Syracuse Basketball: Former 4-star big-man target enters transfer portal

After his freshman season at UMass, former Syracuse basketball recruiting target Tafara Gapare has decided to enter into the NCAA’s transfer portal, he said on Twitter.

The 6-foot-9 forward, who is originally from Wellington, New Zealand, received a scholarship offer from the Orange coaching staff in late April of 2022. He was initially in the 2023 class, and his stock blew up last spring and summer as Gapare shined on the AAU circuit.

In June of 2022, Gapare disclosed a top seven of Maryland, Illinois, DePaul, Virginia Tech and Connecticut, as well as two professional options, Overtime Elite and the National Basketball League (“NBL”), which is based in Australia.

He committed to DePaul later in June but then de-committed from the Blue Demons about a month later, according to 247Sports. Then, in August of last year, Gapare committed to Massachusetts while also moving from the 2023 cycle to the 2022 class.

Former Syracuse basketball target Tafara Gapare is entering the transfer portal.

Prior to joining the Minutemen out of the Atlantic 10 Conference, Gapare went to the South Kent School in South Kent, Conn. In grassroots basketball, he competed for the Baltimore-based Team Melo in Nike’s EYBL league.

Besides the ‘Cuse, his offer sheet included Iona, George Washington, Connecticut, Illinois, UMass, Washington State, Hawaii, Towson, Rutgers, Maryland, Arizona State, DePaul, Pittsburgh, Missouri, Virginia Tech and Xavier. Within the 2022 cycle, multiple recruiting services rated Gapare in the top 100 overall.

For UMass during the 2022-23 season, Gapare appeared in 30 games, averaging 12.3 minutes per contest. According to ESPN, he averaged 3.4 points and 2.1 rebounds per affair, while connecting on 31.2 percent from the field, 26.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 57.5 percent from the free-throw line.

The Minutemen struggled in 2022-23 under first-year head coach Frank Martin. Massachusetts went 15-16 overall, losing its first game in the Atlantic 10’s post-season tournament. Martin most recently was the head coach at South Carolina, leading the Gamecocks to the Final Four in 2017.

In the 2022 class, the 247Sports recruiting service rated Gapare as four stars, No. 69 nationwide, No. 9 at power forward, and No. 2 in Connecticut.