Syracuse Basketball: Analyst heaps ton of praise on 4-star J.J. Starling

As Syracuse basketball fans and fellow hoops fanatics at four other schools await the final decision from 2022 four-star combo guard J.J. Starling, a national recruiting analyst recently dished out some love regarding Starling’s skill-set.

The 6-foot-4 Starling, a consensus top-40 prospect in his class and a high-priority target for the Orange in the 2022 cycle, recently performed on a stellar level at the Wootten Top 150 camp, an invite-only event in Mansfield, Texas, according to 247Sports national analyst Brandon Jenkins.

In fact, Jenkins said in a recent article that Starling was the overall best performer at the Wootten Top 150 camp. That’s saying a lot, because an abundance of elite high-school players participated in this event.

Even though Starling is already highly ranked by 247Sports and other recruiting services, Jenkins foresees that Starling “needs an impactful bump next time a ranking update comes around.” To that end, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Starling ends up as a five-star, top-25 prospect in the 2022 class when all is said and done.

Syracuse basketball top target J.J. Starling has a diverse skill-set.

Let’s have a look at the various comments that Jenkins had regarding Starling’s game. The 247Sports analyst says that Starling possesses good size and strength.

Starling, per Jenkins, shoots with confidence and can score at all three levels, that being from the perimeter, in the mid-range, and around the rim.

My biggest takeaway, though, is that Jenkins says Starling is a team-oriented player. Starling has no hesitation to score when he has an opportunity, but he doesn’t force things.

Finally, Jenkins sums up that Starling “will make a name for himself during his freshman season in college.”

Naturally, ‘Cuse fans are clamoring for Starling to select Syracuse basketball in the near future, although competition is intense. His other finalists are Duke, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Stanford.

We could get word of Starling’s collegiate destination any day now. His recruitment is tough to gauge, and national analysts don’t seem to have a front-runner in mind for Starling, at least for the time being.

As I’ve said on numerous occasions of late, all of his finalists are excellent. I do, however, think that the Orange has a good shot at landing the Central New York native, who is a senior at the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind.