Syracuse Basketball: Orange offers west coast standout with deep range

Syracuse basketball (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
Syracuse basketball (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

A talented yet underrated high-school prospect on the west coast has received a scholarship offer from Syracuse basketball, according to his AAU team’s Twitter account.

Per a tweet from the Compton, Calif.-based Compton Magic in the Adidas league, the Orange coaching staff has offered 2024 small forward Marcus Adams Jr.

Adams says on his Twitter page that he is 6-foot-8 and 201 pounds. He attends Nathaniel Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles.

Most of the primary recruiting services don’t presently have Adams within their 2024 national rankings, although he is a three-star prospect according to 247Sports.

Syracuse basketball has gotten into the mix for small forward Marcus Adams Jr.

Per his bio on the 247Sports Web site, Adams holds around a dozen scholarship offers at this juncture in his recruiting process. His offer sheet, besides the ‘Cuse, also includes Texas, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Washington State.

According to the 247Sports recruiting service, he is rated the No. 32 small forward and the No. 25 prospect in California. Based on some media reports that I’ve read about Adams, he could be in line for a rankings boost within his class.

At the recently held Dwan Hurt Holiday Classic near Los Angeles, Adams totally balled out as Narbonne won the 2022 version of this annual event.

In the final game, he scored 30 points. In an earlier encounter, Adams tallied 41 points, including four 3-pointers, to go along with 18 rebounds, four steals and two blocks.

"Eric Bossi, the national basketball director for 247Sports, wrote an article about Adams in late November. The analyst wrote in part that “Adams has great size, a strong frame to build on, is a bouncy athlete and has deep range. He thinks coaches will like what they see this winter.”"

“I think people are going to see a lot,” Adams said to Bossi. “They are going to see a mixture of guard, big man, wing, forward all you could look for. I’m going to try and lock down on defense and do all of the things that coaches want out of a player.”

By the way, Adams’ younger brother, Maximo, is a 2026 small forward who also plays for Narbonne.

As we start to track the recruitment of Marcus Adams Jr., there are other prospects in the 2024 cycle whom we are closely monitoring as well.

Five-star point guard Elliot Cadeau has the Orange in his top six and may take an official visit to the Hill. And in recent months, four-star guard Jalil Bethea, four-star shooting guard Elijah Moore and four-star wing Damarius Owens have all made official visits to Syracuse basketball.