Syracuse Basketball: Recruiting service gives SU the edge for 4-star guard

Syracuse basketball 2023 priority recruiting target Reid Ducharme, a four-star shooting guard, has wrapped up his three planned official visits, and the top-100 prospect in the rising-senior class is focused on competing in grassroots basketball this month amid two NCAA live periods.

We’ll certainly keep a watchful eye as to whether the 6-foot-6 Ducharme elects to take any additional official visits, as he is afforded five during his senior year.

Ducharme could be trimming his list in the near future, with a commitment announcement perhaps coming before his senior year at the Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., commences.

If Ducharme does trim down his number of suitors still in the running, I’d be shocked if the Orange doesn’t make the cut. In June, he made an official visit to the Hill, followed by trips to Penn State and, most recently, Xavier.

Syracuse basketball has pursued four-star guard Reid Ducharme for a while now.

To date, I haven’t seen any analyst predictions regarding Ducharme’s recruitment on the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com and the On3 Web site.

That being said, the On3 “recruiting prediction machine” presently has the ‘Cuse in the lead at 50 percent, followed by Penn State at 33 percent.

Ducharme has said in several interviews that coaches from Syracuse basketball and the Nittany Lions have been in regular communication with him for an extended period of time.

Xavier appeared to enter his recruiting process more recently, although I would assume that Ducharme has high interest in the Musketeers, too, given that he has made an official visit to that Big East Conference member.

Miami recently offered a scholarship to Ducharme, and his full offer list includes Xavier, Rhode Island, Northwestern, Columbia, Connecticut, Iowa, Providence, Penn State, Creighton, DePaul, Stanford, Harvard, Brown and UMass.

At this juncture, I don’t get the sense that there is necessarily a favorite for Ducharme, who runs with the Boston Amateur Basketball Club in Nike’s EYBL league on the AAU circuit. However, I do believe that the ‘Cuse has a really good chance at landing this talented 2023 prospect.

As far as his national rankings are concerned, ESPN is the most bullish, putting Ducharme at No. 83 overall. When I penned this column, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite rated him at No. 100 nationally and No. 19 at small forward.

Another industry-generated recruiting service, the On3 Consensus, placed Ducharme at No. 126 across the country and No. 25 at shooting guard.

Nationally speaking, he is No. 113 via On3, No. 117 over at 247Sports, and No. 121 according to Rivals.com.