Syracuse Basketball: In final piece of 2022 puzzle, 4-star target to reveal

I recently went on record saying that I believe 2022 high-priority target Chris Bunch will ultimately don a Syracuse basketball uniform, and we’ll soon know whether my prediction was correct.

The 6-foot-7 Bunch, who is a four-star wing and a top-60 prospect in his class according to 247Sports, was reportedly going to announce his college decision on Halloween, but those plans have changed.

Bunch said via Twitter that he will commit on October 21 at 5 pm EST. He is down to three finalists, and they are the Orange, Mike Hopkins-led Washington and Rutgers.

As of Monday evening, I hadn’t seen any projections from national analysts or recruiting insiders on the 247Sports Web site or Rivals.com as it pertains to Bunch’s collegiate destination.

It wouldn’t surprise me if he picks any of his three finalists, although if I had to rank them in terms of likelihood of winning this recruiting battle, I would put the ‘Cuse first, followed by Washington and then Rutgers.

Syracuse basketball is in a great spot with 2022 four-star prospect Chris Bunch.

We’ve noted of late that Bunch, who is a senior at the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, has taken two official visits to the Hill, as compared to one each to Washington and Rutgers.

That being said, he is from the west coast, so I definitely wouldn’t count out Washington and Coach Hop, who is an excellent recruiter regardless of how the Huskies fared a stanza ago.

In its 2022 cycle, the Orange has verbal commitments from four-star point guard Quadir Copeland, four-star wing Justin Taylor, power forward/center Peter Carey and, most recently, from three-star power forward Maliq Brown.

The 6-foot-9 Brown, this past weekend, selected Syracuse basketball over four other finalists in Georgetown, Penn State, Virginia Tech and N.C. State. He is a senior at the Blue Ridge School in St. George, Va.

A pledge by Bunch to the ‘Cuse would give the Orange a really solid five-member class in the 2022 cycle, with the team having a commitment at each position.

While Syracuse basketball has scholarship offers out there to other prospects in the 2022 class, I get the sense that Bunch is the player in this cycle for whom ‘Cuse coaches are most focused at this juncture.

And we’ll know soon enough whether Bunch is going to embark on his college career in Central New York.