Syracuse Basketball: Blue-bloods tough to beat for 5-star, top-10 recruit

We recently noted that Syracuse basketball is showing interest in 2024 five-star guard Trentyn Flowers, according to information from the director of recruiting at his AAU team.

While it’s exciting to me whenever the Orange is making a run at an elite prospect, landing such top-flight players has proven challenging for the ‘Cuse in recent years, although Syracuse basketball isn’t alone in this regard.

Particularly with name, image and likeness front and center these days in college athletics, namely basketball and football, I feel like good teams such as the Orange (despite the 2021-22 disaster) are going to face uphill climbs in trying to win out for the best of the best in high-school hoops.

So I’ll always credit the Syracuse basketball coaching staff for doling out scholarship offers to, or showing interest in, five-star, top-10 players, but let’s face it. The heavyweights in this sport will often prevail in the recruitments of these ultra-talented high-school prospects.

Syracuse basketball is displaying interest in five-star guard Trentyn Flowers.

The 6-foot-8 Flowers is presently suiting up on the AAU circuit for the Maryland-based Team Durant in Nike’s EYBL league. He’s also a sophomore at the Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, Calif.

In a recent tweet, Team Durant director of recruiting Dwayne Wise said that the Orange is among the new suitors for Flowers, who is a consensus top-25 prospect in the 2024 class and ranked within the top-10 nationally by numerous recruiting services.

While his recruiting process could have a way to go, he already owns around 20 scholarship offers at this juncture, from teams such as Kansas, Georgetown, Michigan, Auburn, Southern California, Memphis, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Illinois, Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech.

Texas Tech recently offered Flowers. Recruiting titans in college basketball including Duke, UCLA, North Carolina, Kentucky and Oregon are courting him.

In a recent interview with Rivals.com national analyst Travis Graf, Flowers said he is looking at setting up visits to North Carolina and Kansas, as well as Georgia State.

When asked about his dream school by Graf, Flowers responded with Duke. A scholarship offer from the Blue Devils, he said, “would mean the world. That’s a big offer, and man, it would make me happy.”

It’s totally understandable that blue-blood squads like Duke, UNC, UCLA, Kentucky and Kansas would target Flowers. He’s the goods. And it’s equally understandable if he ends up going to one of those schools.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s cool that Syracuse basketball is taking a close look at Trentyn Flowers. I just don’t know if the Orange can win out over those college basketball juggernauts in his recruitment.