Syracuse Basketball: 5-star targets skyrocket with big new offers, rankings

Two of the hottest prospects in the 2023 class are five-stars G.G. Jackson and Matas Buzelis, both of whom hold Syracuse basketball offers.

The Orange coaching staff got in early with the 6-foot-8 Jackson, a power forward, and the 6-foot-10 Buzelis, a guard/wing. Jackson’s first college offer was from the ‘Cuse, back in August of 2020, while the Orange offered Buzelis last November.

Credit Syracuse basketball coaches for identifying these two stars before their recruitments really caught fire. Whether that will help the Orange win out for either, or both, of them, remains to be seen.

In mid-June, college coaches could begin contacting 2023 prospects directly. After being halted last summer due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the grassroots basketball circuit transpired this summer, where Jackson and Buzelis shined.

These and other factors have helped to fuel these two Syracuse basketball prospects vaulting into the top-10 overall in the 2023 national rankings, according to some recruiting services.

Syracuse basketball is in a recruiting battle for a pair of five-star targets.

Additionally, in recent months and weeks, the scholarship offer list for Jackson and Buzelis has greatly expanded. In all honesty, I think it will be hard for the Orange to land either 2023 prospect, but we’ll have to wait and see how their recruitments play out.

Buzelis, a junior at the powerhouse Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., recently earned an offer from Ohio State, a strong Big Ten Conference team that does well on the recruiting trail, according to a tweet from Pro Insight director of scouting Andrew Slater.

He has a boatload of other high-major offers, from squads such as North Carolina, Kansas, Florida State, Illinois, Florida, Purdue, Oklahoma, Arizona, UCLA, Maryland, Connecticut, DePaul, Providence, Wake Forest, Nebraska and Western Illinois.

Jackson, a junior at Ridge View High School in Columbia, S.C., recently picked up offers from Southeastern Conference recruiting heavyweight Alabama, as well as DePaul out of the Big East Conference, according to Jackson’s own Twitter page.

His offer list is pretty ridiculous (in a good way). Among the other schools that have offered Jackson are Kansas, Virginia, Florida State, Duke, North Carolina, Florida, Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU, N.C. State, Maryland, Georgetown, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and Boston College.

Per Jackson’s Twitter account, Hoyas head coach Patrick Ewing recently made a trip to Ridge View High School to visit Jackson.

Some of the primary recruiting services, including ESPN and Rivals.com, recently updated their 2023 national rankings. Rivals.com has Jackson at No. 10 across the country, while Buzelis is, ironically, No. 10 nationwide according to ESPN.