Here's what wing Calvin Russell, the 5-star WR signee, brings to Syracuse basketball

SU football 2026 five-star WR signee Calvin Russell III has joined Syracuse basketball, the program officially announced on Sunday, something that I first reported last summer was expected to happen. This had been a long time coming, and it's exciting.

The 6-foot-5, 190-pound Russell, a top-25 national prospect in the 2026 high school football class, has enrolled at Syracuse University for its spring semester, which began on Monday. He is expected to start practicing with 'Cuse hoops and be available for upcoming games. Syracuse basketball will host Florida State at the JMA Wireless Dome on Tuesday night.

Now, let's be real. Russell, a talented wing, likely won't be getting a lot of run for Orange hoops any time soon, but make no mistake about it, while he's a five-star football player, Russell is excellent in basketball, too. That was the consensus among numerous analysts and scouts whom I spoke to about Russell's hoops skill set last July, not long after he verbally committed to Syracuse football.

Syracuse basketball has 13 main scholarship players, along with sophomore guard Noah Lobdell. The team can have up to 15. Russell, who was a standout at Miami Northwestern Senior High School, won't need to be on scholarship in hoops, because he is with Syracuse football.

What is Syracuse basketball getting in Calvin Russell III?

Head coach Adrian Autry and his staff have forged a strong relationship with Russell throughout his recruitment in high school as a two-sport star, I've been told on numerous occasions. On the basketball court, Russell is a talented and versatile wing who has great athleticism, length and positional size.

While he is more of a wing, analysts and scouts say that Russell plays like a point guard. He's got terrific court vision and basketball IQ, rebounds well, is a high-energy guy and gets after it defensively. He also has a good handle, a soft touch from the perimeter and plays effectively through contact when driving to the rim.

Last summer, Scott Golden, who runs the Hoop Exchange and is a big-time expert on high school basketball in the Sunshine State, said of Russell: "He would have easily been a high major basketball player had his focus been with basketball."

Russell has hoops in his DNA. Per SU Athletics, his mom, Chanivia Broussard, was a four-year player with the Miami Hurricanes, scoring 1,482 career points. Broussard was inducted into the Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, according to cuse.com.

Russell can score in droves. As a junior in the 2024-25 season, he averaged 15.2 points per game as Miami Northwestern captured the Greater Miami Athletic Conference title and advanced to the regional semifinals of the Florida Class 4A state playoffs. In those playoffs, he dropped 38 points in one contest.

As a sophomore for the Bulls, Russell averaged 21.0 points per encounter, while he scored 18.8 points per game in his freshman campaign. Over the years, there have been numerous football-basketball crossover players at Syracuse; one who comes to mind is Donovan McNabb, as I overlapped with him for three years when I was a student at SU.

Now, one logistical item here. Syracuse basketball's last regular-season game of the 2025-26 campaign is on March 7. The ACC Tournament will run from March 10 to March 14. Then, the NCAA Tournament follows.

We don't know Syracuse football's spring practice schedule yet, but in 2025, it began on March 21. If Orange hoops, though, ends up playing in the post-season, it's conceivable that Syracuse basketball's 2025-26 season could stretch beyond the start of Syracuse football's spring practices.

If that scenario occurred, what would that mean for Russell's status with Syracuse basketball? Would he leave the team to make the start of spring football practices? I asked spokesmen for both the SU basketball and football programs about that on Monday. Their response, in essence, is that it's too soon to know how that would shake out, especially since the spring-practice schedule isn't yet publicly available.

To me, it would be a "good" problem to have if Russell had to decide whether to be with Syracuse football for the start of spring practices or remain with Syracuse basketball for its postseason journey. That would mean, hopefully, that 'Cuse hoops would have made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021.