Syracuse Basketball: 4-star Philly guard, who has visited, bolts in rankings

Four-star guard Jalil Bethea from the Philadelphia area, who took an official visit to Syracuse basketball last fall and has spoken highly of the Orange program, made one of the largest leaps nationwide in new 2024 rankings.

Not too long ago, On3 updated its national rankings for the junior class, and the 6-foot-4 Bethea climbed from No. 128 overall to No. 72 overall.

At this juncture, the majority of primary recruiting services rate him as a four-star prospect and inside the top 80 of the 2024 cycle.

Bethea attends Archbishop Wood Catholic High School in Warminster, Pa., near Philadelphia. In grassroots basketball, he runs with one of the premier AAU squads around the country, the Philadelphia-based Team Final in Nike’s EYBL league.

Syracuse basketball offered a scholarship to four-star guard Jalil Bethea in late September.

About a month after he picked up an Orange offer, Bethea went on an official visit to the ‘Cuse campus. According to media reports, that trip went well, and he told SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister at the time, “After the visit, Syracuse is definitely one of my top schools.”

Now, his official visit to Central New York was a couple of months ago, so we’ll have to see how Bethea’s recruitment pans out.

For one, he appears to have a sizable number of suitors. Recruiting services say that Bethea holds more than 20 offers from a range of high-major programs, including Notre Dame, St. John’s, Villanova, UCLA, Seton Hall, Miami, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, VCU, Mississippi State and Temple, among others.

What’s more, Syracuse basketball does have other offers out there to guards in the 2024 class.

To that end, in recent days, the Orange offered 2024 five-star point guard Boogie Fland, who is out of Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, N.Y., and the Bronx, N.Y.-based PSA Cardinals in Nike’s EYBL league.

Additionally, 2024 four-star shooting guard Elijah Moore recently put the ‘Cuse in his top five. Moore is with Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, N.Y., and on the AAU circuit, the Bronx, N.Y.-based Wiz Kids in the Adidas league.

One thing I’ll note here is that Fland is a point guard, Moore is a shooting guard, and I’ve seen Bethea listed as either a point guard or a shooting guard on recruiting Web sites.

For what it’s worth, On3’s recruiting prediction machine had Syracuse basketball in the lead for Bethea when I wrote this column, but that could certainly change.

In late December, he earned praise from national analysts and scouts for his play at the Jordan Holiday Classic in New York City. More recently, in the last week or so, Bethea dropped 27 points on a mere 11 shots in a win for Archbishop Wood, according to a tweet from ELITE High School Scouting.

On a national scale, Bethea is No. 62 via the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, No. 68 from the industry-generated On3 Consensus, No. 72 at On3, No. 79 from 247Sports, and No. 80 via Rivals.com.

We’ll of course continue to track Bethea’s recruitment moving forward.