Syracuse Basketball: Orange reaches out to Texas A&M big-man transfer

According to a report, Syracuse basketball coaches have reached out to a big man from Texas A&M who is in the NCAA’s transfer portal.

Per a tweet from recruiting analyst Jake Weingarten, the founder of Stockrisers.com, the Orange is among the teams that have reportedly reached out to Javonte Brown-Ferguson, a 7-foot, 255-pound power forward/center.

Weingarten’s tweet says that Brown-Ferguson has heard from Syracuse basketball, San Diego State, Oregon State, California Baptist, George Mason and Western Michigan.

Brown-Ferguson began his collegiate career at UConn and has suited up for the Aggies over the past two campaigns. In the recently completed 2022-23 season, as a sophomore, Brown-Ferguson only appeared in seven games for Texas A&M.

In 2022-23, per ESPN statistics, he averaged 3.1 minutes, 1.7 points and 1.6 rebounds per game, while connecting on 54.5 percent from the field. He also seems to have had a personal situation while at Texas A&M, according to this report.

Syracuse basketball coaches are mining the transfer portal for an experienced center.

Orange head coach Adrian Autry recently said on a podcast that a top priority for the team’s staff ahead of 2023-24 is to find a veteran center, given that senior Jesse Edwards recently transferred to West Virginia.

Media reports and comments from recruiting experts have suggested that Syracuse basketball coaches have possibly shown interest in several transfer centers on the open market, including Michigan junior Hunter Dickinson, Oklahoma State junior Moussa Cisse, and North Texas junior Abou Ousmane.

I’m not getting a good feeling about the Orange’s chances with Dickinson. Ousmane recently committed to Xavier. We’ll see if the ‘Cuse ends up a significant contender for Cisse.

Papa Kante, a 2023 four-star center who was offered by Syracuse basketball a while back, is requesting a release from his national letter of intent to Michigan and plans to reopen his recruitment back up.

Kante is a standout for a prep school in Connecticut, but he’s also a high-school senior. Looking toward the Orange’s 2023-24 roster, the squad does have three centers, and one of them is a 2023 three-star commit in William Patterson out of The Patrick School in Hillside, N.J.

It’s not clear to me at this time whether Autry and his assistants would make another run at Kante, unless they felt he was the best option available.

Getting back to Brown-Ferguson, a sophomore, his hometown is in Baltimore, according to recruiting services. He was a four-star prospect in the 2020 class, per several recruiting Web sites.

Prior to joining UConn, Brown-Ferguson attended the Thornlea Secondary School in Thornhill, Ontario.

According to his bio on Rivals.com, Brown-Ferguson’s offer sheet while in high school included Kansas, Georgetown, Maryland, Oklahoma, Providence, Seton Hall and Stanford, among others.

In his cycle, 247Sports rated Brown-Ferguson as the No. 127 overall prospect, the No. 22 center and the No. 2 player in Ontario.