With the beginning of the 2021-22 season upon us and the early signing period in session, Sports Illustrated began to take a look towards the future class of 2022, and we’re examining where the Syracuse basketball five-member class is ranked.
Seven out of the 25 schools in these rankings reside out of the ACC, with the Orange’s five-man group of small forward Chris Bunch, shooting guard Justin Taylor, power forward/center Peter Carey, point guard Quadir Copeland, and power forward Maliq Brown cracking the list at #14.
In terms of another big takeaway off the bat, at least from a recruiting standpoint, it looks like Jon Scheyer’s Duke Blue Devils are here to stay, as Jason Jordan has them sitting pretty at #1. A part of their 4-man class that Scheyer has put together is athletic five-star forward Kyle Filipowski, a player once a high-priority target for the Cuse who spent the summer skyrocketing up recruiting rankings.
Filipowski took an official visit up to Central New York in early June, but ultimately became the first commit of the Jon Scheyer era, choosing the Blue Devils over a final group of Syracuse, Ohio State, and Indiana. As seen in the 247Sports class of 2022 rankings, Filipowski’s rise since his visit to Syracuse basketball in early June has been remarkable.
Syracuse basketball has a highly rated 2022 recruiting class.
The good news for the Orange faithful though is that head coach Jim Boeheim and his staff rebounded extremely well. So well in fact that the Hall of Famer has gone as far as to say at their annual media day that this five-man class is the “best we’ve ever had.”
We have already touched on where Syracuse basketball and Duke stand as of this moment, but the rest of the ACC schools will be a formidable presence as well. North Carolina (#9), Virginia (#11), Miami (#18), Notre Dame (#19), and Florida State (#21) have all put together strong groups.
Looking more closely at previous Syracuse targets, J.J Starling’s commitment to Notre Dame a few weeks ago has understandably played a big role in the Irish’s making of this list. Starling, a Central New York native and a four-star guard, like Filipowski was an Orange priority target and fast-rising in all the respective recruiting rankings, but ultimately chose to take his talents to South Bend.
Taking it way back a little further, former Syracuse basketball five-star commit Dior Johnson, although just one of two commits at the moment for the Oregon Ducks 2022 class, has Dana Altman’s squad sitting at #22. Johnson, an elite point guard, decommitted from Syracuse basketball a year ago and has been committed to the Ducks since late June.
All in all, it always feels good to see your future be predicted as a bright one by national recruiting prognosticators, and Syracuse fans have every right to feel excited about this class. It may not be the flashy highest-ranked recruits often seen taking their talents down to Durham, but these five players have the position versatility, size, and overall talents to lead the Syracuse Basketball program strongly into its next chapter.