Syracuse Basketball: 4-star commit lands in top-70 overall of new rankings

Many of the primary recruiting services have been refreshing their 2022 national rankings of late, and some of these updates weren’t overly favorable for Syracuse basketball four-star signee Justin Taylor.

Now, as I always like to say, these sorts of recruiting rankings can provide context about a high-school player, but these ratings don’t always tell the full story, in my humble opinion.

As such, when the 6-foot-6 Taylor wasn’t included in the top-100 list recently published by ESPN for the 2022 cycle, I thought that was lame. Then again, none of the Orange’s five 2022 commits made the cut in ESPN’s latest national rankings.

But just because the ‘Cuse 2022 class was shut out by ESPN, so to speak, it doesn’t in any way signify to me that the Orange’s five pledges in this cycle aren’t talented prospects with the potential to shine at the collegiate level.

I’m encouraged about a new ranking for Syracuse basketball commit Justin Taylor.

Despite the snub by ESPN, Taylor does reside within the top-100 across the country according to updated 2022 ratings from Rivals.com of the top-150 prospects in this class.

That recruiting service places Taylor at No. 68 nationwide. He did fall three spots, but I’m glad to see him remain in the top-70 overall in the 2022 class. Rivals.com also has Taylor as the No. 16 small forward in this cycle, although he can also suit up at shooting guard.

In the 2021-22 campaign, Taylor is playing for the post-grad squad at the powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. One of his teammates there is Quadir Copeland, a 2022 four-star point guard who has also committed to Syracuse basketball.

The other three players in the ‘Cuse 2022 class are four-star small forward Chris Bunch, three-star power forward Maliq Brown, and three-star power forward/center Peter Carey.

Syracuse basketball coaches are also pursuing 2022 four-star guard Judah Mintz, who has climbed a bit in the new Rivals.com national ratings and is a senior at the juggernaut Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va.

Mintz, who at one point was verbally committed to Pittsburgh but reopened his recruitment back up last November, is expected to take an official visit to the Hill later this month.

Getting back to Taylor, when 247Sports recently refreshed its 2022 rankings, he dropped to three stars and No. 127 nationally. At the time that I penned this column, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite ranked Taylor as four stars, No. 108 overall and No. 26 at small forward.

While I’m not a recruiting analyst, I’ve always felt that Taylor is a top-100 player in 2022, and the folks at Rivals.com seem to echo that sentiment.