Syracuse Basketball: 5-star Jordan Smith in top 5 overall, moves closer to No. 1 spot

Syracuse basketball coaches are aggressively pursuing 2026 five-star shooting guard Jordan Smith Jr. from the talent-rich Washington, D.C., market, and the elite 6-foot-3 prospect continues to climb up the national rankings for his class.

If this trend continues, Smith could absolutely find himself contending for the No. 1 national ranking in the rising high school junior class, which is tremendous.

Either way, Smith has the attention of the Orange staff and many other impressive suitors around the country, as he has followed up an excellent sophomore season with stellar play of late on the AAU circuit, at showcase events and for the USA Basketball U17 national team.

I noted in another column earlier this week that, as first reported by the X account HS Top Recruits, the 'Cuse coaching staff, among other college programs, recently traveled overseas to watch Smith as he competed for the USA Basketball U17 national team at the 2024 FIBA World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey.

Syracuse basketball 2026 five-star recruit Jordan Smith Jr. could contend for the No. 1 ranking.

Orange coaches, which have strong recruiting ties to Smith's high school team and his AAU program, offered Smith a scholarship in early May of 2023. When the 2026 contact period opened on June 15 of this year, enabling college coaches to initiate direct communication with rising juniors, Smith heard from Syracuse basketball, among many others.

His full offer sheet, to date, includes schools such as Virginia, Oregon, Ohio State, Tennessee, Louisville, Kansas, Rutgers, Penn State, Alabama, Missouri, Villanova, Michigan, Arizona State, Florida State, Houston, Maryland, Providence, Kansas State, Georgetown, Mount St. Mary’s, Virginia Tech and George Mason.

Others, such as Duke and Arkansas, are reportedly showing an interest in Smith and will likely offer him at some point.

Lately, numerous recruiting services have refreshed their 2026 ratings. Smith is currently a consensus top-12 national prospect in his class. Both the industry-generated 247Sports Composite and the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking, at the time of this writing, had him in the top eight overall.

In recent days, when ESPN updated its 2026 rankings, Smith arrived at No. 5 nationwide, No. 2 at shooting guard and No. 1 in Virginia within his cycle.

As a sophomore in the 2023-24 season, Smith earned a variety of local, regional and national honors as he helped lead the powerhouse St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Va., to several championships in the D.C. metropolitan area while also advancing to the title game of early April's Chipotle Nationals in Brownsburg, Ind.

In 2023-24, St. Paul VI was ranked as the No. 1 or No. 2 team nationwide, depending on the media outlet. Looking ahead to 2024-25, the Panthers are forecast as a top-five national group in what will be Smith's junior term.

In grassroots basketball, he is one of the standouts for the 17U squad of the Washington-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league. Later this month, at the EYBL's annual Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C., Team Takeover will be one of the favorites to cut down the nets in the 17U division.

The Peach Jam will run from July 13 to July 21, amid two NCAA live periods on the various shoe-sponsored AAU circuits. I'd expect the Syracuse basketball staff to be on hand for Smith and Team Takeover during one, or both, of these evaluation periods.