Syracuse Basketball: With Cooper Flagg re-class, 5-star recruit up to No. 2

Syracuse basketball 2025 five-star target Darryn Peterson has moved up to No. 2 across the country in the national rankings for his class, according to several recruiting services.

The 6-foot-5 shooting guard, who picked up a scholarship offer from the Orange coaching staff in late April, received the rating bump after another elite 2025 player, Cooper Flagg, recently decided to reclassify from that cycle and into the 2024 class.

The 6-foot-9 Flagg, a five-star power forward out of the powerhouse Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., has become the new No. 1 national prospect in the 2024 cycle, according to all of the main recruiting Web sites.

At this juncture, per a couple of recruiting services, Peterson is No. 2 nationally in the 2025 class, trailing only five-star Cameron Boozer, a 6-foot-9 power forward who goes to Christopher Columbus High School in Miami.

Darryn Peterson, who holds a Syracuse basketball offer, is now No. 2 nationwide in his class.

It’s logical to assume that Peterson, at No. 2 overall in the 2025 cycle, might prove a contender for the No. 1 national ranking in the rising-junior class. He’s No. 2, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, 247Sports, the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking and On3.

ESPN and Rivals.com, when I wrote this article, had him at No. 3. While I’m not a recruiting analyst, I do get the sense that it may be tough for Peterson to pass Boozer for the top spot in 2025. We’ll see.

Either way, Peterson is an elite high-school prospect, and the Orange likely faces an uphill battle in trying to prevail for him. Brandon Jenkins, a 247Sports national analyst, recently wrote that Peterson is “arguably the best guard prospect in the high school game.”

What’s more, in a recent piece, 247Sports national analysts and scouts debated the 15 best high-school players around the country, regardless of class designation. Peterson was included in that story.

Not too long ago, as I noted in a separate column, Peterson said on social media that he was transferring to a top-notch prep-school program, Huntington Expression Prep in Huntington, W.Va., for his junior year in 2023-24.

A season ago in 2022-23, as a sophomore, Peterson landed first-team All-America honors from MaxPreps as he averaged 31 points and nine rebounds per game for the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Beyond Syracuse basketball, his growing offer sheet includes Louisville, 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.

In June, Peterson was a standout for the USA U16 national team, which that month captured the gold medal at the 2023 FIBA U16 Americas Championship in Merida, Mexico. Over the spring and summer, he also earned high marks from analysts and scouts for his play with the Ohio-based Team Phenom United in the Adidas 3SSB league on the AAU circuit.