Recently, it was disclosed by top scout Andrew Slater that Syracuse basketball had offered a scholarship to 2025 big man Nikola Bundalo from Ohio.
The 6-foot-9 power forward attends Green High School in Uniontown, Ohio, and suits up for the Charleston, W.Va.-based Wildcat Select in the Adidas 3SSB league.
Bundalo’s offer is one of the latest in a string of scholarship offers doled out by the Orange coaching staff lately, as the ‘Cuse appears to be ramping up its recruiting efforts within the sophomore cycle.
As far as I can tell, the Orange has offered around 10 prospects in this class, and five of those offers have come in recent weeks as the shoe-sponsored AAU circuits have kicked off their spring seasons in earnest.
Plus, on June 15 of this year, college coaches will be able to start making direct contact with 2025 prospects. It will be interesting to see if Syracuse basketball makes a sizable number of new offers in the sophomore cycle when this contact period does open up.
Syracuse basketball has offered a bevy of four-star and five-star prospects in the 2025 class.
The Orange’s 2025 offers to date have gone out to multiple four-star and five-star players. And these recruits hail from a variety of geographic markets, including New York/New Jersey, Canada, Ohio, North Carolina, Baltimore and the Washington, D.C., region.
Besides Bundalo, Syracuse basketball coaches of late have offered five-star point guard Tyler Jackson from Baltimore, five-star shooting guard Darryn Peterson from Ohio, four-star forward Sadiq White from North Carolina and four-star wing Cam Ward from the D.C. area.
The 6-foot-3 Jackson, rated the No. 1 point guard nationwide in the 2025 class per ESPN, has said he wants to visit the Hill at some point. He is a standout for the Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore and the Baltimore-based Team Thrill in the Under Armour Association league.
The 6-foot-5 Peterson, a significant contender for the No. 1 overall rating in the sophomore cycle, is eying visits to some blue-blood programs in the near future. The first-team All-American in the 2022-23 stanza attends the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and is a member of Team Phenom United in the Adidas 3SSB league.
The 6-foot-8 White, who recently jumped into the top 10 overall according to MADE Hoops, goes to Myers Park High School in Charlotte, N.C., and competes for the Charlotte-based Team United in Nike’s EYBL league.
Ward, a 6-foot-7 guard/small forward, is a star for Largo High School in Upper Marlboro, Md. He runs with the Oxon Hill, Md.-based Team Durant in Nike’s EYBL league.
Those are some of the Orange’s more recent offers, but the ‘Cuse is pursuing other 2025 prospects, including four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony from New York City, who recently said that Syracuse basketball is among the teams reaching out to him the most.
Syracuse basketball offered four-star point guard Jerry Easter II from Ohio last summer, and he has been an All-American each of his two seasons in high school. Easter has spoken highly of the ‘Cuse, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up taking a visit to the Orange at some point.
Other 2025 players who hold ‘Cuse offers include five-star combo guard Darius Adams from New Jersey and four-star Canadian wing Efeosa Oliogu. I don’t get the sense that Syracuse basketball is a significant contender for Oliogu at this juncture. I’m really high on Adams, who was an All-American during his sophomore campaign in 2022-23.
I love that Syracuse basketball coaches appear to be pursuing big-time players in 2025. In all fairness, though, these targets likely have a long way to go in their recruiting processes, particularly since the contact period isn’t even open yet.
We’ll have to see further down the line whether the Orange can land commitments from some of these highly coveted recruits in the sophomore class.