4-star guard who eyes Syracuse basketball visit in top 100 in new rankings

On3, one of the primary recruiting services, recently updated its top 150 national rankings for the 2025 class, and Syracuse basketball target DeMarco Johnson from the west coast found himself inside the top 100 in these refreshed ratings.

The 6-foot-3 Johnson, a fast-rising combo guard in the junior class, arrived at No. 97 overall, No. 16 at point guard and No. 10 in California within On3’s new rankings for the 2025 cycle.

Johnson is a standout for the Southern California Academy in Northridge, Calif., which is deemed by some high-school hoops analysts as a preseason top-25 squad ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.

On the AAU circuit, he has played for the Los Angeles-based Elev8 Elite, an Adidas-sponsored program, as well as the Oakland, Calif.-based Oakland Soldiers in Nike’s EYBL league.

Syracuse basketball 2025 target DeMarco Johnson is a top-100 national prospect.

Beyond the Orange, Johnson’s offer sheet includes teams such as Illinois, Virginia Tech, Saint Louis, California State University, Northridge, High Point, California, TCU, Mississippi State, St. John’s, Georgia, Arizona State, New Mexico State, Southern Utah and Duquesne.

Cory DeSanti, the head coach of Elev8 Elite, has told me that Johnson has been receiving interest from some other big-time college programs, including West Virginia, Kansas, Seton Hall, Oregon and Southern California, among others.

Syracuse basketball assistant coach Allen Griffin is the lead recruiter for Johnson. I’ve been told that Johnson wants to take a visit to the Hill at some point, and that trip could end up being an official visit.

Since about a month ago, when the fall recruiting period got going, the Orange coaching staff has welcomed numerous 2024, 2025 and 2026 prospects to the SU campus on either official or unofficial visits.

Those who have visited include 2025 four-star point guard Nigel James, 2025 four-star forward Sadiq White, 2024 four-star power forward Donnie Freeman (who is verbally committed to the ‘Cuse), 2025 four-star big man Matthew Gilhool, 2025 four-star combo guard Derek Dixon and 2026 four-star guard Imahri Wooten, who this past weekend picked up an Orange offer while on an unofficial visit to the ‘Cuse.

Additionally, 2025 four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony is scheduled to officially visit Syracuse basketball later this month.

I really like DeMarco’s game, and I personally think he’s a tad underrated in the junior recruiting cycle. I’ll continue to track his recruitment, and I do hope he ends up taking a visit to Central New York at some point.