Syracuse Basketball: Analyst predicts Tennessee for 4-star Joseph Estrella

On Saturday morning, an expert logged a prediction that skyrocketing 2023 four-star big man Joseph Estrella will end up wearing orange in college, but it’s not the Syracuse basketball brand of Orange for which ‘Cuse fans are hoping.

The 6-foot-11 power forward/center, who plans to unveil his commitment choice in early September, has more than two-dozen scholarship offers from a range of high-major programs.

However, the chatter from national recruiting analysts and other insiders is that Joseph Estrella will almost certainly pick one of the schools that he officially visited in recent months.

Those four college squads are Syracuse basketball, Iowa, Tennessee and Marquette. While I’m not in Estrella’s inner circle, I’d be really surprised if he announced a commitment to a suitor beyond the four I just mentioned.

Syracuse basketball remains heavily in the mix for four-star big man Joseph Estrella.

At the beginning of August, David Eickholt logged a projection in the direction of Iowa in Estrella’s recruitment, assigning his prediction a medium confidence level. Eickholt is an Iowa Hawkeyes insider for 247Sports.

Then, on Saturday, recruiting analyst/scout Colby Giacubeno made a projection for Tennessee in Estrella’s recruiting process. Giacubeno, similar to Eickholt, gave his prediction for the Volunteers a medium confidence level.

When I penned this column on Saturday morning, I didn’t see any additional predictions on the 247Sports Web site. I also haven’t seen projections yet on either the On3 Web site or Rivals.com.

Under Estrella’s bio on the On3 Web site, the recruiting service’s recruiting prediction machine gives a slight edge to Syracuse basketball, followed by Marquette, Tennessee and Iowa.

In reading a flood of analyst comments lately, I’m not so sure that Marquette is a big player for Joseph Estrella at this juncture. I’m getting the sense that his recruitment really boils down to the ‘Cuse, Tennessee and Iowa.

Depending on which fan forum you read or which analyst comment you peruse, you’ll get a different opinion. Some say it’s Syracuse basketball versus the Volunteers, with Tennessee having a slight lead. Others say the Orange is out of the mix, and Iowa is the perceived front-runner.

To me, sharing these analyst predictions is something that I do, because other ‘Cuse fans are interested in keeping up to date on this kind of information.

That being said, Joseph Estrella and his camp have kept his recruiting process extremely close to the vest, so all of this is really a bunch of speculation, in my humble opinion.

Estrella’s first scholarship offer came about a year ago, and it was from the Orange at its annual Elite Camp. Based on his stellar play in recent months on the AAU circuit for the New England-based Middlesex Magic in the Under Armour Association league, Estrella has vaulted into the top 20 per On3, and the industry-generated ranking services have him in the top 60.

He plans to announce his college destination on September 2 at the XL Sports World in Saco, Maine. Estrella will spend his senior year at the Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H.

Naturally, Syracuse basketball fans would like to see national experts log predictions in the Orange’s favor for Joseph Estrella, but I’d say take these sorts of projections with a grain of salt.