Syracuse Basketball: Analyst assesses SU’s chances with 5-star targets

Syracuse basketball recently offered scholarships to a pair of elite high-school prospects who hail from Baltimore and currently suit up for the country’s premier prep-school squad.

Now, while it’s exciting to see Orange coaches get into the recruiting fray for 2023 five-star forward Kwame Evans Jr. and 2024 five-star power forward Derik Queen, it’s going to prove an uphill battle for the ‘Cuse to ultimately land either of them.

Both the 6-foot-9 Evans and the 6-foot-8 Queen are part of the loaded line-up at the powerhouse Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., which has proven the nation’s best prep-school team in recent years and should enter the 2021-22 campaign as likely the No. 1 or No. 2 group in pre-season polls.

A stanza ago, Queen was brilliant as a freshman for the Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore, and Evans previously played for the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Each prospect is expected to significantly contribute to the Montverde Academy in the upcoming term.

Syracuse basketball faces heated competition for five-stars Kwame Evans Jr. and Derik Queen.

Via Twitter, I recently asked 247Sports national basketball director Eric Bossi about the Orange’s chances with Evans and Queen. Bossi, by the way, is one of the preeminent national recruiting analysts in the business.

"Here is Bossi’s response. “Queen is only a sophomore so awfully early to tell, Evans has EVERYBODY after him and could be some work to do in order to catch up on him already.”"

This makes sense. Given Queen’s recruitment is in its earlier stages, we might not know for a while if there is a favorite, or favorites, to land him. And Evans sure has an impressive list of suitors.

Evans, ranked No. 2 overall in his class by the industry-generated 247Sports Composite at the time of this writing, holds more than 20 offers, from teams such as Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana, Memphis, Texas, Southern California, Florida, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Kansas, LSU, Maryland, Tennessee, Texas A&M, St. John’s, Georgetown, Virginia Tech and Auburn.

According to tweets from recruiting insiders that were posted on Evans’ Twitter page, squads such as Duke, Oregon and USC recently came to the Montverde Academy to visit with him.

Queen, No. 2 nationally in his cycle per ESPN, is a physical big man who possesses an excellent mid-range game, according to experts. College groups that have offered him include from Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Auburn, DePaul, Maryland, Texas, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, LSU and Arizona State.

We’ll obviously continue to monitor the recruitments of these two exquisite high-school players.