Syracuse Basketball: Full-court press for fast-rising four-star Jalil Bethea

Syracuse basketball coaches appear to be recruiting 2024 four-star prospect Jalil Bethea extremely hard.

Two Saturdays ago, Orange coaches watched the 6-foot-4 point guard/shooting guard as Bethea suited up in a first-round game of the 2023 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (“PIAA”) 6A tournament.

This past Saturday afternoon, per a tweet from Ari Rosenfeld, the owner and scouting director for ELITE High School Scouting, the ‘Cuse coaching staff was in attendance to see Jalil Bethea and his teammates at Archbishop Wood Catholic High School in Warminster, Pa., knock off Coatesville Area Senior High School out of Coatesville, Pa., by a final count of 78-64 in the quarterfinals of the PIAA 6A playoffs.

At this juncture, Archbishop Wood is two victories away from a state championship in Pennsylvania.

In the triumph over Coatesville, with Syracuse basketball coaches watching, all Jalil Bethea did was pour in a cool 31 points along with five assists, according to a tweet from ELITE High School Scouting. That’s pretty darn strong, if you ask me.

Syracuse basketball is in high pursuit of 2024 four-star guard Jalil Bethea.

Next up for Bethea and his Archbishop Wood teammates is a semifinal battle in the PIAA 6A tourney against Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia on Tuesday, March 21.

Jalil Bethea is one of the hottest prospects around the country in the junior cycle. He captured MVP honors in the loaded Philadelphia Catholic League for the current 2022-23 stanza and was also named to that league’s All-Catholic first team.

The ‘Cuse coaching staff offered a scholarship to Bethea in late September of 2022, and the following month, he took an official visit to the Hill.

In recently updated 2024 national ratings from Rivals.com, Jalil Bethea made one of the largest jumps across country, moving from No. 80 to No. 39 overall.

Multiple other recruiting services place him within the top 60 nationally in the junior class. Some experts have said of late that Jalil Bethea could make a run at five-star status in his cycle when all is said and done.

Without question, competition for him is steep, evidenced by his more than 20 offers from a range of high-major programs. That being said, Bethea has officially visited the Orange, and ‘Cuse coaches have traveled to the Philadelphia area twice in the past week to check him out in person.

In grassroots basketball, Bethea has competed alongside Syracuse basketball 2024 target Thomas Sorber for the Philadelphia-based Team Final in Nike’s EYBL league.

Last Friday night, the Orange coaching staff watched the 6-foot-9 Sorber, a four-star power forward/center, as his squad, Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia, advanced to the semifinals of the PIAA 5A tournament.

Archbishop Ryan will next take on the Imhotep Institute Charter High School of Philadelphia in the PIAA 5A playoff semifinals on Monday, March 20.

Syracuse basketball coaches offered a scholarship to Sorber last August, around the time that he made an unofficial visit to the ‘Cuse campus to play in the team’s annual Elite Camp.

Similar to Jalil Bethea, Thomas Sorber has numerous other impressive suitors. And like Bethea, it seems that Syracuse basketball coaches are prioritizing Sorber within the Orange’s 2024 recruiting class.