Syracuse Basketball: New big-man target impacts the game in many ways

Thomas Sorber, a fast-rising big man who plays high-school and AAU ball in Philadelphia, is seeing his offer sheet significantly grow, and that includes a recent scholarship offer from Syracuse basketball coaches.

This past Saturday, August 27, the 6-foot-9, 250-pound power forward/center attended the Orange’s annual Elite Camp, according to multiple media reports.

According to Sorber’s Twitter page, he actually picked up a scholarship offer from the ‘Cuse on August 26, a day before this year’s Elite Camp.

That, to me, suggests that Syracuse basketball coaches are really high on Sorber, seeing that they offered him before the camp took place.

Let’s examine the recruitment so far of new Syracuse basketball target Thomas Sorber.

As a member of the 2024 class, Sorber is a rising junior at Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia. In grassroots basketball, he suits up for an excellent squad, the Philadelphia-based Team Final in Nike’s EYBL league.

According to recruiting services, reports and Sorber’s Twitter account, besides the Orange, his offer list includes Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Georgetown, Providence, Mississippi State, Richmond, La Salle, Saint Joseph’s, Bryant, George Mason, Drexel and Albany.

Beyond his unofficial visit to the Hill for the ‘Cuse Elite Camp, I came across a couple of tweets stating that Sorber plans to make a visit to Pittsburgh on September 10.

My sense is that Sorber will continue to see his offer sheet grow, and he should also enter the 2024 national rankings from more recruiting services. For now, I’m seeing him rated as three stars and No. 111 overall in this class, per Rivals.com.

Sorber, whose hometown is in Trenton, N.J., had a wonderful sophomore campaign for Archbishop Ryan in which he averaged 16.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per contest while collecting 11 double-doubles, according to a tweet from Rich Flanagan, who writes for the Philadelphia Sports Digest and City of Basketball Love.

For his performance during the 2021-22 term, Sorber was named to the Pennsylvania All-State Class 5A first team, per Flanagan.

One of Sorber’s teammates on Team Final is 2024 four-star point guard Robert Wright III, who also attended the Orange’s recent Elite Camp.

The 6-foot-1 Wright, offered by the ‘Cuse in March, is a priority target for Syracuse basketball in this cycle. He attends Neumann-Goretti High School in Philadelphia.

In July, the EYBL held its annual Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C. In the 16U division, Wright and Sorber played key roles as Team Final reached the semifinals.

Following the Orange’s offer to Sorber, I perused a variety of recent comments from national recruiting analysts and scouts about his skill set.

"In a recent article, Rivals.com basketball recruiting director Rob Cassidy wrote in part, “Sorber knows exactly what kind of player he is and uses his body to his advantage in the low post, where he impacts games on both ends of the floor and as an aggressive rebounder that creates extra possessions. … Sorber doesn’t mind letting it fly when left open on the perimeter, but the strength of his offensive game is controlling the paint.”"

Sorber, according to some analysts and scouts, possesses good footwork in the interior, is a strong passer for a big man of his size, and has a soft touch around the rim.

Given his great rebounding abilities and prowess for altering and blocking shots, I think that he would prove a terrific fit for the Syracuse basketball zone defense.

We’ll continue to monitor Sorber’s recruitment moving forward.