Syracuse Basketball: 4-star crushes EYBL, ‘Cuse puts on full-court press

Syracuse basketball (Photo by Rich Barnes/Getty Images)
Syracuse basketball (Photo by Rich Barnes/Getty Images)

Sharp-shooting guard Reid Ducharme, a four-star, top-100 prospect in the 2023 class, hasn’t officially trimmed his list, but based on recent media reports, it looks like his unofficial top three could consist of Syracuse basketball, Penn State and Xavier.

While Big East Conference member Xavier is receiving some analyst buzz in Ducharme’s recruitment on the On3 Web site, the Orange coaching staff continues to pursue him in a big-time way.

Case in point, as the 6-foot-6 shooting guard has put up some monster performances this week on the AAU circuit, Syracuse basketball coaches have watched him play in person during a second July live period.

On July 20, for example, college basketball insider Adam Zagoria said via Twitter that ‘Cuse head coach Jim Boeheim, associate head coach Adrian Autry, and assistant coach Gerry McNamara were checking out Ducharme.

Syracuse basketball remains in pursuit of four-star guard Reid Ducharme.

Ducharme, a rising senior at the powerhouse Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., has taken official visits to the Orange, Penn State and Xavier this summer.

As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have any other official visits lined up at this time, and he has said that he’d like to make a college choice before his 2022-23 campaign at the Brewster Academy gets underway.

The ‘Cuse offered a scholarship to Ducharme last August at the team’s annual Elite Camp, and he has forged a strong relationship with the Syracuse basketball coaching staff, especially McNamara.

His full offer list, besides the Orange, includes Virginia Tech, Miami, Xavier, Rhode Island, Northwestern, Columbia, Connecticut, Iowa, Providence, Penn State, Creighton, DePaul, Stanford, Harvard, Brown and UMass.

In grassroots basketball, Ducharme competes for the Boston Amateur Basketball Club in Nike’s EYBL league. This week, the EYBL is holding its annual Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C.

While the Boston Amateur Basketball Club didn’t qualify for the Peach Jam, it has played a handful of games in North Augusta versus other AAU groups that also didn’t make the tourney field.

Per theseasonticket.com, in three of those contests, Ducharme tallied a ridiculous 42 points, 28 points and 21 points. He’s also connected on a solid percentage from beyond the arc, according to this tweet.

We’ll obviously continue to closely monitor Ducharme’s recruiting process. Whether Xavier is the rumored “leader” or not for him, Syracuse basketball coaches continue to demonstrate their heavy interest in Ducharme.