Syracuse basketball reaches out to big-man transfer from George Mason

Syracuse basketball coaches have made contact with Josh Oduro, an excellent big man from George Mason out of the Atlantic 10 Conference who is in the NCAA’s transfer portal, according to a tweet from college basketball insider Adam Zagoria.

Zagoria’s tweet says that the 6-foot-9 senior forward from Gainesville, Va., has also heard from Florida, Miami, Virginia, Providence, Notre Dame and Cincinnati.

Not too long ago, George Mason’s head coach, Kim English, took on the same position with Big East Conference member Providence. I believe that Oduro has one season of eligibility remaining, as the NCAA granted college basketball players an optional fifth year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the 2022-23 campaign, George Mason posted a 20-13 overall record and lost in the quarterfinal round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament to Saint Louis.

Syracuse basketball has reached out to George Mason big-man transfer Josh Oduro.

Oduro was really, really good for the Patriots during the 2022-23 term. Per ESPN statistics, he averaged 29.1 minutes, 15.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists a game, while connecting on 55.1 percent from the field.

For his 2022-23 stanza, Oduro was named to the All-Atlantic 10 first team.

He also received inclusion on the 2021-22 All-Atlantic 10 first squad, when he led the conference in scoring at 17.7 points per encounter, along with 7.5 boards, 1.7 assists and 1.7 blocks per affair.

As a member of the 2019 recruiting cycle, Oduro was a three-star prospect, according to 247Sports.

Prior to heading to college, Oduro most recently competed for the powerhouse St. Paul VI Catholic High School, which these days is in Chantilly, Va.

On the AAU circuit, he was also a standout for the Washington, D.C.-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league. Per his bio on the George Mason athletics department Web site, in 2018, Oduro helped lead Team Takeover to the EYBL championship.

As I noted in a column a week ago, new Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry has deep recruiting ties in the talent-rich D.C. market.

Back in the day, Autry served as an assistant coach at St. Paul VI Catholic. He was also a coach in grassroots basketball with Triple Threat, which would ultimately transform into Team Takeover.

At 6-foot-9, I’m assuming Oduro is more of a power forward than a small forward. The current Syracuse basketball roster includes several forwards in sophomore Benny Williams, freshman Maliq Brown, freshman Chris Bell and freshman Justin Taylor, who can also play shooting guard.

Redshirt junior forward John Bol Ajak is in the transfer portal. As first reported by SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister several days ago, the Orange coaching staff has also reached out to Zach Hicks, a 6-foot-7 sophomore forward at Temple who is in the transfer portal.