Syracuse’s quest for its best true center in a while is over as 2022 four-star Donovan Clingan commits to his hometown UConn Huskies, just one day after his official visit. That’s not to say that SU hasn’t produced good players at the center position, but the 7-foot-1, 255-pound force down low would’ve been a game changer.
Although the Orange made the big man’s top 8, and his official visit was earlier this month (June 19), UConn was always the favorite to land the Connecticut native.
Clingan played his high school ball at Bristol Central, which is about an hour west of the University of Connecticut. He picked the Huskies over 17 other schools, becoming the ninth ESPN top 100 player to choose UConn in the last four years. Clingan currently sits at 51, and is the second in the 2022 class (SG, Corey Floyd – 81) to choose Dan Hurley and the Huskies.
For Syracuse, it’s now time to shift all frontcourt priority from Clingan to Kyle Filipowski, even though many expect Flip to suit up for a different ACC squad for the ’22 season. If SU misses out on both, it’ll be interesting to see how backcourt heavy the recruiting class becomes and what Jim Boeheim and company do in regards to frontcourt options.
