Late last month, Syracuse basketball offered a scholarship to 2025 four-star shooting guard Dante Allen, and as far as I can tell, the Orange staff has been recruiting the 6-foot-4 prospect hard ever since.
Allen is a top-100 prospect and a top-15 shooting guard in the rising senior cycle, according to several recruiting services. He plays for the Riviera Preparatory School in Miami and the 17U team of the Miami-based Nightrydas Elite in Nike’s EYBL league.
On the AAU circuit so far this spring, Allen has performed quite well, earning various accolades from national analysts and scouts.
Last weekend, amid an NCAA live period, Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry was in attendance for at least one of the Nightrydas' games as the EYBL circuit conducted a session in Indianapolis.
Allen's full offer sheet, to date, includes schools such as Michigan, Villanova, Memphis, Miami, Florida Gulf Coast, UCF, LSU, Illinois, Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette and Notre Dame.
Syracuse basketball is in regular contact with new 2025 four-star target Dante Allen.
In a recent post on X from recruiting analyst Jake Lieberman, Allen said the four college squads currently in the most frequent communication with him are Villanova, Notre Dame, Marquette and the 'Cuse.
A few days ago, Allen told Sam Lance in a piece on zagsblog.com that, these days, the schools recruiting him the hardest are Notre Dame, Marquette, Villanova, Syracuse basketball and Michigan.
Four-star guard Dante Allen sets date for #Villanova visit, updates recruitment@NovaMBB @nightrydaselite @Dante_allen35 @AdamZagoria https://t.co/lMo3yJRICn
— Sam Lance (@slancehoops) May 20, 2024
Per Lance, Allen will visit Villanova from June 1 to June 4, and he will also take a visit to Notre Dame in June. Let's see if the Orange staff can get Allen on the Hill for a visit at some point in the future.
Speaking of the 'Cuse, it appears that new assistant coach Dan Engelstad is serving as the Orange's lead recruiter for Allen. The 2025 prospect said to Lance, "Coach Engelstad has been talking to me. They’re definitely excited about me. We’ve been kind of talking the last two, three weeks. They’ve been talking to me a little bit more about the school, the great fan base. One thing he’s definitely talked to me a lot about is they plan on having a really good future. They plan on having a good next year and then for my class 2025, they plan on having a really good recruiting class."
As a junior in the 2023-24 season, Allen averaged 21.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.4 steals and 3.0 assists per contest as Riviera Prep captured its second consecutive Florida High School Athletic Association ("FHSAA") Class 3A state tournament championship.
Allen plans to cut his list to five or six contenders in August after the EYBL's annual Peach Jam tournament. It's important to note that he is the son of Malik Allen, who played four seasons at Villanova and is currently an assistant coach with the NBA's Miami Heat.
For what it's worth, when I wrote this story, Villanova held a commanding lead for Dante Allen, according to On3's recruiting prediction machine. However, as he sets up more visits, that could certainly change.
Regarding what the Orange staff has said to Allen as it pertains to the team's 2025 class, I couldn't agree more. We'll have to see how everything plays out, but Syracuse basketball is in pursuit of numerous highly ranked 2025 prospects, including some newer targets such as Allen.