Syracuse basketball gets into the fray for one of nation’s top-five centers

Syracuse basketball has offered scholarships to more than a dozen top-flight prospects in the 2023 cycle, according to media reports and recruiting services.

One of these offers has gone out to the country’s No. 1 junior. Several other Orange 2023 targets are also in contention for the top-overall spot in this class.

And the vast majority of the offers doled out by ‘Cuse coaches are to 2023 players who are ranked in the top-50 across the country. And we can add another Syracuse basketball prospect to this list.

Per several recruiting Web sites, the Orange has officially offered one of the premier big men in this class, consensus four-star player Isaiah Miranda, who plays high-school ball in Massachusetts.

This is really exciting news, as I had seen rumblings in recent months that the ‘Cuse coaching staff was showing interest in the 7-foot-1 Miranda, who apparently can suit up at either power forward or center.

Syracuse basketball has a long list of competitors for four-star big man Isaiah Miranda.

Miranda is a junior at the Springfield Commonwealth Academy in Springfield, Mass. On the AAU circuit, he runs with the Rhode Island Elite.

I’ve come across numerous articles and commentary from national analysts of late that suggest Miranda is one of the hottest prospects in the 2023 class, and that he should continue to see his national ratings soar.

For now, he is a consensus four-star, top-45 player in this cycle. ESPN has him at No. 35 overall. The 247Sports recruiting service places Miranda at No. 42, and the same goes for Rivals.com.

Most importantly, perhaps, Miranda checked in at No. 32 nationally, No. 4 at center and No. 1 in Massachusetts from the industry-generated 247Sports Composite at the time of this writing.

Given his recruiting momentum, it’s probably not out of the realm of possibilities that Miranda could contend for five-star, top-25 status in the 2023 cycle.

According to media reports and recruiting services, he has visited UCLA, USC, Providence and UConn, with an official visit planned for Kentucky later this month.

At this juncture, Miranda holds more than 15 other scholarship offers, from the likes of USC, Memphis, Maryland, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, Connecticut, Virginia Tech, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, VCU and Rhode lsland.

Some reports and his bio on recruiting Web sites say that Miranda has interest from Kentucky, UCLA, Illinois and Oregon.

"In a recent article, Rivals.com national analyst Jamie Shaw said in part about Miranda, “The 2023 class has a void of centers popping up at the national level, and the way Miranda moves and his raw athletic ability there is too much upside to ignore here. Miranda showed a good mix of scoring from the dunkers spot, as a roll man, attacking from the mid and high post, and in pick and pop situations.”"