Syracuse Basketball: 5-star Zion Cruz to reveal, more analyst predictions

It looks like 2022 five-star guard Zion Cruz, who holds a Syracuse basketball offer, is almost ready to make his collegiate destination known.

Per a recent tweet from college basketball insider Adam Zagoria, the 6-foot-5 Cruz plans to announce his college decision on August 19.

Cruz received a scholarship offer from the Orange coaching staff about two years ago. In all honesty, though, there didn’t appear to be much buzz at all between this elite 2022 guard and the ‘Cuse for a long period of time.

That’s a bummer, because last year, I felt that the Orange might have a decent shot at picking up Cruz, who attends The Patrick School in Hillside, N.J., and runs on the AAU circuit with the Bronx, N.Y.-based PSA Cardinals.

In April of 2020, we published a column detailing how Cruz was transferring from Hudson Catholic Regional High School in Jersey City, N.J., to the powerhouse Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va.

Cruz said in several interviews that he looked forward to suiting up alongside 2022 five-star point guard Dior Johnson at the Oak Hill Academy. Johnson had verbally committed to Syracuse basketball last February.

However, Johnson re-opened his recruiting process back up late last year, and more recently he committed to Oregon. And neither Johnson nor Cruz is at the Oak Hill Academy any longer.

Five-star Zion Cruz has a Syracuse basketball offer and will soon announce.

Cruz is rated as a five-star, top-20 prospect nationally in his class, according to the majority of recruiting services.

Besides the ‘Cuse, he holds a slew of high-major offers, from teams such as North Carolina, Auburn, Oregon, Arizona State, Florida State, Baylor, Illinois, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama, UCLA, Connecticut, Louisville, Maryland, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Indiana.

His offer from the Tar Heels came not too long ago, and I figured that UNC could prove a front-runner for Cruz. That being said, Auburn seems to have gotten the most buzz for him in recent months.

To that end, multiple national analysts and recruiting insiders on the 247Sports Web site and Rivals.com have logged predictions for Cruz in the direction of Auburn.

The Tigers, out of the Southeastern Conference, often do well on the recruiting trail. Auburn also reached the Final Four during the 2019 NCAA Tournament, falling to eventual champion Virginia in the national semifinals.