Syracuse Basketball: 4-star NYC recruit electric in AAU, jumps into top 50

Four-star Brandon Stores Jr., a fast-rising 2025 wing from New York City who holds a Syracuse basketball scholarship offer, continues to climb in the national rankings, according to one of the primary recruiting services.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard/small forward has played at a really high level this spring and summer in grassroots basketball. In fact, Stores in recent months has proven one of the top scorers across the entire 16U division on Nike’s EYBL circuit while suiting up for the New York City-based NY Renaissance.

According to his high-school head coach, Stores picked up an offer from the Orange coaching staff in February of 2022.

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In mid-June, the contact period for the 2025 class opened up, meaning that college coaches could begin initiating direct communication with prospects in the rising-junior cycle.

Social media posts indicated that once the contact period opened up, Stores heard from a variety of teams, including the ‘Cuse, Providence, Rutgers, Penn State, Xavier, Oklahoma State and Seton Hall, among others.

Syracuse basketball 2025 four-star target Brandon Stores Jr. has been terrific on the AAU circuit.

Dating back to the spring, Stores has been a star for the NY Renaissance on the Nike circuit. During the EYBL regular season, which ran from late April to late May, Stores averaged 19.8 points per game, which placed him at No. 6 overall in the 16U division.

At the EYBL’s annual Peach Jam tournament, which took place in early July in North Augusta, S.C., Stores was again showing off his scoring prowess, as he averaged 16.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

When I wrote about him this past February, Stores entered the 2025 national rankings as four stars and No. 65 overall, according to Rivals.com. More recently, when Rivals.com updated its ratings for this class, Stores made a big leap, jumping 18 spots to No. 47 around the country.

ESPN also has him as four stars, although he didn’t make the top 60 per this recruiting service. At the time of this writing, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite rated Stores as four stars, No. 80 nationwide, No. 17 at small forward and No. 4 in New York. The industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking, when I penned this piece, ranked Stores just outside the top 100.

According to recruiting Web sites, besides Syracuse basketball, Stores’ offer sheet includes Xavier, Mike Hopkins-led Washington, George Mason and Manhattan. About a week ago, a tweet from Hitmen Hoops Scouting stated that, these days, Stores is hearing the most from Rutgers, Providence and Penn State.

In the 2022-23 season, as a sophomore, Stores put forth some big-time scoring performances as a standout for the St. Raymond High School for Boys in the Bronx, N.Y. A campaign ago, he was selected to the New York state Catholic High School Athletic Association (“CHSAA”) “AA” All-League first team.