It’s the start of August, and we’ve got plenty of Syracuse news from the recruiting world.
Starting with basketball, Syracuse extended an offer to 2023 point guard Mike Williams from Calvert (MD) Hall College. The four-star point guard is ranked 134th in his class, and holds offers from Clemson, LSU, Maryland, Houston, Illinois and DePaul, among others.
Syracuse has been long pursuing 2023 shooting guard Reid Ducharme, and he caught up with 247 Sports’ Dushawn London about his top three schools. The Wolfeboro (NH) Brewster Academy four-star prospect said the three schools recruiting him hardest are Syracuse, Xavier and Penn State. “Jim Boeheim has been a legendary coach for so long and (Gerry McNamara) as well. They’ve been showing me a lot of love and to be able to be apart of that legacy would be awesome.” He’s rated four-stars by 247 Sports, and is ranked 97th in his class, though his star seems on the rise after an eye-opening Peach Jam performance.
There’s been significant movement in the JP Estrella sweepstakes in the past week. The Brewster (NH) Academy four-star center, ranked 54th in the class of 2023, was initially though to be a Duke lean, with 247 Sports having several predicted Crystal Balls in the Blue Devils favor. But Duke appears to have placed more focus recently on 2023 forwards TJ Power and Andrej Stojakovic (son of former NBA star Peja Stojakovic) and all of the initial Crystal Ball predictions have since been removed.
As a result, Estrella cancelled his official visit to Durham leaving only Iowa (he visited this past weekend) and Syracuse (he will visit this upcoming weekend) as his only other scheduled visits. “The Iowa visit was good,” he said Sunday to ZagsBlog’s Adam Zagoria. “I got to hang out with some of the players and all of the coaches. He previously visited Marquette and Tennessee. Syracuse was the first school to offer Estrella after he attended their Elite Camp.
Zagoria also caught up with another Syracuse target, 2023 guard Elijah Gertrude, who is coming off an official visit to Virginia this weekend. The Hudson (NJ) Catholic prospect said of the visit that Virginia “felt like a family.” Still, Syracuse remains involved, and “they feel like I can be long in the zone, get a couple steals, get a couple dunks.” He added that he will try to take a trip to Syracuse during the school year. Gertrude is currently a three-star prospect and ranked 138th overall in his class by 247 Sports, and also holds offers from Kansas, Pitt, Rutgers and Seton Hall, among others.
The Orange also secured two coveted prospects for its August Elite Camp. The first is 2024 Cardinal (NY) Hayes guard Elijah Moore, reports Pro Insight’s Andrew Slater. Moore, who was offered by the Orange in April, also holds offers from Xavier, Seton Hall, Temple, Mississippi State, and Columbia, among others. He has a three-star rating from Rivals.
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Moore will be joined by fellow 2024 prospect James Moore, reports Sports Illustrated’s Mike McAllister. Moore is a 6-9 forward from The Patrick (NJ) School who is the No. 77 overall prospect in his class, according to 247 Sports. He also holds offers from Pitt, Creighton and TCU, but does not yet have one from the Orange.
Rounding out basketball recruiting news, Gigi Battle, the younger sister of former Syracuse star Tyus Battle, picked up an offer from the Orange, reports Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters. She was on campus for Syracuse’s Elite Camp this past weekend, and also holds offers from Pitt and Auburn.
In the football world, Syracuse continues to monitor the status of class of 2023 Northeast (PA) High offensive lineman Naquil Betrand. Syracuse was named one of six finalists in July, with the other five schools being Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Penn State and Texas A&M. He had initially scheduled his commitment for this past weekend, but in a tweet last week, delayed his announcement until Aug. 6 at 4:30 p.m. The three-star offensive lineman officially visited the Orange in June.
Syracuse extended an offer to 2025 wide receiver Quincy Porter, he tweeted on Thursday. The two-sport star (he also runs track & field) from Bergen (NJ) Catholic also holds offers from Boston College, Rutgers, Duke and Michigan.
And to finish off our roundup, the Orange also unofficially hosted 2024 offensive lineman Rico Steele from West (PA) Mifflin High. He currently holds offers from Akron and Toledo.
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