Syracuse Basketball: 4-star PG vaults into Rivals rankings, hosed by ESPN

Syracuse basketball made its first scholarship offers to a 2025 prospect in July, and that offer went out to prolific-scoring guard Jerry Easter II from Ohio.

The 6-foot-4 Easter, described by recruiting services as either a point guard or a shooting guard, was an All-American in his freshman campaign.

Personally, I think that this Orange recruiting target is a five-star, top-10 prospect in the 2025 class. For now, though, he seems to be deemed as four stars.

Naturally, as a sophomore at the Emmanuel Christian School in Toledo, Ohio, his recruitment and high-school playing days have a long way to go.

Several of the primary recruiting services, lately, have published their initial national rankings for the 2025 cycle, and Easter has made the cut in some of them.

Let’s see where Syracuse basketball four-star recruit Jerry Easter II is nationally rated.

As we detailed not too long ago, The Circuit places Easter as four stars and No. 33 across the country in its top-50 rankings.

When Rivals.com came out with its inaugural top 40 in this class, Easter checked in as four stars and No. 34 overall.

ESPN, too, recently revealed its top 25 for the 2025 cycle, and Easter wasn’t included.

I’m sure that as the main recruiting services expand their 2025 national rankings to 60 or more high-school players, Easter’s name will be found everywhere.

In the 2021-22 stanza, his freshman season for the Emmanuel Christian School, Easter did miss several games due to an injury.

However, he still managed to average 25 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per contest in 2021-22, which are pretty ridiculous numbers for a freshman.

For his efforts, Easter was named to the MaxPreps freshman All-America first team this past April.

I’m not a recruiting analyst, nor am I a scout, but if Easter was determined by MaxPreps to be one of the best freshmen nationwide last season, how he’s not included in the top 25 of national rankings from ESPN, Rivals.com, The Circuit or any other recruiting service out there, respectfully, doesn’t make sense to me.

Beyond his offer from Syracuse basketball, Easter’s offer sheet includes Memphis, Michigan State, Ohio State, Mississippi State, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, UCLA, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Arizona State, Missouri, New Mexico State, Bowling Green, Morgan State, Northern Illinois, Oakland, Toledo and Cleveland State.

In mid-June of next year, college coaches will be able to initiate direct contact with 2025 players. Easter, I’m sure, will get more offers between now and then, but when the contact period does open up, I assume that his recruitment will totally blow up.

Easter isn’t the only 2025 prospect who has received an Orange offer. At the team’s annual Elite Camp in late August, Syracuse basketball coaches offered 2025 four-star guard/wing Efeosa Oliogu and 2025 four-star combo guard Darius Adams.

The 6-foot-6 Oliogu is a sophomore at the United Scholastic Academy in Toronto, while the 6-foot-3 Adams is a sophomore at Manasquan High School in Manasquan, N.J.