Syracuse Basketball: 4-star recruit to prep school where Trey Autry played

Syracuse basketball four-star target Nikola Bundalo, one of the fastest-rising prospects nationwide in the 2025 class, has transferred to a new school for his junior year, according to a media report.

The 6-foot-9 power forward, offered by the Orange coaching staff this past May, will spend the 2023-24 campaign at the Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, per a recent story from recruiting analyst Jake Weingarten, the founder of Stockrisers.com.

As a sophomore in the 2022-23 stanza, Bundalo suited up for Green High School in Uniontown, Ohio. In the most recent season, according to Weingarten, Bundalo averaged 12.5 points and close to six rebounds per contest.

In grassroots basketball, he has been a standout performer this spring for the Charleston, W.Va.-based Wildcat Select in the Adidas 3SSB league.

Syracuse basketball 2025 four-star target Nikola Bundalo has a new home.

Orange recruiting enthusiasts may be familiar with the Western Reserve Academy. In 2022-23, Trey Autry was a senior standout for this program.

The 6-foot-4 Autry, a 2023 three-star guard, is the son of Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry. Trey Autry, in the upcoming season, will be a freshman at George Washington out of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Also on the Western Reserve Academy roster is 2024 four-star small forward Damarius Owens, who is a native of Rochester, N.Y. The 6-foot-7 Owens held a scholarship offer from the ‘Cuse and took an official visit to Syracuse basketball last fall.

Owens, in his recruiting process, had a final three of the Orange, Marquette and Virginia Tech. In mid-February of this year, he verbally committed to Marquette out of the Big East Conference.

Owens and Bundalo, along with the rest of their teammates, should have the Western Reserve Academy poised for a big season in the upcoming 2023-24 campaign.

In recent months, Bundalo has proven one of the hottest prospects around the country, regardless of class designation. Besides Syracuse basketball, his offer sheet has grown to include schools such as Penn State, Nebraska, Georgetown, Cincinnati, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, Seton Hall, Xavier, Rutgers, Kent State and Bryant.

What’s more, as he has shined on the AAU circuit and at events like the prestigious 2023 CrossRoads Elite Invitational in Plainfield, Ind., Bundalo has gone from unranked in the 2025 cycle to four stars and inside the top 35 overall, according to multiple recruiting services.

Recently, 247Sports updated its 2025 national ratings, and it put Bundalo at No. 22 nationally, No. 6 at power forward and No. 2 in Ohio. Over at Rivals.com, when that recruiting service refreshed its national rankings for the rising-junior class, Bundalo arrived at No. 34 overall.

At the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite also had him as a top-30 national prospect and a top-10 power forward within the 2025 cycle.