Syracuse Basketball: New analyst predictions arriving for 5-star Zion Cruz

It looks like a new leader may be emerging for 2022 five-star combo guard Zion Cruz, who holds a Syracuse basketball offer and recently reopened his recruitment back up.

Memphis, which has crushed things on the recruiting trail of late, recently offered a scholarship offer to the 6-foot-5 Cruz, who is a senior at The Patrick School in Hillside, N.J.

Additionally, college basketball insider Adam Zagoria recently tweeted out that Cruz plans to take an official visit to Memphis on October 13.

The buzz among some national analysts and recruiting insiders is that Memphis might be positioning itself as a potential front-runner for Cruz.

Five-star Zion Cruz, who has a Syracuse basketball offer, is still weighing his options.

As of Monday night, when I penned this column, there were a couple of projections for Cruz on Rivals.com, both in the direction of Auburn and Memphis. On the 247Sports Web site, Memphis has also obtained a prediction from a national analyst for Cruz.

These sorts of projections have to get taken with a grain of salt, because a high-school prospect’s recruitment can move around, which has proven the case with Cruz.

A couple of weeks ago, Cruz was eyeing a commitment announcement, with his three finalists being Atlantic Coast Conference member North Carolina, Southeastern Conference team Auburn and Big East Conference participant Creighton.

However, Cruz delayed that announcement and subsequently opened his recruiting process back up. For months, Auburn was the rumored favorite for him, but it appears that might no longer be the case.

Rivals.com basketball recruiting director Rob Cassidy, in a recent article, mentioned a couple of teams to watch as it relates to Cruz, and they were Mike Hopkins-led Washington, Illinois, Oklahoma, DePaul and Georgia.

But from what I’ve read about Cruz lately, Memphis is looking strong with him. Save for Duke and Kentucky, the Tigers are recruiting as well as any other groups nationwide.

Memphis’ head coach, former NBA star Penny Hardaway, is an ace recruiter. Just in the past two months, Hardaway landed pledges from 2021 five-star center Jalen Duren and 2021 five-star wing Emoni Bates.

I was hoping that maybe the ‘Cuse would begin pursuing Cruz once he reopened his recruitment, but that didn’t occur. He received an offer from Syracuse basketball coaches more than two years ago, but there never seemed to be much buzz between Cruz and the Orange.

In total, Cruz holds more than 20 offers from a range of high-majors. Some recruiting services rank him within the top-20 overall in the 2022 cycle.