Syracuse Basketball: 5-star recruit, top-10 junior, to trim list of suitors soon

Justin Edwards, a 2023 five-star forward who holds a Syracuse basketball offer, plans to narrow down the list of schools still in the running for him in the next few weeks, according to a high-school hoops analyst.

The Orange coaching staff offered a scholarship to the 6-foot-7 Edwards last summer. One of the top players in the junior class, Edwards has a range of high-major suitors.

I don’t get the sense that the ‘Cuse is heavily in the mix for Edwards, who recently helped lead the Imhotep Institute Charter High School in Philadelphia to a Class 5A state title in Pennsylvania.

A recent tweet from high-school basketball analyst Alex Karamanos says that five schools “have been the most consistent with Edwards,” and they are Tennessee, Kentucky, Auburn, Kansas and Oregon.

Syracuse basketball is likely a long shot for five-star forward Justin Edwards.

Over the course of his recruiting process, other college teams that I’ve seen mentioned as having been in regular communication with Edwards have included Connecticut and Penn State.

Edwards recently performed at an ultra-high level on the grassroots basketball circuit during an NCAA live period for his AAU team, the Philadelphia-based Team Final, which is an excellent group on Nike’s EYBL tour.

Jordan Divens, the national basketball editor for MaxPreps, has named Edwards as a second-team junior All-American for the 2021-22 stanza. Per Divens, Edwards averaged 18.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest during the recently concluded 2021-22 high-school hoops season.

According to recruiting services and Edwards’ own Twitter page, he holds about 20 scholarship offers, including from Kansas, Villanova, Kentucky, Connecticut, LSU, Ohio State, Virginia, Maryland, Auburn, Miami, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Temple, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Marquette, St. John’s, VCU, South Carolina and Tennessee.

There are multiple predictions for Edwards in the direction of Kentucky on the On3 Web site and Rivals.com. According to the primary recruiting services, he is deemed a top-five small forward and the No. 1 prospect in Pennsylvania within the 2023 class.

Virtually all of the main recruiting Web sites rate him as five stars and a top-20 player in his cycle. He is No. 8 across the country, per Rivals.com.

ESPN has him at No. 18 nationally, while the industry-generated 247Sports Composite and the On3 Consensus place Edwards at No. 16 and No. 13, respectively.

We’ll obviously let everyone know when Edwards trims his list of contenders. I don’t expect Syracuse basketball to be included on that list.