Syracuse Basketball: 5-star Baltimore big with SU offer mapping out visits

Syracuse basketball offered a scholarship to 2024 five-star big man Derik Queen from Baltimore about a year ago.

Unfortunately, I’m not getting a sense that the Orange is a major player in Queen’s recruitment these days, but you never know how this recruiting stuff will pan out.

The 6-foot-9 power forward/center helped lead the Baltimore-based Team Thrill to the Under Armour Association title in the 17U division over the summer.

Queen, regarded as a five-star, top-20 national prospect in his class by numerous recruiting services, is a junior at the powerhouse Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., which captured the 2022 GEICO Nationals this past spring.

Syracuse basketball faces intense competition for five-star big man Derik Queen.

In a recent interview with 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham, Queen said that he took his first official visit to Indiana earlier in September, and he plans to officially visit Maryland from October 21 to October 23.

According to Branham’s piece, Queen is in the process of scheduling official visits to Arizona and Auburn, and he may take an official visit to Seton Hall as well.

Besides Syracuse basketball, Queen’s offer sheet includes Arizona, Oklahoma State, Providence, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Auburn, DePaul, Maryland, Texas, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, LSU, Arizona State and Xavier.

Although Queen’s recruiting process could have a way to go, since he’s only a junior, I can’t imagine that the Orange is going to win out for him if the ‘Cuse doesn’t receive an official visit from Queen.

A while back, Queen was in significant contention for the No. 1 overall ranking in his cycle. More recently, some of his 2024 ratings have fallen a bit, but he’s still perceived as a top-three power forward or a top-three center in his class.

Lately, many of the primary recruiting Web sites have refreshed their 2024 national rankings. Let’s have a look at where Queen is situated across the country in the junior cycle.

Both 247Sports and the industry-generated 247Sports Composite have him as five stars. Queen is No. 17 overall from 247Sports, while at the time of this writing, he was No. 19 nationally, per the composite.

ESPN places Queen as five stars and No. 12 nationwide. The On3 Consensus, when I penned this article, rated him as four stars and No. 17 nationally.

Rivals.com, though, did drop Queen eight spots, to No. 30 overall, in its latest 2024 update. He is also four stars, according to this recruiting service.