Syracuse Orange news: 5-star PG recruit Boogie Fland balls out, more

New Syracuse Orange basketball five-star recruiting target Boogie Fland has balled out lately.

In one recent game, a two-point win for his high-school team, the 6-foot-3 point guard went off for 40 points and seven assists.

This past Sunday night, in a nationally televised encounter on ESPNU, Fland scored 31 points, to go along with six rebounds and five assists, according to college basketball insider Adam Zagoria.

Fland’s squad, Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, N.Y., defeated Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village, N.Y., on the road by a final count of 68-64.

In last week’s top-25 rankings from ESPN, Christ the King Regional checked in at No. 23 overall, so this was an impressive conquest for Archbishop Stepinac.

A member of the Christ the King roster is 2025 four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony, a 6-foot-3 sophomore who is the son of Orange legend Carmelo Anthony.

Last November, Syracuse Orange basketball coaches offered a scholarship to Kiyan Anthony, who is a top-65 player in his cycle.

Earlier this month, the ‘Cuse offered Fland. He has also received a lucrative name, image and likeness offer from businessman and top SU booster Adam Weitsman.

Other Syracuse Orange news

SU ice hockey player nominated for big honor
Syracuse Orange women’s ice hockey junior forward Sarah Thompson is one of 15 nominees for the 2023 Hockey Humanitarian Award, according to SU Athletics.

This prestigious honor is given out every year to “recognize college hockey players who contribute to local and/or global communities in a true humanitarian spirit,” per the media statement on cuse.com.

Thompson, who hails from Ottawa, Ontario, launched a program called “Sticks Together” more than a year ago to provide children with sports opportunities.

A sports management major at SU, Thompson’s first project in this program was a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, from May 16 through June 6 of last year.

According to SU Athletics, during this trip, “Thompson and Syracuse (University) classmate Tracey Edson worked with young children and teenagers residing in the town of Recoleta to teach them the fundamentals of sports and health.”

For her second “Sticks Together” project, Thompson plans to travel to Muizenberg, South Africa, in May of this year. While there, she plans to introduce students to the sport of hockey and also provide them with innovative physical-education lessons.

I have a lot of admiration and respect for Sarah, and I congratulate her for being nominated for the 2023 Hockey Humanitarian Award. So well-deserved!

NCAA/recruiting news

5-star PG sets commitment date
Last summer, some media reports indicated that Syracuse basketball coaches may have been showing interest in 2024 five-star point guard Tahaad Pettiford.

The 6-foot Pettiford, rated in the top 25 overall in the junior class by several recruiting services, never received an official scholarship offer from the ‘Cuse coaching staff, unless I missed something.

Now Pettiford, a standout at Hudson Catholic Regional High School in Jersey City, N.J., has trimmed his list of contenders to seven and plans to announce his college choice on February 1, per a recent article from On3 national analyst Joe Tipton.

Pettiford’s suitors still under consideration are Auburn, Kansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Seton Hall, UCLA and UConn. According to Tipton, Pettiford has taken one official visit, to Auburn.

I had hoped that Syracuse Orange basketball would get into the mix for Pettiford, who runs in grassroots basketball with the New York City-based New Heights Lightning in Nike’s EYBL league.

Then again, as we’ve noted in numerous columns lately, the ‘Cuse coaching staff is pursuing multiple four-star and five-star guards these days in the 2024 cycle.