Syracuse Basketball: One team recruiting 5-star Canadian wing hardest

Syracuse basketball offered a scholarship to 2023 five-star wing Elijah Fisher from Canada in July of 2020, and for a while, I had high hopes that the Orange would prove a major contender in his recruitment.

For one, earlier on in his recruiting process, the 6-foot-7 Fisher mentioned the ‘Cuse program in some interviews that I came across. What’s more, in recent years, Syracuse basketball coaches have fared pretty well attracting top-flight prospects from Canada to the Hill.

But more recently, when I’ve seen media reports about Fisher, the Orange is unfortunately nowhere to be found. Does this mean that the ‘Cuse is out of the running for Fisher, who is a junior at the Crestwood Preparatory College in Toronto, Ontario?

I guess I’ll never say never, because I haven’t seen Fisher come out with a trimmed list of contenders, and he obviously has yet to announce a collegiate destination.

But things don’t look so good for Syracuse basketball. To be fair, though, I don’t personally know if there is mutual interest among the Orange and Fisher, who is generally regarded as a five-star, top-20 overall prospect in the 2023 cycle.

Syracuse basketball appears a long shot for five-star Elijah Fisher.

Fisher recently performed at a high level during a slate of games on the Adidas AAU circuit during an NCAA live period, according to recruiting experts like 247Sports national basketball director Eric Bossi and 247Sports national analyst Brandon Jenkins.

During that recent live period, Jenkins wrote in a piece that coaches from Auburn, Arizona and Creighton, among others, watched Fisher play. But Fisher told Jenkins that, at present, Texas Tech out of the Big 12 Conference has been recruiting him the hardest.

Fisher did take an official visit to Texas Tech this past January, and he had a lot of positive things to say about the Red Raiders in his interview with 247Sports.

According to recruiting services and reports, Fisher holds more than 20 offers from squads such as Texas Tech, Kentucky, Florida State, Arizona, Wake Forest, Seton Hall, Georgia Tech, St. John’s, West Virginia, Kansas, Southern California, Texas A&M, Florida, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Memphis, Oklahoma State and Oregon.

Besides Texas Tech, which is getting some nice buzz for Fisher on Rivals.com, the college teams I’ve seen mentioned with some frequency of late regarding Fisher’s recruitment include Auburn, Memphis, Oklahoma State and Alabama.

In the story by Jenkins, Fisher added that he anticipates more high-major programs will get in touch with him due to the possibility that he may reclassify from the 2023 class to the 2022 cycle.

As Syracuse basketball already has a strong six-member class in 2022, if Fisher did end up reclassifying, I can’t imagine the Orange would prove a serious contender for him. Just my opinion, though.