior at the Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Wilbraham, Mass.

Filipowski has already put forth some stellar numbers for his AAU squad, the New York City-based NY Renaissance, at the Peach Jam, which is being held in North Augusta, S.C.

When Rivals.com recently updated its national rankings for the 2022 cycle, Filipowski made one of the largest gains, arriving at No. 48 overall.

Looking ahead, Cassidy writes that Filipowski could make his way into the top-15 across the country in his class. By extension, I feel that Filipowski is headed toward five-star status.

From a recruitment standpoint, Duke has all kinds of buzz for Filipowski. He has a boatload of impressive scholarship offers, including relatively recent ones from North Carolina and Michigan.

A national analyst is high on another Syracuse basketball prospect.

Besides Filipowski, Cassidy has his eye on 2023 four-star guard Blue Cain. The 6-foot-4 Cain, an elite bucket-getter, is a sophomore at Knoxville Catholic High School in Knoxville, Tenn., and suits up for the Knoxville-based B. Maze Elite on the AAU circuit.

According to his Twitter page, Cain received a ‘Cuse offer this past February. About a week ago, he tweeted out that Virginia Tech has offered him.

https://twitter.com/BlueCain1/status/1414366221181636608

Cain’s other offers, to date, include from Tennessee, South Carolina, Belmont, Howard and ETSU. During its recent update for the 2023 class, Rivals.com put him at No. 81.

Cassidy writes that Cain could see his Rivals.com national ranking improve by another 15 spots or so in the future.