Syracuse Basketball: 4-star Elijah Moore wants to win, lead, be a positive influence

New York City four-star shooting guard Elijah Moore, who is officially signed with the Orange in its stellar 2024 class, is excited to do whatever he can to help Syracuse basketball win while being a positive influence in the Central New York community.

The 6-foot-5 Moore, a top-60 national prospect and a top-10 shooting guard per 247Sports, had a tremendous senior season during the recently completed 2023-24 campaign, including an outburst on his senior night where he dropped a ridiculous 67 points.

Moore, a hard-working prospect and just an all-around likable young man, recently shared a lot of interesting thoughts during a podcast interview with the X account Light It Up Sports.

I highly recommend that you carve out some time and listen to this interview, and I'll provide a few highlights here.

Syracuse basketball has one of the country's top shooting guards in 2024 commit Elijah Moore.

Moore, similar to other Orange commits in its 2024 cycle, both at the high school level and via the transfer portal, is laser-focused on winning when he gets to the Hill. Sure, he wants to contribute and produce individually, but he's said more than once that he will do whatever possible to propel the 'Cuse to more victories and aid the team in returning to the NCAA Tournament following a three-year absence.

Moore told Light It Up Sports that he's a positive person and a strong leader. I can definitely see that. Moore says he's also level-headed, a gym rat, and a friend to those who need it. He added that he wants to play his part in making an impact in the greater Syracuse community, which is wonderful.

In 2023-24 as a senior, Moore was a standout at the Our Saviour Lutheran School in the Bronx, N.Y., which is part of the Atlanta-based professional league Overtime Elite, operating there as JellyFam.

He proved a top-10 scorer in both the Overtime Elite regular season and that league's playoffs. In mid-March, on senior night for Our Saviour Lutheran, Moore scored 67 points on 13-of-19 shooting from beyond the arc. His team prevailed, 133-86, against the Compass Basketball Academy from Bridgewater, N.J.

Moore told Light It Up Sports that during this game, he was playing free and didn't have any worries. He just let shots go, they were falling, and he had a ton of fun, particularly since Our Saviour Lutheran won and Moore was able to share the moment with his family in attendance as well as his teammates.

Battling top-flight competition during 2023-24 in Overtime Elite, Moore says that it's prepared him for playing at Syracuse basketball and in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He's worked hard to enhance his all-around game, and he's pumped to play in front of tens of thousands of fans at the JMA Wireless Dome.

For years, experts have praised Moore for his 3-point shooting. However, over the last year or two, as far as I can tell, he's earned equal praise from recruiting analysts and scouts for his court vision and passing abilities, his defensive instincts, his rebounding, and his prowess in scoring at all three levels, and not just from the perimeter.

The other high school senior in the Orange's 2024 class is Donnie Freeman, a five-star power forward from Washington, D.C. Moore says it will be "cool" to arrive on the Hill and compete alongside Freeman, who like Moore has a diverse and versatile skill set.

Moore says that Freeman, too, just wants to win. They want to come in and change the culture at Syracuse basketball, in a certain sense, by helping return the Orange to its glory days.