With Syracuse football lying in wait just around the corner, it’s easy to forget that Syracuse men’s basketball is still searching to erase a big zero off its 2022 resumé. The Orange have undergone quite a few changes since bombing out of the ACC Tournament back in March, but one thing the team hasn’t done is secure even one piece in its newest recruiting class. At the time of this writing, SU has yet to lock down a single commit in the Class of ‘23.
It’s not all surprising that this is a lighter class following an exciting bounty of six talented recruits in the Class of ‘22, but Syracuse has to put the foot on the pedal at some point for one of its targets. One of those players Рwho represents SU’s biggest recruiting effort over the course of the summer Рnow looks like he may be heading elsewhere.
4-star center JP Estrella, whose presence has been a constant on both the SU recruiting trail and around the Fizz throughout the summer, has narrowed down September 2nd for his final commitment date. As intriguing as that may be, the news coming out of recruiting services like 247Sports isn’t all good. At the time of this writing, the site’s Crystal Ball prediction system has most of its analysts predicting Estrella goes to a pair of schools Рand Syracuse isn’t one of them.
Right now, 12 different 247Sports recruiting analysts have read the tea leaves and tossed in a prediction. Seven tab Estrella as a likely commit to Tennessee, while five point to Iowa as his likely destination. Syracuse is still listed as a “warm” school on Estrella’s list, signifying continuing interest, but his August 4th visit is now several weeks old. One also has to wonder if SU’s absence from this year’s March Madness downgrades the Orange in Estrella’s eyes compared to the Vols and Hawkeyes, who both went dancing this past spring.
Estrella isn’t the only commit remaining who SU has its eye on, but commitments are expected fairly soon. Syracuse may lose out on Estrella, but it would benefit them to stay in the race for as long as possible and zero in on even one player to secure in the class. SU has had small crops before (namely two years ago, when Benny Williams was the only commit in his class), and this time may be no different. No matter what happens, all eyes will be on how last year’s class fits into SU’s 2022-23 plans and beyond in the near future.
