Syracuse Basketball: Top center soars to 5 stars as Kentucky buzz rolls in

I’m not getting the sense that Syracuse basketball is a major player in the recruitment of fast-rising 2023 center Ugonna Kingsley, whose national rankings and offer sheet have ballooned of late while he’s starred in grassroots basketball this spring and early summer.

Orange coaches offered a scholarship to the 7-foot Kingsley in February, and I did come across a media report in mid-May suggesting that the ‘Cuse was recruiting the five-star big man at a consistent pace.

However, more recently, reports appear to be pointing to several other squads being in a better spot with Kingsley than Syracuse basketball, including a blue-blood program.

For one, in a recent article, On3 national analyst Jamie Shaw wrote that he believed the top-three contenders for Kingsley were Kentucky, Louisville and Memphis.

Candidly, it’s not clear to me how much Syracuse basketball is actively recruiting Ugonna Kingsley these days.

A native of Nigeria, Kingsley is a rising senior at the Putnam Science Academy in Putnam, Conn., which is one of the best prep-school teams nationwide.

On the AAU circuit, Kingsley is affiliated with the Team New England Basketball Club as well as the NY Jayhawks in the Adidas-sponsored league.

To date, he has picked up offers from a range of high-major programs, such as Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Memphis, UConn, Kansas, Maryland, Florida, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, LSU, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Georgia, Providence, Georgetown, Texas Tech, Washington State, Clemson, Seton Hall, California and Iowa.

Recruiting heavyweight Kentucky, though, is getting a lot of buzz for Kingsley on recruiting Web sites these days. When I penned this column, there was at least one prediction in the direction of Kentucky for Kingsley on the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com and the On3 Web site.

In-state UConn, I would assume, could also be a big contender in his recruiting process, along with Kansas, which this spring won the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

When On3 recently updated its 2023 national ratings, Kingsley moved to five stars, No. 5 across the country, No. 1 at center and No. 1 in Connecticut.

The industry-generated On3 Consensus, at the time of this writing, had Kingsley at five stars, No. 19 overall, No. 3 at center and No. 1 in Connecticut.

The 247Sports Composite, another industry-generated ranking service, placed Kingsley at four stars, No. 23 nationally, No. 4 at center and No. 1 in Connecticut within the 2023 cycle.

We’ll certainly continue to track Kingsley’s recruitment, although the Orange winning out here feels like a massive long shot.