Syracuse Basketball: 4-star wing with ‘Cuse offer commits to Big Ten team

Consensus four-star wing Gavin Griffiths, who held a Syracuse basketball offer and is one of the top shooters across the country in the rising senior class, is headed to the Big Ten Conference.

The 6-foot-7 shooting guard/small forward, who is rated as high as No. 15 nationally in the 2023 cycle according to the On3 recruiting service, announced his commitment to Rutgers on Thursday, according to media reports, including one from On3 national analyst Joe Tipton.

Griffiths, deemed by numerous recruiting Web sites as a top-30 overall player and a top-10 shooting guard/small forward in his class, is a huge pick-up for the Scarlet Knights.

Throughout his recruitment, he received around 20 scholarship offers from a range of high-major programs. The Orange coaching staff offered Griffiths in October of 2020, which was relatively early on in his recruiting process.

Syracuse basketball didn’t land four-star wing Gavin Griffiths, which is not a surprise.

Besides the ‘Cuse and Rutgers, Griffiths’ other offers included from Michigan, LSU, Alabama, Pittsburgh, Creighton, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Providence, Xavier, Kansas State, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Dayton, Bryant, Fairfield, Hofstra, UMass and Siena.

According to reports, Griffiths made official visits to Iowa and Rutgers. He also reportedly took unofficial visits to UConn, Providence and Rutgers.

Reports surfaced that Griffiths was also potentially eyeing official visits to Virginia Tech and Michigan, but those trips ultimately got canceled.

Griffiths, as a junior in the 2021-22 campaign, was named the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (“NEPSAC”) Class B Player of the Year while suiting up for the Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, Conn.

On the AAU circuit, he plays for the Boston-based Expressions Elite Basketball in Nike’s EYBL league, and Griffiths earned praise from experts for his performances last weekend during the most recent EYBL session in Louisville, Ky.

Griffiths selecting Rutgers isn’t a huge surprise. Leading up to his commitment announcement, multiple analysts on the 247Sports Web site, the On3 Web site and Rivals.com had projected that Griffiths would commit to the Scarlet Knights.

I wish Gavin Griffiths nothing but success with Rutgers in the rugged Big Ten.

For Syracuse basketball coaches, they appear to be prioritizing several players in the 2023 class, such as four-star shooting guard Reid Ducharme out of the Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., four-star guard Elmarko Jackson from the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, Pa., and four-star big man Joseph Estrella, who is also with the Brewster Academy.

The 6-foot-6 Ducharme is expected to officially visit the Hill later this month. I’m hopeful that the Orange will also line up visits with the 6-foot-4 Jackson and the 6-foot-10 Estrella.