Syracuse Basketball: 4-star PG target had stellar junior year, eyes big rankings bump

I've maintained for quite some time now that 2026 four-star point guard Anthony Brown Jr. from the talent-rich Washington, D.C., market, who holds a Syracuse basketball offer, is vastly underrated in his class.

The 6-foot-1 Brown recently wrapped up an impressive 2024-25 campaign for his D.C. high school program, and national analysts say he could be poised for a massive jump in his 2026 rankings as the grassroots hoops season gets underway.

For his junior term in 2024-25, Brown suited up at Archbishop Carroll High School in D.C. after previously playing for St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Va. Both of those squads compete in the loaded Washington Catholic Athletic Conference ("WCAC"), which is one of the top high school basketball leagues around the country.

In a recent piece on madehoops.com, top analyst/scout Colby Giacubeno discussed Brown, noting that in 2024-25, he averaged an exceptional 25.4 points, 7.9 assists and 6.7 rebounds per game.

Syracuse basketball four-star recruit Anthony Brown Jr. is a stellar 2026 point guard.

Giacubeno wrote in part that Brown "put together a body of work at his new school in Archbishop Carroll that I believe calls for a bump in the rankings." Brown, by the way, is at No. 139 nationally in his cycle on madehoops.com.

Several other recruiting services, at the time of this writing, have Brown inside the top 150 overall and in the top 20 at point guard. From my perspective, Brown should be a consensus four-star, top-100 national prospect as well as a top-10 point guard in the 2026 class.

In late August of 2023, Brown took an unofficial visit to the Orange to compete in the team's annual Elite Camp. Around that time, he picked up a scholarship offer from the 'Cuse staff. His offer sheet, per social media posts and recruiting Web sites, also includes schools such as Mississippi State, Maryland, Providence, George Mason, Saint Joseph's, and Old Dominion, among others.

Last December, Brown's dad told me that Syracuse basketball coaches were in consistent communication with his son, and that the Orange was also among Brown's top schools at that time.

As 2024-25 wrapped up, Brown scored numerous top honors for his fabulous junior stanza, per posts on X and Instagram. He was named to the District of Columbia State Athletic Association ("DCSAA") Class AA All-state first team.

Brown also landed the DC Basketball Coaches Association's player of the year award.

For the AAU circuit this spring and summer, Brown will run with the Oxon Hill, Md.-based Team Durant in Nike's EYBL league. To that end, Brown earned praise from Giacubeno for his play at an event in our nation's capital this past weekend, called the MADE Hoops East Mania.

Giacubeno further added, "Carroll was able to pull off a few big wins in league play as the underdogs and Brown’s development as a floor general that can control almost every aspect of a game became more consistent. He’ll be running with Team Durant this spring and summer on the EYBL Circuit, and I expect more impressive numbers from him as he looks to prove himself as one of the more underrated guards in the national class. If he can prove that his play will generate wins at a high rate, his stock will skyrocket."