Syracuse Basketball: 5-star PG recruit left off preseason All-America teams

Preseason prognostications, from my perspective, should always get taken with the proverbial grain of salt, but at the same time, Syracuse basketball 2024 priority recruiting target Elliot Cadeau got hosed earlier this week when a list of All-America candidates was revealed.

MaxPreps national basketball editor Jordan Divens, a few days ago, published an article where he listed his preseason All-America squads ahead of the 2022-23 term.

Divens detailed three teams and an honorable-mention category, for a total of 20 high-school players. Now, these prospects come from multiple recruiting cycles, so we’re not just talking about the 2024 class in this instance.

However, the 6-foot-1 Cadeau, who recently put the Orange among his six finalists, is one of the best 20 high-school players across the country regardless of class designation, in my humble opinion. At a minimum, I feel that Cadeau, a five-star point guard, should have been included in the honorable-mention department.

Syracuse basketball is recruiting 2024 five-star PG Elliot Cadeau hard.

Cadeau, who was offered a scholarship by the Orange in November of 2021, is a junior at the powerhouse Link Academy in Branson, Mo.

The 2022-23 stanza, which just got underway, is the first one for Cadeau at the Link Academy, a group that high-school hoops analysts view as a significant national-title contender this season.

In the 2024 cycle, Cadeau is rated as the country’s No. 1 point guard and a top-10 overall prospect by multiple recruiting services. He could make a run at the top spot in 2024 when all is said and done.

We should note here that one of his teammates at the Link Academy, 2023 five-star shooting guard Ja’Kobe Walter, was named a preseason honorable-mention All-American by Divens. The 6-foot-5 Walter is committed to Baylor.

We’ll obviously continue to closely track Cadeau’s recruiting process. Assuming that he stars for the Link Academy in 2022-23, I’m sure that he will ultimately be in the conversation among pundits for All-American status.

Not too long ago, Cadeau revealed a top six of Syracuse basketball, North Carolina, Louisville, Kansas, Texas Tech and Texas. I was pleasantly surprised that the ‘Cuse made the cut.

Dating back to late September, Cadeau has taken official visits to Louisville, North Carolina and Texas Tech. He has said in several recent interviews that he’s eyeing a potential official visit to the Hill.

As we reported last week, businessman and top Syracuse Orange booster Adam Weitsman has reached out to Cadeau and his family to discuss possible name, image and likeness opportunities.

Recent media reports said that Weitsman plans to offer $1 million annually to one five-star football player and one five-star basketball player to represent his companies. He’s also working on NIL options for a high-school women’s basketball player.

Weitsman stressed to me last week in a phone interview that he will not discuss Syracuse University or any other college or university with high-school recruits whom he talks with about NIL.