Syracuse basketball interest in 5-star wing who will play with 5-star target at Montverde

The new Syracuse basketball staff, led by first-year head coach Gerry McNamara, is showing an interest in 2028 five-star wing Xavier Skipworth from the talent-rich Washington, D.C., market, who will spend his junior season at a Florida-based powerhouse program.

On June 15, the contact period opened for 2028 prospects, meaning Orange coaches and their peers around the country could start initiating direct communication with rising high school juniors.

The 6-foot-6 Skipworth, one of the top DMV players in the 2025-26 season, has heard from Syracuse basketball and many other college programs since June 15, according to a post on X from national analyst Sam Kayser.

It should be pointed out that Skipworth, ranked inside the top 20 nationally of his class by several recruiting services, held a scholarship offer from the former SU staff under then-head coach Adrian Autry. He picked up that 'Cuse offer in June of last year.

In recent weeks, amid the 2028 contact period opening, McNamara and his assistants have doled out a handful of offers to prospects in this cycle, while displaying an interest in various other rising juniors. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Orange re-offers Skipworth (if the 'Cuse hasn't already).

Syracuse basketball is in pursuit of 2028 five-star wing Xavier Skipworth.

As a freshman at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., Skipworth received an honorable mention nod for the 2024-25 freshman All-America teams from MaxPreps. In his sophomore year during the 2025-26 stanza, Skipworth was named to the All-Met first team in the D.C. metro area.

In May, Skipworth announced on X that in 2026-27, he would transfer to the powerhouse Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., which is a member of the loaded Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic ("EYBL Scholastic").

Montverde's head coach is Steve Turner, who previously led Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. Last season, the Eagles went 23-7 overall, reached the championship game of the Chipotle Nationals and were ranked No. 2 around the country by different media outlets.

Isaiah Hamilton, a 2028 five-star wing from Canada, also held an offer from Syracuse basketball during the Autry era, and the new Orange staff is showing an interest in him. Hamilton will play alongside Skipworth at Montverde in 2026-27.

This spring and summer on the AAU circuits, Skipworth is playing up a division for the 17U squad of the D.C.-based Team Takeover in Nike's EYBL league. With Team Takeover, Skipworth is playing with 2027 four-star point guard J'Lon Lyons, who has said he wants to officially visit the 'Cuse at some point.

Analysts and scouts have praised Skipworth for his performances to date in the current AAU season. For Team Takeover, he's averaging 16.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while connecting on 45.7 percent from the field, 42.9 percent from beyond the arc and 84.2 percent from the free-throw line.

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