Syracuse Basketball: In new rankings, 5-star recruit up to No. 3 nationally

Consensus five-star Darryn Peterson, who holds a Syracuse basketball scholarship offer, is nearing the top of the national rankings for his class.

Lately, all of the primary recruiting services have updated their 2025 national ratings, as the AAU circuit has transpired amid NCAA live periods, along with other showcase events and camps where evaluations could be made by analysts and scouts.

The 6-foot-5 Peterson, a 2025 five-star shooting guard who was a first-team All-American as a sophomore, has arrived as the No. 3 national prospect in the rising-junior cycle, according to all of the main recruiting Web sites, except for Rivals.com, which has him at No. 4 overall.

Since the Orange coaching staff offered a scholarship to Peterson in late April, I’ve started to more closely follow his recruitment. His offer sheet is stacked, unsurprisingly, and some recruiting experts have opined that he could make a run at the No. 1 national ranking in the 2025 class.

It will be a challenge for Peterson to rise to No. 1, though. Ahead of him, at present, are five-star power forward Cameron Boozer out of Christopher Columbus High School in Miami at No. 1, followed by five-star power forward Cooper Flagg with the powerhouse Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., at No. 2.

Boozer and Flagg are tremendous talents, but then again, so is Darryn Peterson.

Syracuse basketball faces steep competition for 2025 five-star shooting guard Darryn Peterson.

As I noted above, Peterson currently checks in at No. 3 across the country in his class, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking, On3, 247Sports and ESPN. All of those recruiting services also place him as the No. 1 shooting guard in the 2025 cycle and the No. 1 player in Ohio.

Last month, Peterson shined on a big stage as the 2023 USA U16 national team claimed the gold medal at the 2023 FIBA U16 Americas Championship in Merida, Mexico. During this event, he averaged 16.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.3 steals per game and was named to the All-Tournament team.

This spring and summer on the AAU circuit, Peterson has earned high marks from analysts and scouts for his play as a member of the Ohio-based Team Phenom United in the Adidas 3SSB league. He even dropped a ridiculous 46 points during one grassroots basketball contest.

During the most recent high-school season, in the 2022-23 campaign, Peterson tallied averages of 31 points, nine rebounds and three steals per contest for the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. In 2022-23, MaxPreps named him a first-team All-American within the sophomore class.

According to Rivals.com, Peterson has already amassed more than two-dozen scholarship offers, from teams such as Kansas, UCLA, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Indiana, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, St. John’s, Texas, West Virginia, Xavier, Alabama, Cincinnati, Illinois, Kansas State, Michigan, TCU, Texas A&M and Washington State, among others.

On June 15, the contact period for the 2025 cycle opened up, enabling college coaches to initiate direct communication with prospects in this class. So I’d expect Peterson’s offer list to further balloon in the near future.

Since it’s still early on in his recruiting process, I’ve yet to see any analyst predictions for Peterson on recruiting Web sites. Understandably, Syracuse basketball is likely to face an uphill battle in trying to win out for him.

In an interview published this week by On3 national analyst Jamie Shaw, Peterson said now that the contact period is open for his class, he and his family are hearing from a lot of schools. At this time, Peterson doesn’t have any official visits finalized, but I imagine some campus trips will be lined up soon.

"“I’ll probably start looking at my recruiting during my junior year,” Peterson said to Shaw. “I want to play for a coach that is going to hold me accountable.”"

It goes without saying that it will be critical for Syracuse basketball coaches to get Peterson on the Hill for an official visit at some point if the ‘Cuse is going to have any sort of realistic shot in his recruitment. Whichever suitor ultimately lands Peterson will have a game-changing player in its 2025 class.