Syracuse Basketball: 5-star recruit Jalil Bethea jumps to No. 4 nationwide

Five-star rising senior Jalil Bethea from the Philadelphia area, who has Syracuse basketball in his top five and will reportedly take a second official visit to the Hill this September, continues to rise up the national rankings in the 2024 class.

Not too long ago, MADE Hoops updated its national ratings for this class, and the elite 6-foot-4 guard is now No. 4 across the country. I’ve said this multiple times now: I believe that the way he is trending, Jalil Bethea can make a run at the top overall spot in his class.

It has proven a meteoric rise for Bethea, who is arguably the hottest prospect around the country in the 2024 cycle. When the ‘Cuse coaching staff offered him a scholarship in September of 2022, several recruiting services placed Bethea inside the top 100.

However, these days, after an All-American junior season for Archbishop Wood Catholic High School in Warminster, Pa., and a stellar most recent AAU season for the Philadelphia-based Team Final in Nike’s EYBL league, Jalil Bethea has seen his stock absolutely skyrocket.

Syracuse basketball five-star priority recruit Jalil Bethea is in the top five of new 2024 national rankings.

At present, all of the primary recruiting services have him rated inside the top 20 of this cycle. ESPN has Bethea at No. 9 nationwide. The two industry-generated rating systems, the 247Sports Composite and the On3 Industry Ranking, situate Jalil Bethea as five stars and in the top 12 of the 2024 class.

Additionally, the main recruiting Web sites rank him as a top-four shooting guard and the No. 1 prospect in Pennsylvania within the rising-senior cycle.

Not too long ago, Bethea revealed a top five of Syracuse basketball, Alabama, Kansas, Miami and Villanova. He has received more than 20 scholarship offers from a range of high-major programs throughout his recruiting process.

Recent media reports have stated that he plans to officially visit Kansas, Miami and Alabama over the next few months. Jalil Bethea made an official visit to the Orange in late October of 2022. SyracuseOnSI publisher Mike McAllister and college basketball insider Adam Zagoria recently reported that Bethea plans to take a second official visit to the ‘Cuse during the weekend of September 15.

This is critical, because his trip to Central New York will allow Jalil Bethea to watch Orange practices under first-year head coach Adrian Autry and his assistants. Autry has said he’s likely to play a mix of man-to-man and zone defenses in the upcoming season, and he’s also looking to play a more fast-paced, up-tempo and cohesive style of basketball than his predecessor, the Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim, who retired this past March.

To me, the ‘Cuse coaching staff has done everything possible to show Jalil Bethea that he’s their top priority in the 2024 class. Syracuse basketball coaches will, come mid-September, have hosted him on two official visits.

They watched him during Archbishop Wood’s 2022-23 postseason play. Orange coaches visited Jalil Bethea at his high school. They’ve checked him out multiple times during NCAA live periods in recent months on the AAU circuit.

To date, I haven’t come across any analyst predictions in Bethea’s recruitment on the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com or the On3 Web site. Given that he’s taking numerous official visits in the coming months, it’s likely we won’t hear about a college decision by Jalil Bethea until the late fall or early winter.