Syracuse Basketball: ‘Cuse offers top-50 national prospect from D.C. area

Syracuse basketball coaches keep on offering scholarships to top-flight prospects in the talent-rich Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Cam Ward, a 2025 four-star guard/small forward who was stellar in last weekend’s AAU session and earned a bunch of honors for his 2022-23 season in high school, said on Twitter that he has received a scholarship offer from the Orange.

Ward, a 6-foot-7, high-scoring player who is rated in the top 60 of his class by several recruiting services, is a standout for Largo High School in Upper Marlboro, Md. In grassroots basketball, he is suiting up for the 16U squad of the Oxon Hill, Md.-based Team Durant in Nike’s EYBL league.

Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry and new assistant coach Brenden Straughn, who both have long-time strong ties in the DMV, are recruiting the D.C. market quite hard these days.

In addition to putting on a full-court press for 2024 four-star power forward Donnie Freeman, in recent days, the Orange coaching staff has also offered 2024 four-star guard/small forward Caleb Williams and 2024 four-star center Patrick Ngongba II.

The 6-foot-9 Freeman, the 6-foot-10 Ngongba and the 6-foot-7 Williams all compete for another excellent AAU program in the Washington region, the D.C.-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league.

Syracuse basketball has gotten into the recruiting fray for 2025 four-star wing Cam Ward.

During the recently completed 2022-23 season, Ward was a star for Largo High School, which went 21-7 overall and reached the Maryland Class 2A state title game.

According to various media reports, as a sophomore for the Lions, Ward averaged an impressive 25.4 points, 12.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals per contest.

He was named to The Washington Post’s 2022-23 All-Met first team. Additionally, MaxPreps awarded Ward an honorable-mention nod for its 2022-23 sophomore All-America teams.

Last weekend, amid an NCAA live period, the EYBL held a session of games at the LakePoint Champions Center in Emerson, Ga. Per the EYBL Web site, the Team Durant 16U group went 1-3 overall.

Over those four encounters, Ward averaged 18.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 26.3 minutes per affair, while connecting on 57.4 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from beyond the arc and 76.9 percent from the free-throw line. He had scoring outbursts of 27 points and 26 points in two of those games.

For his performance during this live period, the recruiting analysts and scouts at MADE Hoops named Ward to their 16U All-EYBL team.

According to recruiting services, besides Syracuse basketball, his offer sheet also includes suitors such as Georgetown, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, George Mason, George Washington and Bryant, among others.

When I penned this column, On3 rated Ward at No. 44 nationally, No. 10 at small forward and No. 1 in Maryland. Over at 247Sports, he was No. 55 overall, No. 14 at small forward and No. 1 in Maryland.

Also at the time of this writing, the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking placed Ward at No. 56 nationwide, No. 15 at small forward and No. 2 in Maryland within the 2025 cycle.