Syracuse basketball coaches have received all kinds of praise from national recruiting analysts and scouts for the five-member class that they’ve hauled in during the 2022 cycle.
The Orange’s 2022 class, although it doesn’t presently feature a five-star prospect, does entail five solid commits. Multiple guys are rated four stars and in the top-100 nationally.
Plus, as I’ve noted on numerous occasions of late, these ‘Cuse 2022 prospects cover all five positions. Some of them have already played alongside one another, so there is presumably strong chemistry. And my hope is that the Orange’s 2022 commits will all stick around for multiple years.
It’s not the top-10 class that the bevy of ‘Cuse fans had originally hoped for, but it’s pretty darn good, in my humble opinion. And this Orange cycle recently landed in the top-20 across the country within new 2022 team rankings.
Let’s see where Syracuse basketball stands in 2022.
In recently published national ratings on the theseasonticket.com, The Circuit unveiled its top-20 classes in the 2022 recruiting cycle. Understandably, Duke holds the top spot.
Besides the Blue Devils, five other Atlantic Coast Conference groups are in the top 20, which is excellent. Virginia is No. 11, North Carolina is No. 14, Syracuse basketball is No. 16, Florida State is No. 17, and Notre Dame is No. 20.
The Fighting Irish’s 2022 cycle, as we all know, includes four-star combo guard J.J. Starling, a Central New York native who is a senior at the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind. Starling had the Orange in his top five before picking Notre Dame a few months ago.
Getting back to the ‘Cuse, No. 16 sounds about right. At the time of this writing, the Syracuse basketball 2022 class was ranked No. 15 nationally and No. 4 in the ACC on the 247Sports Web site. Rivals.com also rated this Orange cycle at No. 15 overall.
I don’t think the ‘Cuse will be able to crack the top 10, unless numerous of its 2022 commits make huge jumps in the national ratings.
But this Orange class is nothing to sneeze at, and it encompasses four-star small forward Chris Bunch, four-star shooting guard Justin Taylor, four-star point guard Quadir Copeland, three-star power forward Maliq Brown and three-star power forward/center Peter Carey.
Bunch is out of the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah. Taylor and Copeland compete for the post-grad team at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
Brown, who is on fire during his senior year, is from the Blue Ridge School in St. George, Va., while Carey plays for the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Mount Hermon, Mass.