For just the third time in the Jim Boeheim era, Syracuse men’s basketball is spending mid-March at home without a postseason tournament to play for. This year, the team’s play kept it out of the tournament instead of NCAA sanctions, and we’ve all had to turn our attention to recruiting a bit earlier than usual.
The news on that front has been mostly all-around good for Syracuse since around this time last year. With the exception of Kamari Lands’ decommitment and flip to Louisville, SU has sealed the deal with a quintet of talented newcomers. Names like Justin Taylor, Chris Bunch, and Quadir Copeland have created some much-needed buzz ahead of the 2022-23 season.
However, recent developments on one of Syracuse’s Class of 2022 targets has taken a less encouraging turn. Judah Mintz, a 4-star 6’3″, 165-pound combo guard out of Oak Hill Academy, narrowed down his top four school choices a little over a month ago. Syracuse was included in that list, along with ACC contemporaries in NC State and Wake Forest, along with DePaul as the odd man out. However, if 247Sports’ ranking and prediction system are to be heavily trusted, Mintz appears destined to deny the Salt City of his talents.
As of this month, Mintz’s commitment appears to be leaning towards DePaul. Mintz visited the program out in Lincoln Park back on February 8th prior to his other top 4 schools, and evidently liked what he saw. 247Sports’ “Crystal Ball” prediction system now tabs Mintz as likely to commit to the Blue Demons. Remember, this is the same system that predicted Chris Bunch would come to SU and Kyle Filipowski would end up at Duke earlier in this cycle – and the predictions given are from some of the site’s most reputable analysts. On March 10th, Pro Insight’s Director of Scouting Andrew Slater also threw his hat in the ring with an indirect but obvious tip as to where Mintz is leaning.
If Mintz does choose DePaul, power to him. He’s an exciting player that Syracuse would love to have, but a cherry on top in the form of another talented guard may be too much to swing. If you’re a Syracuse fan, don’t get your hopes up too high at this point.
