Syracuse Basketball: 'We need to hang more banners,' 5-star commit Sadiq White says

Sadiq White Jr., the long-time Syracuse basketball priority recruit in the 2025 class, wants to help return the Orange program to its days when the 'Cuse was one of the elite teams around the country.

He's not alone in that sentiment. While the 6-foot-8 White, a five-star forward and a consensus top-35 national prospect from Charlotte, N.C., is the Orange's first 2025 verbal commit, the squad's two prep signees in its 2024 class possess the same mentality in getting Syracuse basketball back on top.

The 'Cuse 2024 cycle includes a trio of four-star transfers, as well as two high school commits in five-star power forward Donnie Freeman from Washington, D.C., and four-star shooting guard Elijah Moore from New York City.

Freeman, rated as high as No. 6 nationally in the senior cycle, has put forth a storied prep career where he has won a lot of games both in high school and on the AAU circuit. As numerous national analysts and scouts have noted, Freeman is a proven winner, and he has said he looks forward to continuing that trend on the Hill.

Moore, a lethal long-range shooter and a top-10 shooting guard in 2024 class, has also mentioned in various interviews how he's laser-focused on arriving in Central New York and doing whatever he can to help Syracuse basketball return to its glory days.

Syracuse basketball four-star and five-star prep commits just want to win.

Now, for some context, Adrian Autry's first season as the Orange's head coach, after replacing the legendary Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim, was a solid one. Yes, the 'Cuse has missed three straight NCAA Tournaments, but in the 2023-24 campaign, the team went 20-12 overall and reached 20 regular-season wins for the first time in a decade.

In 2023-24, several key players had to deal with injuries. The roster was primarily composed of sophomores, some of whom were playing slightly out of their natural positions. The non-conference slate was quite challenging.

So while it was a bummer that the Orange fell in its first ACC Tournament contest and didn't hear its name called on Selection Sunday, I do believe that Syracuse basketball is trending in a positive direction and has a bright future lurking on the horizon.

As I noted in another recent column, Autry's first two prep commits, Freeman and White, are both five stars. Moore, to me, is vastly underrated, yet he's still a top-60 overall player in the 2024 cycle.

What's more, Autry and his top-flight staff are pursuing a range of highly ranked 2025 prospects, and with White coming on board, let's see if that leads to other rising high school seniors making verbal pledges to the 'Cuse sooner rather than later.

But for the time being, Syracuse basketball has three terrific winning players in Moore, Freeman and White.

As a senior in 2023-24, Moore was a top-10 scorer in the Atlanta-based professional league Overtime Elite. Last summer, he was named the offensive MVP in the Adidas 3SSB league while averaging nearly 20 points per game and connecting on 46 percent from deep.

Freeman, this past season at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., suited up in multiple All-America games after earning All-Conference honors in the nation's toughest league, the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic.

IMG, in early April, earned a bid to the eight-team Chipotle Nationals in Brownsburg, Ind., and Freeman was a huge reason why.

In July of 2023, he helped lead the Washington-based Team Takeover to a Peach Jam crown in the 17U division on Nike’s EYBL circuit in grassroots hoops.

And as a junior, while starring for St. John’s College High School in D.C., Freeman captured a ton of awards and honors in playing a pivotal role as this program was nationally ranked and claimed the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (“WCAC”) tournament title.

Regarding White, as a junior in 2023-24, he averaged 16.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest for Myers Park High School in Charlotte, which finished at 27-3 overall and was ranked in the top-25 nationally by several media outlets.

MaxPreps, when it disclosed its 2023-24 junior All-America teams in mid-April, gave White an honorable-mention nod.

Roughly a week ago, White was among those invited to participate in a USA Basketball U18 national team training camp in Colorado Springs, Colo.

In an interview with 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham, White said in part, "I am a winner. I will do whatever it takes to win. Let's bring the old Syracuse back. We need to hang more banners."