Syracuse basketball 4-star priority recruit among leading scorers in country

Syracuse basketball four-star priority recruiting target Marcus Adams Jr. is putting forth one of the finest seasons across the country during the present 2022-23 campaign

The 6-foot-8 Adams, a fast-rising four-star small forward who has the option available to be a member of either the 2023 or the 2024 recruiting cycle, recently disclosed a top five of the Orange, Texas, UCLA, Oregon and Mississippi State.

To date, his only official visit has been to the Hill, although some media reports say that Adams may take other official visits in the near future. Reports also suggest that Adams could make a college decision by the end of February. I recently caught up with Adams’ AAU coach, Cory DeSanti, about Adams’ recruitment earlier this week.

From my perspective, I believe that Syracuse basketball is one of the current favorites for Adams, although that could certainly change, and I’m not in his inner circle. At this juncture, I have yet to see any predictions about Adams’ recruitment on the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com or the On3 Web site.

Syracuse basketball four-star recruit Marcus Adams Jr. is shredding his opponents.

Adams attends Nathaniel Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles. You can check out his team’s results so far in 2022-23 by clicking here.

This recent article on the MaxPreps Web site indicated that Adams resided just inside the top 40 overall as it pertains to the leading scorers in 2022-23 at the high-school level. Of course, this list is subject to change, but regardless, being so high up in scoring on a national scale is quite impressive.

When I penned this column, Adams’ bio on the MaxPreps Web site said that he was averaging 28.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for the Narbonne Gauchos. Now, I’m sure some folks will chime in here and say that Narbonne’s 2022-23 competition isn’t as formidable as other high-school squads, and maybe that’s true to some extent.

However, for Adams to be netting around 30 points and seven boards per contest is exceptional no matter what.

Adams recently took an official to the ‘Cuse and was in attendance when Syracuse basketball fell to No. 6 Virginia by five points at the JMA Wireless Dome.

Adams, in his recruiting process, has amassed around 15 scholarship offers. He is one of the hottest prospects nationwide regardless of class designation. The Orange offered him in late December.

In grassroots basketball, Adams has played for the Los Angeles-based Elev8 Elite, which is an Adidas-sponsored program, and reports have said he plans to suit up for the Compton, Calif.-based Compton Magic in the Adidas league during the upcoming AAU circuit if he remains in the 2024 cycle.

As I reported late last month, businessman, philanthropist and top SU booster Adam Weitsman has offered a significant name, image and likeness deal to Adams. Weitsman tells me that his NIL offer to Adams is for the 2023 class.

Weitsman declined to provide specifics about the length of this proposed NIL deal to Adams, but he did say that it is a six-figure offer with incentives that could grow this deal to seven figures.

When I penned this column, 247Sports had him at No. 61 overall, No. 16 at small forward and No. 6 in California within the 2024 cycle. He is also four stars, per On3.

At the time that I wrote this story, the industry-generated On3 Consensus rated Adams as three stars, No. 114 nationally, No. 22 at small forward and No. 9 in California within the 2024 class.