Syracuse Basketball: Predictions shifting back to Kentucky for 5-star recruit

A national analyst says that a commitment decision could come soon for 2023 five-star point guard D.J. Wagner from New Jersey, who holds a scholarship offer from Syracuse basketball.

The 6-foot-3 Wagner, who is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 nationally in the rising-senior class by most recruiting services, lately had been playing for the USA Basketball U17 national team during the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup in Málaga, Spain.

On3 national analyst Jamie Shaw, in a recent piece, reports that Wagner may reveal his college choice at the annual Peach Jam tournament in Nike’s EYBL league later this month.

While he holds a handful of offers, numerous national analysts and recruiting insiders have pegged Wagner’s recruitment as a two-team race between in-state rivals Kentucky and Louisville.

Wagner, meanwhile, has maintained in several interviews in recent months that he has continued to regularly hear from other suitors, including the Orange.

Syracuse basketball isn’t likely to land five-star point guard D.J. Wagner.

In May, fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad Louisville was getting a ton of analyst buzz on recruiting Web sites regarding Wagner.

Earlier this year, the Cardinals hired former Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne as their new head coach to replace Chris Mack.

Then, more recently, Milt Wagner, the grandfather of D.J. Wagner, was hired as Louisville’s director of player development and alumni relations.

Naturally, rumors swirled that the Cardinals would ultimately prevail in D.J. Wagner’s recruiting process.

However, just in the past few days, Shaw reported that, based on information from his sources, Kentucky is in good shape with Wagner. Shaw, at the time of this writing, had logged a prediction in the direction of the Wildcats for Wagner, with a high confidence level.

Following that trend, when I penned this column, other analysts were projecting Wagner to Kentucky as well.

At least two Kentucky predictions have been newly made – or shifted from Louisville – on the On3 Web site, three for the Wildcats on Rivals.com, and one for Kentucky on the 247Sports Web site.

What’s more, 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham recently said on Twitter that he was removing his projection for Wagner to Louisville, writing that “the race with Kentucky has become too cloudy.”

We should note here that Wagner’s father, Dajuan Wagner, played for Kentucky head coach John Calipari at Memphis for one season prior to getting selected at No. 6 overall in the first round of the 2002 NBA Draft.

D.J. Wagner is a stand-out for Camden High School in Camden, N.J., as well as for the New Jersey Scholars Elite Basketball Club in Nike’s EYBL league.

Syracuse basketball coaches offered a scholarship to Wagner last August at the Orange’s annual Elite Camp. His other offers include from Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Villanova and Temple.

Without having any inside information at all, I had always figured that it would prove mighty challenging for the ‘Cuse to beat out these other suitors for Wagner, but I credit the Orange coaching staff for making a run at him regardless.