Syracuse Basketball: Just wasn’t in the cards with 4-star Chance Westry

Syracuse basketball has a stellar five-member 2022 class that will contend for a top-10 to a top-15 national ranking, but that Orange cycle will not feature long-time target Chance Westry.

The 6-foot-5 Westry, a 2022 four-star guard, has selected Auburn out of the Southeastern Conference. This decision by Westry doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as a flood of national analysts and recruiting insiders had projected Westry to those Tigers of late.

It’s also no surprise whatsoever that Westry, a consensus top-40 player in his class, isn’t going to don a ‘Cuse uniform down the road. The word on social media and in chat rooms is that Syracuse basketball coaches hadn’t recruited Westry hard for a while now.

Still, I’m bummed about this. Of all the 2022 prospects that the Orange offered but didn’t land, Westry is the one whom I most wanted. I’m sure that he will shine at Auburn.

Chance Westry, who had Syracuse basketball in his top 10, is headed to the SEC.

The ‘Cuse coaching staff offered a scholarship to Westry in the summer of 2019. He was a top target for the Orange in this cycle for a long time, according to some media reports and national analysts.

Around the time that Dior Johnson, a 2022 five-star point guard, gave a verbal commitment to Syracuse basketball in February of 2020, there was some buzz that Westry might soon choose the ‘Cuse. Several national analysts logged projections for Westry in the Orange’s direction.

We even had a column in November of 2020 about how there was talk of Johnson, Westry and 2022 four-star shooting guard Roddy Gayle Jr. all suiting up together in Central New York.

But that didn’t materialize. Johnson de-committed from Syracuse basketball and is now committed to Oregon. Gayle had the ‘Cuse in his top six before picking Ohio State. And now Westry has decided on Auburn.

Over the summer, Westry took an official visit to the Hill. In August, he unveiled a top 10 of Syracuse basketball, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, Maryland, Auburn, LSU, Connecticut, Southern California, Arizona State, Nebraska and DePaul.

However, the Orange picked up a commitment from four-star shooting guard Justin Taylor in late June, followed by another verbal pledge by four-star point guard Quadir Copeland in August. It became pretty clear at that point, at least to me, that Westry wasn’t coming to the ‘Cuse.

For a period of time over the summer, analysts were predicting Westry to LSU. But then some media reports surfaced in September that LSU was out of the running for him, and Auburn then became the rumored front-runner.

Westry, a native of Harrisburg, Pa., was set to play his senior year alongside former Syracuse basketball four-star commit Kamari Lands at Hillcrest Prep in Gilbert, Ariz.

Those plans, though, seemed to have changed. Westry will reportedly now attend the powerhouse AZ Compass Prep School in Chandler, Ariz., according to multiple media reports, including a tweet from recruiting insider, analyst and scout Samad Hines.

Best of luck at your new prep school and at Auburn, Chance!