Syracuse Basketball: 4-star recruit competing at USA Basketball minicamp

Prolific-scoring four-star guard Jerry Easter II from Ohio, a Syracuse basketball recruiting target in the sophomore cycle, is among around 60 high-school players who are expected to participate in a USA Basketball junior national team minicamp between Friday and Sunday in conjunction with the 2023 NCAA Tournament’s Final Final, which is being held in Houston.

According to a press release from USA Basketball, the minicamp was scheduled to run from Friday, March 31, until Sunday, April 2. Participants in this minicamp come from the 2024, 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes.

During the minicamp, there will be on-court drills and scrimmages, as well as various educational programs that will focus on NCAA eligibility, life skills development and other topics.

The 6-foot-4 Easter, a standout sophomore at the Emmanuel Christian School in Toledo, Ohio., is among numerous 2025 players who received invites to the minicamp. Several former Orange recruiting targets are also competing in this event.

Syracuse basketball offered a scholarship to 2025 four-star guard Jerry Easter II last July.

Easter is listed as a point guard or a shooting guard by the majority of recruiting services. Multiple recruiting Web sites rate him as a top-50 national prospect in his class, as well as a top-10 point guard.

As far as I can tell, Easter was the first offer doled out by the ‘Cuse coaching staff in the 2025 cycle.

He earned All-America honors as a freshman, and Easter proved equally as impressive as a sophomore for Emmanuel Christian during the recently completed 2022-23 season.

According to recent reports from the Toledo Blade, during the 2022-23 regular season, Easter averaged 33.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 3.6 steals per contest. He helped lead Emmanuel Christian to a 21-4 overall record and the program’s first Toledo Area Athletic Conference (“TAAC”) championship dating back to 1998, per the Toledo Blade.

Easter, according to his high school, was named the District 7 Division III player of the year and the TAAC player of the year. He was also recently selected to the Division III All-Ohio first team and was a finalist for the 2023 Ohio Mr. Basketball award.

While his recruiting process likely has a way to go, Easter already has picked up roughly two-dozen offers from a range of high-major programs. Besides Syracuse basketball, his offer sheet includes St. John’s, Illinois, Southern California, Louisville, Memphis, Michigan State, Ohio State, Mississippi State, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, UCLA, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Arizona State, Missouri, New Mexico State, Bowling Green, Morgan State, Northern Illinois, Oakland, Toledo and Cleveland State.

As I noted in another recent column, blue-blood programs Kansas and Kentucky are showing interest in Easter.

In late January, college basketball insider Adam Zagoria published a piece that discussed some schools Easter may be eyeing for upcoming visits, and the Orange was mentioned as a possible trip for him.

It would definitely prove huge if Syracuse basketball coaches could get Easter to the Hill for a visit down the line.

Regarding the USA Basketball junior national team minicamp that is currently going on, besides Easter, a few participants that ‘Cuse recruiting enthusiasts should recognize are 2024 five-star guard Ian Jackson, 2024 five-star point guard Boogie Fland, and 2024 four-star point guard Robert Wright III.

All three hold Syracuse basketball scholarship offers. Jackson is verbally committed to North Carolina. Wright is verbally committed to Baylor. I’ve been told that the Orange coaching staff is no longer actively recruiting Fland.

"Per On3 national analyst Jamie Shaw, high-school players at this minicamp are vying to make the USA Basketball junior national team “in each of their respective age groups. This group of players will be dwindled down to 25 or so for callbacks in a couple of months. From there, the teams will go and compete with the USA across their chest in a FIBA world event this summer.”"