Clyde Walters, a four-star wing who had officially visited Syracuse basketball last December, will face the Orange in the 2026-27 campaign.
Per reports, the 6-foot-7, 182-pound Walters has committed to Big East Conference member Providence and its first-year head coach, Western New York native Bryan Hodgson, who was rumored to be a candidate for SU's vacancy before Gerry McNamara was named the new head coach of Syracuse basketball, replacing Adrian Autry.
In the upcoming season, the Friars and the Orange will go toe to toe on Saturday, Dec. 19, at the TD Garden in Boston. This non-conference, neutral-site affair is part of the TNT Sports Hall of Fame Series Boston. Another encounter in this series will pit Michigan against UConn on Friday, Nov. 6, at the TD Garden, in a rematch of the 2026 NCAA Tournament's national championship game, which the Wolverines won by a final score of 69-63.
Walters had been a top-100 national prospect in the 2027 class, however, with his pledge to Providence, he's reclassifying into the 2026 cycle. That development is something I had anticipated for a while now.
Syracuse basketball coaches, meanwhile, are pursuing a range of 2027 players.
The former Orange staff, under Autry, offered a scholarship to Walters in late June of 2025. He spent the 2025-26 stanza in the Atlanta-based league Overtime Elite. Before that, he competed for the Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H.
Last fall, I first reported that 'Cuse coaches were evaluating Walters as a potential re-class candidate into the 2026 cycle, and SU wanted to get him on the Hill for a visit. In early December of last year, Walters took an official visit to the Orange, amid SU's victory over a ranked Tennessee group at the JMA Wireless Dome as part of last season's ACC/SEC Challenge.
In 2025-26 for Overtime Elite's RWE, Walters averaged 19.3 minutes, 6.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while making 42.3 percent from the field, according to the OTE's Web site.
Walters, a native of Birmingham, Ala., has known Hodgson for a while. Hodgson was an assistant coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide, under former Buffalo boss Nate Oats, from 2019 to 2023, before Hodgson served as the head coach at Arkansas State and then South Florida, before getting the Providence gig this past March.
The new Syracuse basketball staff, under McNamara, is ramping up its high school recruiting efforts in the 2027 class and beyond. The Orange is in pursuit of highly ranked 2027 prospects such as four-star point guard J'Lon Lyons, five-star wing/small forward Moussa Kamissoko, four-star power forward Ian Condon, four-star shooting guard RJ Moore, five-star point guard Nasir Anderson, four-star center Lewis Uvwo, five-star point guard King Gibson and four-star center Caleb Ourigou.
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