Syracuse Basketball: Newly offered top-20 national prospect Qayden Samuels eyes 5 stars

Syracuse basketball has officially entered the recruitment of 2026 four-star guard Qayden Samuels from the talent-rich Washington, D.C., area.

Candidly, I had hoped this would occur. The 6-foot-5 Samuels, listed as either a shooting guard or a small forward on recruiting Web sites, disclosed via his X page that he had landed a 'Cuse scholarship offer from head coach Adrian Autry.

A huge congrats from Orange Nation to Samuels, who is a top-20 national prospect in the rising high school junior class. Over the past few months, Samuels has shined on the AAU circuit, at other showcases, and during a summer league in the DMV.

To me, he's trending toward five-star status. When the 2026 contact period opened on June 15, Syracuse basketball was one of many schools to reach out to Samuels. More recently, earlier this month, Autry was in attendance for Samuels amid an NCAA live period in grassroots hoops.

Syracuse basketball has extended a formal offer to 2026 four-star guard Qayden Samuels.

Samuels is a standout rising junior at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Md. On the AAU circuit, this spring and summer, he has starred for the 16U squad of the Washington, D.C.-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league.

As we've stated many times, the 'Cuse staff, led by Autry, has deep recruiting ties to Team Takeover and the DMV in general. One of Samuels' teammates at Bishop McNamara is 2026 four-star guard Prince-Alexander Moody.

Both Samuels and Moody play alongside 2026 four-star point guard Anthony Brown with Team Takeover. Moody and Brown also hold scholarship offers from the Orange.

Bishop McNamara competes in the loaded Washington Catholic Athletic Conference ("WCAC"). As a sophomore during the 2023-24 season, Samuels earned a spot on the All-WCAC first team.

To date, per his X page and recruiting services, Samuels' full offer sheet also includes schools such as College of Charleston, Alabama, Michigan, Georgetown, Kansas, Georgia, Louisville, Villanova, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, George Mason, Rutgers, Florida State, Maryland, Providence, VCU and Illinois.

As I noted in another recent column, Samuels averaged 25.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while connecting on 46.2 percent from beyond the arc during the recently held Capitol Hoops Summer League ("CHSL"). For those efforts, he was named to the 2024 CHSL All-Summer League first team.

From July 13 to July 21 in North Augusta, S.C., the EYBL held its Peach Jam tournament. During this annual event, Samuels averaged 16.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per encounter, according to this league's Web site. Per a post on X from 247Sports national analyst/scout Brandon Jenkins, on July 13, Autry was in the house for a Team Takeover game in the 16U division.

From late April to late May, the EYBL held four regular-season sessions. In the spring, Samuels proved a top-five scorer in the 16U division, tallying averages of 22.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per affair.

When 247Sports updated its 2026 rankings not too long ago, Samuels arrived at No. 19 overall, No. 5 at shooting guard and No. 1 in Maryland.

Rising juniors can start taking official visits to college campuses on August 1. Let's see if the Orange staff can get Samuels on the Hill at some point for an official visit.