Syracuse basketball’s 2017 recruiting class wasn’t complete until just recently, but the Orange is already looking to build its 2018 class. Sunday, 2018 four-star Cole Swider narrowed his list to four schools, and Syracuse made the cut.
My Family, coach Hart and I have decided to narrow it down to these 4! I will be visiting these schools on these dates, Happy Father's Day! pic.twitter.com/nuMfBJzbE3
— Cole Swider (@coleswider21) June 18, 2017
Swider’s biggest asset is his ability to shoot the ball. He’s shot over 40 percent from behind the arc at the Nike EYBL, and it’s probably the biggest reason why he’s gotten attention from the biggest schools in the country. He stands at 6-7, which is plenty tall enough to meet the demands of the Jim Boeheim system, but is only 210 pounds. The Orange wouldn’t want him to put on too much weight if he plans to stay on the perimeter, but it’ll be hard to get rebounds at the bottom of the 2-3 with the best in the ACC if he doesn’t get at least a bit bigger.
Swider’s top four does include one school which wasn’t in his top 8, and Syracuse fans can make a good guess as to which one it is. Duke offered Swider a scholarship last week, and with just one phone call Coach K put himself in the running for the best high school player out of¬†Rhode Island in this cycle.
Swider has also already set a busy schedule of visits over the next few weeks. He’ll be in Syracuse until Tuesday, and then head to Duke¬†this weekend. After he leaves the Blue Devils, he’ll go to Xavier at the start of next week for a two-day visit. As you can see above, no date has been set for his visit to Villanova.
There is no timetable for a decision from Swider yet, but the competition the Orange¬†has for this recruit is¬†probably as tough as a player outside of the top 75 in his class will get. A lot of schools want Swider on their team, and the fact that the Orange has made it this far is nothing to be ashamed of. But, as Syracuse fans are well aware, almost doesn’t count for anything in college basketball recruiting. Syracuse needs to beat Duke and the other schools in contention for any of this to matter, and the Orange’s track record as of late in doing so hasn’t been great.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
