Five-star wing Qayden Samuels, whose hearing a lot from Syracuse basketball these days, had a terrific junior year in the talent-rich Washington, D.C., area. Now he's crushing things during the current AAU season.
The 6-foot-5 Samuels, rated as high as No. 10 nationally in the 2026 class, holds around 20 scholarship offers, per 247Sports, from schools such as Alabama, Florida State, Georgetown, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Providence, Rutgers, Tennessee, Texas, UConn, Villanova and Virginia Tech, among others.
The Orange staff offered a scholarship to Samuels in late July of last year. In a recent post on X, top recruiting analyst Sam Kayser said that, these days, some of the suitors that Samuels is hearing from the most include Syracuse basketball, Georgetown, Alabama, Villanova, Washington and Texas.
In January of this year, Samuels told top writer Zach Smart on zagsblog.com that he was eyeing a possible visit to the 'Cuse at some point. He's in regular communication with Syracuse basketball assistant coach Brenden Straughn. Both Straughn and Orange head coach Adrian Autry have deep ties to Samuels' AAU program, the D.C.-based Team Takeover in Nike’s EYBL league.
Five-star wing Qayden Samuels is one to watch for Syracuse basketball fans.
Samuels is a standout rising senior at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Md., which competes in the loaded Washington Catholic Athletic Conference ("WCAC"). As a junior in the 2024-25 campaign, he was named to The Washington Post's All-Met first squad, along with a Team Takeover colleague, 2026 five-star shooting guard Jordan Smith Jr.
Smith, an All-American at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Va., also holds a 'Cuse offer and unofficially visited Syracuse basketball last September. This spring and summer, Smith and Samuels are two of the stars for Team Takeover in the main 17U division.
So far, the EYBL has conducted two sessions, first in Mesa, Ariz., and then last weekend in Memphis, Tenn., amid a live period with college coaches in attendance. Per analysts and a source of mine, the Syracuse basketball staff was on hand for Samuels and Smith in Memphis.
The Nike circuit is holding a third spring session this weekend from May 23 to May 26, in both Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., before its annual season-ending Peach Jam tournament takes place in July in North Augusta, S.C.
Through the first two sessions, Team Takeover sported a 7-0 record, and Samuels checked in at No. 2 in the 17U division in points per game. He's averaging 23.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists per contest, and the experts at The Circuit named Samuels a top 17U performer in Memphis.
Team Takeover will likely be one of the favorites to win the 17U Peach Jam crown, and I hope that Samuels does end up visiting the Hill in the future.