Syracuse Basketball: 4-star center plans to visit the Orange for Elite Camp

Ben Winker, a fast-rising four-star center in the 2025 class from St. Louis, plans to take an unofficial visit to Syracuse basketball for the team’s annual Elite Camp, according to a recruiting analyst.

The 6-foot-10, 220-pound Winker also made a trip to Central New York last year to compete in the Orange’s Elite Camp, which was held in late August. I haven’t come across a specific date for the team’s 2023 Elite Camp, although my assumption is that it will transpire sometime this coming August.

According to a recent tweet from recruiting analyst Jake Lieberman, Winker will visit both the ‘Cuse and Austin Peay to attend their respective Elite Camps.

It’s still early in his recruitment, but Winker does have a scholarship offer in hand from Southeast Missouri State. Per multiple reports, he also holds interest from Syracuse basketball, among numerous other schools.

Ben Winker, a 2025 four-star center, will visit Syracuse basketball to play in its Elite Camp.

Winker is a rising junior at the Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis. This spring and summer on the AAU circuit, he has suited up for the 16U squad of the St. Louis-based Bradley Beal Elite in Nike’s EYBL league.

Several of the primary recruiting services don’t currently have Winker within their 2025 national rankings at this time. However, ESPN does place him as four stars, the No. 27 center and the No. 4 prospect in Missouri within the rising-junior class.

Lieberman’s tweet notes that Winker has garnered interest from schools such as Missouri, Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Arkansas and Oklahoma State, among others.

On June 15, college coaches could begin initiating direct communication with 2025 prospects. In early July, Lieberman said on Twitter that Winker has had communication with a range of college teams, including Syracuse basketball.

Under his bio on Rivals.com, several other squads are listed as having some level of interest in Winker, including Duke, Illinois and Ole Miss, among others.

Per reports, not long after playing in the Orange’s Elite Camp last August, Winker took another unofficial visit to the Hill, during which time he got a tour of the team’s Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center from Adrian Autry, who is now the ‘Cuse head coach after replacing the Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim, who retired this past March.

https://twitter.com/BenWinker2025/status/1673011594194829313

To date, as far as I can tell, Syracuse basketball has offered scholarships to 12 players in the 2025 cycle, although most of them are point guards, shooting guards and small forwards. Only one of those offers has gone out to a power forward, fast-rising four-star Nikola Bundalo.

The 6-foot-9 Bundalo, offered by the Orange in May, will spend his junior year at the Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio.

I’m not aware of any 2025 centers having been offered by Syracuse basketball at this point. Maybe Winker will pick one up in the future. He seems to be an emerging national-level player in this cycle.