Syracuse Basketball: SU may have interest in 3-star forward from Buffalo

According to the 247Sports Web site, Syracuse basketball may have some level of interest in a 2023 three-star forward who is from Buffalo, N.Y., and plays prep-school ball in Minneapolis.

Antonio Chol, listed as either a small forward or a power forward on several recruiting Web sites, is a 6-foot-8 prospect who suits up for the Minnesota Preparatory Academy.

On the AAU circuit, he competes for the Raleigh, N.C.-based Garner Road Basketball Club, which plays in the Adidas league. I came across several comments on social media from national analysts and scouts that speak to the three-star Chol playing quite well last month for Garner Road in AAU contests during NCAA live periods.

Per his bio on the 247Sports Web site and the Verbal Commits Web site, Chol holds scholarship offers from Rutgers, Loyola Marymount and New Mexico.

Syracuse basketball recently offered several other 2023 players.

On 247Sports, Chol is listed as having interest from the Orange, Texas A&M and Western Kentucky. Naturally, we’ll continue to track his recruitment moving forward to see if the ‘Cuse ends up offering Chol.

Both 247Sports and Verbal Commits also note that Chol’s hometown is in Buffalo.

At this juncture, I’m not seeing Chol in the national rankings from the primary recruiting services for the 2023 class. The 247Sports recruiting service, though, does rate him as a three-star player, the No. 30 power forward and the No. 3 prospect in New York within this cycle.

Last month, in a tweet, Rivals.com national analyst Travis Graf had some positive things to say about Chol’s performances during one of the April live periods.

Graf said that Chol connected on a few jumpers from the mid-range and beyond the 3-point line, and he was an active, versatile defender who guarded several positions.

This past weekend, we wrote two pieces regarding new offers doled out by Syracuse basketball coaches to a pair of 2023 players.

One offer went out to three-star Kaden Cooper a 6-foot-6 guard/small forward out of The Skill Factory in Atlanta and the Oklahoma-based Team Trae Young in the Adidas league.

The second offer headed to Tafara Gapare, a 6-foot-10 power forward who is originally from Wellington, New Zealand. Gapare plays for the South Kent School in South Kent, Conn., and also for the Baltimore-based Team Melo in Nike’s EYBL league.

The Orange coaching staff has offered nearly 20 guys in the 2023 cycle, according to recruiting services, with the team appearing to prioritize a handful of these players, including four-star guard Elmarko Jackson, four-star shooting guard Reid Ducharme, and big man Joseph Estrella, who will enter the national rankings for this class soon.