Syracuse basketball 5-star recruit makes USA U19 national team but other target hosed

It was a mixed bag for Syracuse basketball 2026 five-star priority recruits at this week's USA Basketball U19 national team training camp.

On Friday, word broke that five-star shooting guard Jordan Smith Jr. from the Washington, D.C., area made the 12-member roster. Earlier in the week, five-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr. from New York City was named one of 18 finalists, but he didn't get selected for the final roster, which surprised me and some recruiting experts.

Initially, there were 31 prospects selected for this training camp in Colorado Springs, Colo. Syracuse basketball incoming freshman Sadiq White Jr., a 2025 four-star forward from Charlotte, N.C., was invited to compete at the tryouts but had to pull out due to an illness, Syracuse.com's Mike Waters reported.

A huge congrats to Jordan, and also to Deron for being named a finalist!

Syracuse basketball 2026 5-star target Jordan Smith Jr. will vie for a gold medal.

Coming up, Smith and his USA Basketball colleagues will suit up at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup from June 28 to July 6 in Lausanne, Switzerland. In initial group play, the United States is in Group D, along with Australia, France and Cameroon.

As I noted in May, 'Cuse incoming freshman Luke Fennell, a 2025 four-star combo guard from Melbourne, Australia, has made the Australian U19 national team and will face off against Smith and Team USA in Group D competition.

Last July, Smith and the USA Basketball U17 national team captured the gold medal at the 2024 FIBA World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey. For part of that event, Syracuse basketball assistant coach Brenden Straughn was on hand for Smith, a long-time priority recruit for the Orange staff.

Straughn was also in attendance for a portion of this week's training camp for the USA Basketball U19 national team.

The 6-foot-3 Smith, earlier this week, moved up to No. 2 nationwide in the 2026 class when 247Sports updated its rankings for this cycle. He was offered by the 'Cuse staff in early May of 2023, and Smith has said many times in interviews that he has a strong relationship with Straughn.

In the 2024-25 campaign, Smith picked up the national junior of the year award from MaxPreps and was an All-American. He's a standout rising senior at the powerhouse St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Va.

In July, Smith will try to lead the 17U squad of the Washington-based Team Takeover in Nike's EYBL league to a Peach Jam championship in North Augusta, S.C. Straughn and Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry have deep, long-standing ties to Team Takeover, and Autry was previously an assistant at St. Paul VI.

The Orange coaching staff is recruiting Smith as hard as any college program, although he holds scholarship offers from numerous blue-blood programs and other heavyweights in the sport. Last September, he took an unofficial visit to the Hill, and some reports state that Smith may take a second trip to Syracuse basketball in the future.