Syracuse basketball gets into mix for nation's No. 2 prospect, 5-star Christian Collins

Syracuse basketball coaches continue to dole out offers to some of the top-ranked prospects in the 2026 class.

One of the latest went out to five-star forward Christian Collins, the 6-foot-8 player from the West Coast revealed via his X page this week. A huge congrats to Christian, who is ranked as high as No. 2 nationally in the rising senior class by ESPN.

Collins is deemed the country's No. 1 power forward by several recruiting services. Both the industry-generated 247Sports Composite and the industry-generated On3/Rivals Industry Ranking place him in the top five overall.

Collins is a standout at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif., which went 26-7 overall in the 2024-25 campaign and was ranked No. 39 nationwide by MaxPreps. According to his bio on the MaxPreps Web site, as a junior in 2024-25 for the Braves, Collins averaged 13.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks per game while making 45 percent from the field, 30 percent from beyond the arc and 61 percent from the free-throw line.

Looking ahead to 2025-26, MaxPreps has St. John Bosco at No. 1 nationally in its super early top 25 for the upcoming campaign.

Syracuse basketball faces steep competition for 5-star forward Christian Collins.

According to recruiting Web sites, Collins' offer sheet also includes schools such as Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Baylor, Duke, Georgia Tech, Houston, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Oregon, SMU, UCLA, Southern California and Villanova, among others.

This spring and summer on the AAU circuit, Collins has played well for the 17U squad of the Los Angeles-based Team Why Not in Nike's EYBL league. This weekend is a live period in grassroots hoops, and the chatter is that the Orange staff was in attendance on Thursday for Collins amid an EYBL session in North Augusta, S.C.

For Team Why Not, so far, Collins is averaging 13.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.1 blocks per game while connecting on 42 percent from the field, 19 percent from downtown and 74 percent from the charity stripe.

Syracuse basketball coaches continue to evaluate which 2026 prospects they're honing in on within this cycle. As far as I can tell, some of the top 2026 targets for the 'Cuse program include five-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr., five-star shooting guard Jordan Smith Jr., four-star wing/small forward Vaughn Karvala, five-star guard/small forward Alex Constanza, four-star shooting guard Dakari Spear and four-star power forward MJ Madison.

I'd also keep an eye on 2026 four-star small forward Maximo Adams, who picked up an Orange offer last month and is working to set up an official visit to the 'Cuse, one of his AAU coaches recently told me.

As I first reported on Thursday night, Rippey has locked in an official visit to Syracuse basketball that will transpire in late September.