Syracuse Basketball: 3 teams ‘lead the way’ for 5-star target, No. 2 junior

In a recent interview, 2023 five-star forward Kwame Evans Jr. from Baltimore noted nine college teams that are heavily involved in his recruitment, including Syracuse basketball.

The Orange coaching staff offered a scholarship to the 6-foot-9 Evans last October, according to media reports, and the ‘Cuse faces a lot of intense competition for this elite prospect.

Rob Cassidy, the basketball recruiting director for Rivals.com, spoke to Evans and published a piece this past Sunday in which the national analyst wrote that three teams “lead the way” with Evans. Those groups are Texas out of the Big 12 Conference, Indiana from the Big Ten Conference, and Oregon with the Pac-12 Conference.

In the Rivals.com article, Evans said that he hopes to visit those three schools in the near future, and he’s been in “frequent contact” with this trio of teams. For what it’s worth, there was no mention of the Orange in this story.

Syracuse basketball looks like a long shot with five-star Kwame Evans Jr.

Not too long ago, Evans told Stockrisers.com founder Jake Weingarten that the college squads heavily involved in his recruiting process are “Kentucky, Memphis, Indiana, Texas, Oregon, Duke, Syracuse, USC, and Auburn.”

I was encouraged to see the ‘Cuse noted among these other recruiting heavyweights. Still, I get the sense that Syracuse basketball has an uphill battle to land Evans, who previously suited up for the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and is now a junior at the Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla.

A national recruiting analyst projected Evans to Oregon on Rivals.com last October. Evans also recently took an official visit to blue-blood Kentucky.

At the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite rated Evans as the No. 2 overall prospect in the 2023 cycle. The vast majority of recruiting services have him in the top-five nationally within this class.

According to his bio on the 247Sports Web site, Evans holds about two-dozen offers from a range of high-major programs. Some analysts have said he will be a serious contender for the No. 1 national ranking in the junior cycle.

We’ll have to keep an eye out for when Evans trims his list of contenders to see if Syracuse basketball makes the cut. I could envision the Orange being in his top 10, but anything beyond that would prove a surprise to me.