Syracuse basketball coaches recently offered a scholarship to a fast-rising prospect who earned rave reviews from analysts and scouts for his performances during NCAA live periods last month.
This new Orange recruiting target is 6-foot-10 Tafara Gapare, who originally hails from Wellington, New Zealand, and is suiting up for the South Kent School in South Kent, Conn., as a member of the 2023 class.
His head coach at the South Kent School, Raphael Chillious, recently had some positive, and intriguing things, to say about Gapare in an interview with SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister.
What resonated with me is that, according to Chillious, Gapare has tremendous athleticism and size for a guy who plays on the perimeter.
"Chillious said in part to McAllister regarding Gapare, “… the thing that gets people is he’s 6-10, he’s legitimate. He’s a wing/forward, not a center. He’s not a five. He’s a perimeter player and extremely athletic. That’s the thing that gets people to say ‘wow.’ He jumps like he’s 6-2, he can really jump.”"
Competition is growing for new Syracuse basketball recruit Tafara Gapare.
In a recent tweet, Chillious noted that the ‘Cuse was among the college squads that watched players who attend the South Kent School during open-gym availability offered by this Connecticut prep school.
According to media reports, recruiting services and Gapare’s Twitter page, his other offers at this juncture include from Rutgers, Maryland, Arizona State, DePaul, Pittsburgh, Missouri, Virginia Tech and Xavier. Trust me, this young man’s offer sheet is going to expand, and quickly, from what I can tell.
In AAU events, Gapare competes for the Baltimore-based Team Melo in Nike’s EYBL league. In the second of two live periods last month, Syracuse basketball was among those in attendance for Team Melo when EYBL contests took place in the Indianapolis region.
Gapare previously was committed to George Washington but de-committed from the Colonials in November of 2021, according to his bio on the 247Sports Web site.
McAllister has recently said that while Gapare is a member of the 2023 cycle for now, he may have the option to reclassify back to 2022.
Based on the Syracuse basketball six-member 2022 class, as well as other roster moves of late, the ‘Cuse does appear to have two scholarships available at this juncture for 2022-23, although I feel like Gapare maybe would be a better fit with the Orange in the 2023 cycle, if he does ultimately have high interest in Syracuse basketball.
Look for Gapare to potentially emerge as a four-star prospect in the top-100 to the top-150 overall as recruiting services update their national rankings for 2023 in the future.
We’ll continue to track his recruitment moving forward.