Syracuse basketball 4-star target Jalil Bethea soars inside top 20 nationally

At this rate, Syracuse basketball 2024 four-star priority recruit Jalil Bethea may attain five stars and crack the top 10 across the country within his class in the near future.

The 6-foot-4 point guard/shooting guard, a top target of Orange coaches in the junior recruiting cycle, is up to No. 18 nationwide in 2024 player rankings from MADE Hoops, per a recent tweet from Eric Hampford, who is the national scouting director for MADE Hoops.

Several other recruiting services, when they recently updated their own 2024 national ratings, moved up Jalil Bethea considerably. In fact, lately, he’s made some of the largest leaps around the country, into the top 40 from On3 and Rivals.com, as well as inside the top 20 according to MADE Hoops.

Bethea is a standout for Archbishop Wood Catholic High School in Warminster, Pa., which in the 2022-23 term got to the semifinals of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (“PIAA”) 6A tournament.

Syracuse basketball is prioritizing 2024 four-star guard Jalil Bethea.

The Orange coaching staff offered a scholarship to Bethea in September of 2022. The following month, he took an official visit to the Hill. Last month, during post-season play for his high-school squad, Syracuse basketball coaches watched Bethea twice in person.

Throughout his recruitment, Jalil Bethea has received more than 20 offers from a range of high-major programs, including Miami, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Temple, UCLA, Villanova, VCU, Mississippi State and West Virginia, among others.

I’ve gotten the sense that the ‘Cuse is one of his top contenders, along with others including 2023 Final Four participant Miami and Villanova, which won national titles in 2016 and 2018.

Bethea was terrific as a junior in 2022-23 for Archbishop Wood, capturing MVP honors in the loaded Philadelphia Catholic League. He was also recently named to the MaxPreps All-America third team in the 2024 recruiting cycle for the 2022-23 stanza.

Jordan Divens, MaxPreps’ national basketball editor, notes that in 2022-23 conference play, Bethea averaged 24.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per contest. Archbishop Wood went 19-9 overall this past season.

Bethea has said on more than one occasion in interviews that he has forged a strong relationship with Syracuse basketball associate head coach Gerry McNamara.

In grassroots basketball, Jalil Bethea suits up for the Philadelphia-based Team Final in Nike’s EYBL league. Last weekend at an early AAU event for the spring and summer circuit, he won high praise from national analysts and scouts for his play at the MADE Hoops East Warmup in Manalapan, N.J.

Assuming that Bethea fares well in the coming months at AAU competitions, it wouldn’t surprise me if he reaches five stars and vaults into the top 25 overall, according to the majority of recruiting services.

Recently, he skyrocketed from No. 72 to No. 32 nationwide in the 2024 cycle, per On3. Also, when Rivals.com refreshed its junior-class national ratings, Jalil Bethea soared from No. 80 to No. 39 nationally.

At the time of this writing, both the industry-generated 247Sports Composite and the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking had him inside the top 60 of the 2024 cycle.