Former Syracuse basketball 4-star and 5-star prep recruits enter the transfer portal

Over the past few days, multiple former Syracuse basketball four-star and five-star recruits from their high school days have entered the transfer portal, according to media reports and comments from national analysts.

It remains to be seen if the Orange staff will make a run at any of these former 'Cuse targets, but I did want to pass along some information on these college transfers.

Those hitting the portal include North Carolina freshman guard Ian Jackson, Baylor freshman point guard Robert Wight III, Cincinnati freshman wing Tyler Betsey, Nebraska sophomore wing Gavin Griffiths and Georgetown freshman guard Kayvaun Mulready.

While in prep school, all these players held scholarship offers from the Orange coaching staff, except for Mulready, who I believe had garnered interest from 'Cuse coaches.

Syracuse basketball coaches are doing a great job this off-season via the portal.

The current transfer portal window opened on March 24 and runs through April 22. So far, the Orange has secured commitments from at least four college transfers. They are Georgia Tech redshirt freshman big man Ibrahim Souare, Georgia Tech four-star sophomore point guard Naithan George, UCLA three-star junior power forward/center William Kyle lll and Oregon State four-star redshirt junior guard/wing Nate Kingz.

Based on its transfer class, the Orange's two returnees from the 2024-25 season, and the team's four-member 2025 cycle at the high school level, the 'Cuse has 10 players at this juncture for the 2025-26 term, with five scholarships still available.

Jackson, in the 2024 class, was a five-star, top-10 national prospect from New York City. Wight, from the Philadelphia area, was a five-star, top-25 national prospect in the 2024 cycle.

In this same class, Betsey was a four-star, top-50 national prospect who is from Connecticut. Griffiths, also from Connecticut, was a four-star, top-50 national prospect in the 2023 cycle. He started his college career at Rutgers.

Mulready, who hails from Massachusetts, checked in as a four-star, top-70 national prospect in the 2024 class. While he played prep ball in Massachusetts, on the AAU circuit, Mulready ran with the Albany City Rocks in Nike’s EYBL league, a top-flight grassroots program that has sent numerous of its alumni to Syracuse basketball over the years.

When I wrote this article on Tuesday night, I hadn't seen any published reports stating that the Orange staff had contacted any of these college transfers. However, I'll keep my ear to the ground.