Syracuse basketball priority big eyes visits; Duke offer would be worrisome

Syracuse basketball 2023 priority target Joseph Estrella is a scorching-hot prospect on a national scale these days, with big-time offers and interest arriving all the time for the 6-foot-11 power forward/center.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the Orange will land an official visit from Estrella, who was offered by the ‘Cuse last August at the team’s annual Elite Camp and absolutely crushed things last month during the NCAA live periods on the grassroots basketball circuit.

According to his bio on the 247Sports Web site, next month Estrella is planning to take official visits to Big East Conference squad Marquette and then Tennessee out of the Southeastern Conference.

We’ll obviously continue to monitor what other trips Estrella ends up making, including of course if one of them is to the Hill.

Based on what I’ve read about him in recent weeks, amid the live periods where a variety of college coaches watched Estrella play, it seems that multiple blue-blood programs are showing serious interest in this talented 2023 big man who will enter the national rankings soon.

Syracuse basketball got involved with Joseph Estrella early on in his recruitment.

A recent 247Sports article had a headline that read, “Duke picking things up with 2023 big man JP Estrella.” It’s a subscriber-exclusive piece, so I’m not going to share any other details.

But from that story, and others I’ve come across, as well as discussions about Estrella on social media and in chat rooms, I do get the sense that collegiate heavyweights like Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Villanova are vying for him.

In fact, multiple media reports said that those four schools, the ‘Cuse and other teams were in attendance last month when Estrella and his AAU teammates with the New England-based Middlesex Magic won the 17 & under spring title in the Under Armour Association league during the live periods.

It remains to be seen if the Blue Devils, the Jayhawks, the Tar Heels and the Wildcats will offer Estrella, but those suitors concern me, as far as the Orange’s chances to prevail in his recruitment.

Those four groups all recruit at the highest level. Kansas won the 2022 national championship over North Carolina, while Duke and Villanova both advanced to the Final Four. Yikes.

According to recruiting services and his Twitter account, Estrella has earned more than 20 offers, from college squads such as Creighton, UConn, Iona, Miami, UMass, Illinois, Missouri, Xavier, California, Maryland, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Iowa, Providence, Tennessee, Harvard, Maine, Penn State and Marquette.

That’s heavy competition all over the place, but in all honesty, the two contenders that worry me the most are Duke and Kansas. I don’t have any inside information here. It’s just a gut feeling.

Around the beginning of May, Estrella did tell SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister that the ‘Cuse was among the teams recruiting him hard, along with California, Duke, Penn State, Providence and Xavier. Those Blue Devils.

Estrella, by the way, went full beast mode as a junior during the 2021-22 campaign for South Portland High School in South Portland, Maine. In his senior season, he will suit up for the Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H.

We’ll continue to follow Estrella’s recruiting process as the new offers roll in for him.