One of the most talented basketball recruits in the 2017 class narrowed his list down to 10 schools yesterday, and Syracuse made the cut.
Michael Porter has it all. He can shoot, drive and dribble like a guard, but his body is as far from guard-like as it gets. At 6’8”, Porter has the size to play down low, and his 7’9” wingspan is more than enough to fit into Syracuse’s 2-3 zone.
That’s not a typo. Seven. Foot. Nine.
The point is he can play, but will he play for Syracuse? On Wednesday, we got a step closer to finding out when Porter tweeted this photo of the schools he’s still considering:
If you’re up on your Michael Porter trivia, you’ll know he put out a list of 17 schools in June. The new list eliminates Arizona, Baylor, Iowa, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Stanford wasn’t in the top 17 but somehow made the top 10. That’s not really how it works, but good for the Cardinal.
The other schools still in the hunt are Syracuse, Duke, Missouri, Washington, Kentucky, UCLA, Indiana, Kansas and Virginia. That’s a lot of schools; who really has a shot and landing this guy?
Missouri
Missouri gets the close-to-home advantage since Porter Jr. lives in Columbia, MO, but the Tigers do have other connections. Porter has two sisters who play for Missouri’s women’s basketball team, a team of which his father is an assistant coach. That’s three Porter’s pushing Michael to stay at home, but Missouri isn’t the only school with in-house recruiters.
 Washington
Washington’s head coach, Lorenzo Romar, is Porter’s godfather. Romar’s ties to the Porter family have already paid dividends for the Huskies, as last weekend Michael’s little brother Jontay (and by little, I mean 6’9”) committed to Washington. Michael would have familiar faces in the locker room at Washington, and with what we now right now I’d say the Huskies are the favorite.
Syracuse
And then there‚Äôs the Orange. It‚Äôs not very often that a 5-star recruit calls you up and asks you to recruit him, but that was the call Gerry McNamara got a few months ago. Porter gained interest in Syracuse after rooming with Matthew Moyer at a basketball camp. Moyer gave Porter the sales pitch, and Porter later called McNamara and asked that Syracuse start going after him. McNamara offered him a scholarship on the spot. Porter told Syracuse.com when asked about the Orange, ‚ÄúThat used to be my dream school until I heard about their violations or whatever. I don’t really know what they did, but I like the school, I like the style and I can see myself playing in that environment. They’ve always been one of my favorite schools.”
Dream school. Good stuff.
It sounds like Porter doesn’t feel too strongly about Syracuse’s sanctions, so the Orange could have a real shot at this guy. Washington and Missouri are still more likely landing spots in my mind, and don’t forget about the other schools are in Porter’s top 10. With Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, Indiana and UCLA on the radar, any team could pull the classic swoop-in-at-the last-second-and-steal-your-recruit move.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
