Syracuse Basketball: 5-star Sadiq White to IMG, a preseason top-10 team, per analyst

Syracuse basketball 2025 commit Sadiq White Jr., a five-star forward and a top-20 national prospect in his class, announced via social media on Sunday that he will spend his senior year at the powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

The 6-foot-8 White disclosed this big-time development on his Instagram page, and the news was also reported on X by top high school hoops analyst/scout Samad Hines.

IMG is one of the premier independent basketball academies around the country. The Ascenders suit up in arguably the country's top high school basketball conference, the 14-team Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic (“EYBL Scholastic”).

While playing for IMG in the upcoming 2024-25 season, White will face elite competition during EYBL Scholastic play and at other annual showcases. Some of his games are likely to air on national broadcasts as well.

A huge congrats to Sadiq, who as a junior in 2023-24 earned All-America honors while starring for the nationally ranked Myers Park High School in Charlotte, N.C.

Syracuse basketball commit Sadiq White Jr. is headed to the Sunshine State for his senior year.

In late May, White verbally pledged to the Orange over other finalists Alabama, Southern California, Georgetown, LSU, Tennessee, and Texas. That move is a huge jump-start to the 'Cuse 2025 class, as head coach Adrian Autry and his top-flight staff continue to pursue numerous other highly rated prospects in this cycle.

On Sunday, the industry-generated 247Sports Composite placed the Orange's 2025 class at No. 10 around the country. Lately, several national analysts have opined that Syracuse basketball is well-positioned to haul in a special 2025 cycle, buoyed by this first commitment from White, who himself has said that he's helping recruit other 'Cuse priority targets to join him on the Hill.

In 2023-24, IMG went 20-9 overall and finished No. 6 nationwide in one set of rankings from MaxPreps. ESPN, meanwhile, had the Ascenders at No. 12 nationally in its final top 25 for the 2023-24 campaign.

One of the stars for IMG this past term was Syracuse basketball incoming freshman Donnie Freeman from Washington, D.C., a 2024 five-star power forward rated as high as No. 6 overall in the senior class.

As a senior with the Ascenders, Freeman in EYBL Scholastic regular-season affairs was a top-10 scorer and that league's No. 2 rebounder. Earlier this spring, he participated in several prestigious All-America contests.

On Sunday, Hines told me that as it currently stands, he has IMG at No. 7 in his preseason national rankings for 2024-25. He added that the Ascenders, given their talented roster that now includes White, are a contender for the EYBL Scholastic regular-season title as well as a return trip to the annual Chipotle Nationals, which every year crowns a national champion in high school basketball.

This past April, at the Chipotle Nationals in Brownsburg, Ind., the No. 7 seed IMG fell to the eventual runner-up, the No. 2 seed St. Paul VI Catholic High School from Chantilly, Va., a juggernaut program led by Orange 2026 priority recruit Jordan Smith Jr., a five-star shooting guard who is in the running for the No. 1 overall spot in his cycle.

Last month, White earned top honors for his performances at the annual Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C., on Nike's EYBL circuit. While there, he averaged 17.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 1.0 assists per game for the 17U squad of the Charlotte-based Team United, landing on The Circuit's All-Peach Jam second unit.

I'm excited that 'Cuse fans will have an opportunity to watch some of White's high school encounters in 2024-25, and he will square off against Syracuse basketball four-star and five-star targets amid EYBL Scholastic competition and at other events.