Syracuse Basketball: 6-foot-8 guard makes huge entrance in new rankings

In recently updated national rankings from recruiting service 247Sports, Syracuse basketball 2023 prospect Spencer Mahoney has made an impressive leap into this cycle’s top-80 overall.

Prior to this refresh, I didn’t previously see this 6-foot-8 shooting guard from New York City within the 247Sports national ratings. He is now No. 80 across the country and the No. 1 player in New York within the 2023 class, according to 247Sports.

Depending on the recruiting service, I’ve seen Mahoney listed as either a shooting guard or a small forward. At the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite ranked him at No. 76 overall, No. 14 at small forward and No. 1 in New York.

Both the 247Sports Composite and 247Sports say that Mahoney is a four-star prospect. His stock is clearly rising on a national scale in the 2023 recruiting cycle.

Syracuse basketball recently began courting 2023 four-star Spencer Mahoney.

As we noted in a column not too long ago, when Rivals.com updated its national rankings for 2023, Mahoney checked in as three stars and No. 122 overall.

I’m not a recruiting analyst, but when all is said and done, I would anticipate Mahoney being universally deemed a four-star, top-100 player in this class.

Orange coaches offered a scholarship to him in mid-August. Mahoney is a junior at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., and he runs on the AAU circuit with the Bronx, N.Y.-based PSA Cardinals, which is one of the best programs in all of grassroots basketball.

According to his bio on recruiting Web sites, as well as Mahoney’s own Twitter page, besides the ‘Cuse, he holds other offers at this juncture from teams such as St. John’s, Texas A&M, DePaul, Harvard, Siena and Robert Morris.

I’m glad that Syracuse basketball has gotten involved with Mahoney relatively early on in his recruiting process, because I would imagine that many more high-major arrives will arrive for him in the near future.

In a couple of interviews since the Orange offered him, Mahoney has spoken positively about the ‘Cuse program, and the team’s proximity to his home could hopefully prove an advantage for Syracuse basketball in Mahoney’s recruitment.

Some comments that I’ve come across from analysts suggest that Mahoney boasts positional versatility, as he can play both shooting guard and small forward.

His height and length would seem to be a strong fit within the Orange system, particularly the squad’s 2-3 zone defense, as a 6-foot-8 player at the top of the zone would be tremendous.

From what I’ve read about Mahoney, he is a good defender, he gets to the rim well on his drives, and he shoots with precision from the perimeter.