The nation's No. 2 prospect in the rising high school senior class wants to visit Syracuse basketball again.
Jordan Smith Jr., an elite shooting guard out of the Washington, D.C., market, has locked in upcoming official visits to Southeastern Conference powerhouses Arkansas and Kentucky, according to On3/Rivals national reporter Joe Tipton and other media reports.
5⭐️ Jordan Smith Jr. has scheduled official visits to Arkansas and Kentucky, he tells @Rivals.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) July 22, 2025
The 6-2 guard says he would also like to visit Louisville, Duke, Indiana, Georgetown, and Syracuse before making a commitment.
Smith discusses each of those programs:… pic.twitter.com/IYrYxHatN9
The 6-foot-3 Smith, a five-star prospect ranked as high as No. 2 overall in his class, also wants to visit Duke, Syracuse basketball, Louisville, Georgetown and Indiana before making his college decision, Tipton wrote in a recent post on X.
Smith took an unofficial visit to the Hill last September. He has said in interviews that he wants to officially visit the Orange, too. Smith is extremely close with 'Cuse assistant coach Brenden Straughn, who has recruited Smith extremely hard for a while now.
Smith's only official to date has been to Duke. Currently, the Blue Devils hold a slight lead for him, according to the Rivals Recruiting Prediction Machine.
Syracuse basketball faces steep competition for 5-star Jordan Smith Jr.
Smith is an All-American rising senior at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Va. While national analysts tell me that Smith may not be poised to occupy the top spot in 2026, experts note that he's likely the most ready among those in the senior cycle to make an immediate impact in college, based on his defensive prowess in particular.
Earlier this month, at the annual Peach Jam tournament on Nike's EYBL circuit in North Augusta, S.C., Smith earned top honors from The Circuit after averaging 20.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, although his D.C.-based Team Takeover was knocked out before the quarterfinal round.
Straughn and the Orange staff have been on hand for Smith on many occasions since first offering him a scholarship in early May of 2023. Without question, he is one of the top targets for the 'Cuse in the 2026 class.
I'll be keeping tabs on Smith's official visit schedule. I'm confident he will end up making a second trip to Central New York sometime this fall. Two other top prospects for Syracuse basketball in 2026 are five-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr. and four-star wing/small forward Vaughn Karvala.
Both Rippey, a top-20 national prospect from New York City, and Karvala, a top-30 national prospect from Wisconsin, will officially visit the Orange during the weekend that begins on September 26.