Syracuse Basketball: 5-star Canadian target details teams in most contact

Syracuse basketball five-star target Elijah Fisher, an elite wing who hails from Canada, says that he may set up some campus visits in the near future.

While I’d love to see him take a trip to the Orange, a team that has done well recruiting Canadian prospects in recent years, I’m not super optimistic about where things stand between the ‘Cuse and Fisher, who is a consensus top-20 player in his class.

The 6-foot-7 Fisher, a junior at the Crestwood Preparatory College in Toronto, Ontario, said in a recent blog post he wrote for SI All-American that for now, the four squads reaching out to him the most are Oklahoma State, Alabama, Texas Tech and Florida State.

Obviously, there is no mention of the Orange here. That certainly doesn’t mean the ‘Cuse isn’t a contender in Fisher’s recruitment. However, if there remains mutual interest between him and Syracuse basketball, it sounds like Orange coaches have some work to do if they want to pick up this talented 2023 prospect.

Syracuse basketball faces stiff competition for five-star Elijah Fisher.

The four college teams noted by Fisher are all excellent. Alabama was a top-10 squad a season ago, and head coach Nate Oats and his assistants are doing extremely well on the recruiting trail of late.

Texas Tech was the runner-up to Virginia in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. Oklahoma State is a strong Big 12 Conference group.

Florida State, meanwhile, has proven one of the premier Atlantic Coast Conference units in recent stanzas, and the Seminoles excel in recruiting, too.

The Orange coaching staff got involved with Fisher relatively early on in his recruitment, offering him a scholarship in the summer of 2020. His other offers include from Kentucky, Kansas, 2021 national champion Baylor, Arizona, Florida, Oregon, Memphis, Seton Hall, West Virginia and Southern California.

When Kentucky offered Fisher this past summer, I figured that the Wildcats would end up as a front-runner for him. We’ll have to see how Fisher’s recruitment plays out.

Without question, Fisher seems like he will emerge as a legitimate NBA Draft prospect. In his blog post, he did mention that his goal is to be a one-and-done prospect at the college level, and then move on to the professional ranks.

Based on interviews given by Fisher as well as media reports about him over the past year or so, I get the sense that he is a confident player, but also a humble one who works hard to continue improving his craft.

Fisher did say in his blog post that he feels like he’s the No. 1 player in the 2023 class. I admire that mentality. As we detailed in a column not too long ago, Fisher dropped 26 points and was named MVP as he led the Crestwood Preparatory College to a 69-62 victory over Vertical Academy from Charlotte, N.C., at the Double Trouble Invitational.