Syracuse basketball 2025 four-star recruiting target Jerry Easter II from Ohio, who has been sensational on the AAU circuit this spring and is nearing five-star status, will transfer to the country’s most prestigious high-school hoops league.
The 6-foot-4 point guard, an All-American as a freshman and a sophomore in high school, will transfer for his junior year to the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind., according to a social media post.
La Lumiere is a member of the prestigious National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (“NIBC”), a 10-team league that includes some of the nation’s top independent basketball academies and prep-school squads.
MAJOR score for @LaLuBasketball with 2025 five-star point guard @JerryEast8 in La Porte! #NIBC pic.twitter.com/d0vLEgeEp1
— NIBC (@NIBCOfficial) June 7, 2023
Syracuse basketball rising sophomore J.J. Starling, a transfer guard from Notre Dame, suited up for La Lumiere prior to joining the Fighting Irish.
In the 2023-24 campaign, Easter will transfer to the Lakers from the Emmanuel Christian School in Toledo, Ohio, where he earned both freshman and sophomore All-America honors from MaxPreps. A huge congrats to Jerry on his upcoming move to La Lumiere!
Syracuse basketball priority recruit Jerry Easter II has proven on fire in AAU this spring.
Dating back to late April, Nike’s EYBL league has held four regular-season sessions prior to its annual Peach Jam tournament taking place in early July. In these sessions, as I noted in another recent column, Easter has been a top-20 scorer within the 17U division, averaging 17.4 points per game.
It’s important to note here that as he has competed for the Columbus, Ohio-based All Ohio Red, Easter has been playing up a division, as most 2025 prospects are suiting up in the EYBL’s 16U division.
Even though his recruiting process likely has a way to go, he has already collected more than 20 scholarship offers, from teams such as Texas A&M, St. John’s, Illinois, Southern California, Louisville, Memphis, Michigan State, Ohio State, Mississippi State, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, UCLA, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Arizona State, Missouri and many other schools.
Syracuse basketball coaches got involved with Easter relatively early on, offering him a scholarship in July of 2022. There are some intriguing connections here between the Orange program and Easter.
His dad is close friends with Syracuse basketball legend Derrick Coleman, and Easter is good friends with 2025 four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony from New York City, who is another priority recruit for the Orange in the sophomore cycle.
Even though Easter already has an extensive offer sheet, I would imagine his list will further grow in mid-June, when the contact period opens up and college coaches are then able to initiate direct communication with 2025 players.
All of the primary recruiting services presently rate Easter as a top-50 overall prospect in his class. ESPN recently placed him at No. 22 nationally and No. 5 at point guard within the 2025 cycle. As he continues to soar in grassroots basketball, look for Easter to attain five-star status.
Plus, when he suits up in the NIBC, Easter will get further national exposure, as teams in this league play some of their games on national broadcasts. In 2022-23, per MaxPreps national basketball editor Jordan Divens, La Lumiere finished at 18-10 and checked in at No. 8 across the country in one of Divens’ final sets of rankings for last season.
In late April, the NIBC announced that the powerhouse Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., would join as a member. Two current Syracuse basketball players competed in the NIBC.
Rising sophomore point guard Judah Mintz was a star for the Oak Hill Academy from Mouth of Wilson, Va., while rising sophomore forward Chris Bell suited up for the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah.
Looking ahead to 2023-24, besides Easter playing for La Lumiere, Anthony will be a junior at another NIBC member, the juggernaut Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, N.Y. He transferred there earlier this year from Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village, N.Y.
Recent media reports have indicated that Easter may be eyeing a visit to Syracuse basketball at some point in the near future, so I’ll continue to monitor if and when that occurs.