Syracuse Basketball: 2022 champs in fray for sizzling 4-star center recruit

Syracuse basketball (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
Syracuse basketball (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

We recently detailed how a national recruiting analyst was predicting that Syracuse basketball 2024 four-star target Yves Missi would see his list of scholarship offers grow in a big-time way sooner rather than later.

That expert, Rivals.com basketball recruiting director Rob Cassidy, seems to be on the mark here as far as the 6-foot-11 center is concerned.

Although Missi is just a sophomore in prep school, and his recruiting process likely has a long way to go, just in the past couple of days he has picked up scholarship offers from Kansas and Indiana, according to tweets from Pro Insight director of scouting Andrew Slater.

The Jayhawks, earlier this month, defeated fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad North Carolina in the 2022 NCAA Tournament’s national-championship contest to secure the grand prize for the 2021-22 season.

Kansas is a blue-blood program, annually one of the best college basketball teams around the country, and a recruiting titan. So if the Jayhawks are in the mix for Missi, that could make things quite challenging for the Orange coaching staff to prevail for this fast-rising big man.

Syracuse basketball got into the fray for four-star Yves Missi late last year.

This past December, the ‘Cuse offered a scholarship to Missi. Other prior offers have arrived for him from teams such as UCLA, St. John’s, DePaul, Norfolk State and USC Upstate, according to recruiting services.

Like Rivals.com’s Cassidy recently said, I fully expect big-time offers to pour in for Missi, especially as he plays on the AAU circuit in the spring and summer months for the Bronx, N.Y.-based PSA Cardinals, and also as college coaches can begin initiating direct contact with 2024 high-school prospects on June 15 of this year.

As far as national rankings are concerned, Missi is generally regarded as a four-star player in his cycle. He is No. 28 across the country via theseasonticket.com, along with No. 30 overall at 247Sports, No. 32 at the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, and No. 39 at Rivals.com.

The 247Sports Composite, and this is important to note, currently has Missi as the No. 6 center in the 2024 class, as well as the No. 3 prospect in Maryland.

Given that Syracuse basketball fans are continually yearning for top-flight centers on the team’s roster, I’m hopeful that the ‘Cuse will emerge as a serious contender for Missi, even as his offer sheet likely expands by leaps and bounds.