Syracuse Basketball: Michigan transfer big Hunter Dickinson plans visits

Hunter Dickinson, a star junior center for Big Ten Conference member Michigan who is in the NCAA’s transfer portal and did a Zoom meeting with Syracuse basketball coaches on Wednesday, is eyeing some visits in the near future.

Per college basketball insider Adam Zagoria, the 7-foot-1 Dickinson plans to visit both Georgetown and Maryland this weekend.

At the end of March, media reports said that Hunter Dickinson was going to enter the transfer portal, a huge development this off-season. Multiple recruiting services, at present, rank him as the No. 1 overall transfer across the country.

Dickinson, who was an All-American as a freshman, has also scored All-Big Ten honors on several occasions during his tenure with the Wolverines. In the 2022-23 season, he averaged 18.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.8 blocks per game, while hitting on 56.0 percent from the field, 42.1 percent from beyond the arc, and 72.7 percent from the charity stripe.

Syracuse basketball is showing interest in Michigan junior big-man transfer Hunter Dickinson.

I found it encouraging that the Orange coaching staff conducted a Zoom with Dickinson on Wednesday, however, he understandably has attracted a bunch of impressive suitors.

In addition to Syracuse basketball, Maryland and Georgetown, other college squads mentioned by recruiting experts as potentially vying for Hunter Dickinson include Arkansas, Kentucky, Villanova, Kansas, Virginia and Duke.

For what it’s worth, on Thursday, On3’s recruiting prediction machine had pegged Maryland and Georgetown as the possible favorites for Dickinson, which is logical for a couple of reasons. For one, the Terrapins and the Hoyas are local teams, given that Dickinson is from Alexandria, Va.

He’s also planning to visit both schools this weekend. When Dickinson starred for DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., as a four-star, top-50 national prospect in the 2020 class, his head coach there was Mike Jones. Maryland recently hired Jones as an assistant coach.

Georgetown is hoping for a resurgence under new head coach Ed Cooley, the former boss at Providence. Lately, Cooley has fared quite well on the recruiting trail for the Hoyas.

The ‘Cuse coaching staff, too, does have some connections to Hunter Dickinson. He held a scholarship offer from Syracuse basketball while at DeMatha Catholic.

When Dickinson and his colleagues at the Washington, D.C.-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league captured the Peach Jam crown in 2018, new Orange assistant coach Brenden Straughn was serving as the associate head coach of Team Takeover.

A while back, ‘Cuse head coach Adrian Autry was a coach for Team Takeover when it was known as Triple Threat. Autry and Straughn each have strong recruiting ties in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region.

Additionally, with Syracuse basketball senior center Jesse Edwards electing earlier this week to enter the transfer portal, there will likely be ample playing time available at the center spot for the Orange in the 2023-24 campaign.

Syracuse basketball coaches are also displaying interest in North Texas transfer Abou Ousmane, a 6-foot-10 power forward/center who averaged 11.1 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.3 blocks per contest in 2022-23.