Future for Syracuse basketball is all about swinging for the fences

Adrian Autry’s plan to bring Syracuse basketball “back” is as clear as day.

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

For the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team, the future under head coach Adrian Autry is simple: go big or go home.

However it plays out, the class of 2025 recruitment cycle will serve as an inflection point for the future of the program with Autry — who is now entering his second year as the program’s coach. The eggs are clearly in the 2025 basket, and for Autry, landing a commitment from consensus four-star prospect Sadiq White is (hopefully) just the beginning.

Including White, Autry and the Orange have extended offers to four of the top-10 performers at this year’s annual NBPA Top 100 camp (per On3).

Five-star forward Chris Cenac plus four-star guards Kiyan Anthony and Acaden Lewis aren’t the only top recruits that Syracuse is after. In total, Syracuse has extended offers to 21 prospects from the class of 2025 — including one five-star and 15 four-stars, according to rankings from 247Sports.

Six of those offers from Syracuse are to recruits that 247Sports currently has ranked in the top-30. Those names include White (No. 24), center Malachi Moreno (No. 26), power forward Niko Bundalo (No. 30) plus guards Darius Adams (No. 17), Jerry Easter (No. 19), Darryn Peterson (No. 3). Many of those names Autry is targeting shined and then some at this year’s camp.

How Syracuse’s offseason played out over the past few months signaled Autry’s desired goal of assembling a loaded 2025 recruiting class.

This offseason saw abundant change for Syracuse — eight players from last year’s team are now gone. Returning starter Chris Bell remains the lone recruit from the class of 2022, the final recruiting class under former Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim.

Amid all those departures, Autry’s focus in the transfer portal centered on bringing in production without taking away spots on the team beyond 2024-25.

Each of Syracuse’s new incoming transfers — Eddie Lampkin Jr. (Colorado), Lucas Taylor (Georgia State), Jyare Davis (Delaware) and Jaquan Carlos (Hofstra) — all possess just one year of collegiate eligibility remaining.

Remaining competitive in 2024-25 will be an obvious desire for Autry and the Orange. Syracuse has a lot of new faces, but among them are five-star forward Donnie Freeman and four-star guard Elijah Moore. Both will be the first of the cornerstone pieces needed for Autry to build some sort of consistent foundation for the program.

According to 247Sports, 2015 (No. 8 overall) and 2016 (No. 18 overall) marks the last time Syracuse had back-to-back top-20 recruitment classes. Since 2016, the Orange’s high-level recruitment dropped off by a decent bit.

In particular, the last three years (2021 to 2023) were particularly subpar on the recruiting front. Syracuse was ranked outside the top-50 by 247Sports in both 2021 and 2023. Syracuse’s 2022 recruiting class, which ranked No. 21 overall, is now all gone outside of Bell.

Autry is clearly doubling-down on building the roster in his vision, and that involved a mix of cleaning house paired with creating a legitimate core of Freeman, Moore, White and (ideally) multiple top-end pieces from the class of 2025. The Syracuse staff is certainly not shying away from some tough recruiting battles over the next few months.