Syracuse Basketball: 4-star high on SU playing style, has Kansas interest

Syracuse basketball is among a handful of schools recruiting 2025 four-star combo guard Derek Dixon from Washington, D.C., the hardest these days, he recently told a national analyst.

The 6-foot-4 Dixon, who officially visited the Hill not too long ago, is rated as a top-80 national prospect and a top-10 combo guard in the junior cycle, according to multiple recruiting services.

A standout for the powerhouse Gonzaga College High School in D.C. and the Washington-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league, Dixon holds a bunch of scholarship offers from various high-major programs.

He was offered by the ‘Cuse coaching staff on June 15 of this year, and Dixon also notes that he is receiving interest from Big 12 Conference juggernaut Kansas, which won the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse basketball is a strong contender for 2025 four-star combo guard Derek Dixon.

Dixon is poised for a great 2023-24 campaign at Gonzaga, which is rated in the top 15 nationally according to a late August preseason top 25 from top high-school hoops analyst Samad Hines.

Gonzaga competes in the absolutely stacked Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (“WCAC”), and in 2023-24, Dixon will go up against some of the best teams around the country as well as various other Orange recruiting targets.

Besides his official visit to the ‘Cuse, which went quite well, Dixon has taken unofficial visits to both Pittsburgh and Virginia, and he was scheduled to make a trip to Villanova this weekend.

He told MADE Hoops national analyst Travis Graf that Villanova, Virginia, Syracuse basketball and Pittsburgh are among the college groups recruiting him the hardest at this juncture. Dixon’s full offer sheet includes schools such as West Virginia, Iowa, Miami, Mississippi State, Virginia, Villanova, Xavier, Penn State, Maryland, Providence, Saint Joseph’s, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Kansas State, Bryant, George Mason, Fordham, East Carolina and Norfolk State.

The Jayhawks, though, are certainly a team to monitor here. Per Graf, Dixon checks in at No. 51 nationwide in MADE Hoops’ 2025 rankings, and even Graf acknowledges that rating “still might be too low.”

"Regarding the Orange, Dixon said to Graf, “I just took an official there and they’ve been recruiting me really hard. They’re definitely showing me that they really want me. Just the playing style and the way the coaches think they could use me is really good.”"

To that end, Syracuse basketball first-year head coach Adrian Autry has said on numerous occasions ahead of the 2023-24 season the Orange is going to primarily rely on man-to-man defense, utilize a deep rotation, and play at an up-tempo pace, which could include more pressure defense and getting out in transition on offense following forced turnovers or defensive rebounds.

That sort of playing style emphasized by Autry and his assistants is exciting to many Syracuse basketball fans, myself included, and I’m not surprised that it’s also appealing to ‘Cuse recruiting targets, such as Dixon.