Four Syracuse basketball five-star recruitment targets are on the watch list for this season’s Naismith Trophy national underclassman player of the year, according to a recent press release.
According to the announcement, this watch list includes 25 high school prospects, all of whom are sophomores or juniors.
The four Orange recruits each have a scholarship offer from the program. Syracuse basketball prospects on the watch list include 2026 five-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr., 2026 five-star wing Qayden Samuels, 2027 five-star center Paul Osaruyi, and 2027 five-star big Baba Oladotun.
The 6-foot-2 Rippey, a top-15 national talent, is a junior at Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey. He was offered by the Orange in late August 2023, paid an unofficial visit to the Hill in late February of current year, and intends to officially visit Syracuse basketball in 2025, according to his father.
Rippey led Blair to victory in the annual National Prep Showcase in New Haven, Conn., on Sunday, with Orange general manager Alex Kline in attendance.
Samuels, a 6-foot-5 junior at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland, is ranked among the top 15 national prospects. The ‘Cuse introduced this talented DMV product in late July of this year.
The 6-foot-9 Osaruyi, a recent Orange recruit, accepted his Syracuse basketball scholarship offer in late October. The sophomore from CIA Bella Vista in Phoenix is a top-five overall talent in the 2027 cycle.
CIA Bella Vista, by the way, plays in the 14-member Nike Elite Youth Basketball League Scholastic (“EYBL Scholastic”), a loaded high school basketball league where Syracuse 2025 five-star recruit Sadiq White Jr. and Orange 2025 four-star commit Kiyan Anthony are in their senior years.
In late June, Syracuse basketball offered the 6-foot-9 Oladotun, a promising sophomore at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. Currently, ESPN ranks him as the top national prospect in the 2027 class.
A week ago, I wrote a separate post about high school prospects with Syracuse recruiting ties who are on the 50-person watch list for the Naismith Trophy national player of the year. This list of juniors and seniors includes White, Anthony, and Jordan Smith Jr., a 2026 five-star shooting guard who has an Orange offer and informally visited Syracuse basketball in late September of this year.
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