Syracuse Official Visit Preview: JJ Starling

Syracuse basketball has had a busy month, hosting several of its top targets. Shooting guard Justin Taylor, forward Kyle Filipowski, center Donovan Clingan and point guard Quadir Copeland have all taken official visits. Now Syracuse is set to host another top target in point guard JJ Starling.

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Starling is from Baldwinsville, New York but this past summer transferred to La Lumiere in Indiana.

"It's been a really good experience," Starling said. "A lot of learning points. I knew coming in I was going to grow as a player, I just didn't know how much. They really proved me wrong because I grew way more than I expected. Just having the right teammates around me and playing the right competition. Doing the right stuff in practice as far as drills and workouts and stuff like that. I've grown on and off the court. The community here is such a great community. I've grown as a person and as a better teammate. Shooting wise, I became way more efficient and just scoring in general. I became way more aggressive on both the offensive and defensive end."

Starling has had a lot of buzz around his recruitment as he gains more exposure through his play at La Lumiere and with the City Rocks on the AAU circuit. Stanford, Maryland, Georgetown, Auburn, Kansas and Duke have all offered all since April. Despite all of the attention, Starling is in no rush to make a decision.

"I haven't really come up with a set time period," Starling said. "I'm trying to take things slow. This summer is going to be huge, we have Peach Jam coming up. I'm just trying to focus on trying to win and be the best teammate for my team. As far as making a decision, I haven't really thought about a specific time period."

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The 6-3 highly coveted point guard has already taken a visit to Maryland. After the trip to Syracuse, he will UConn on June 28th and Alabama in early July. His relationship with the Orange coaching staff is a strong one that has been developed over a long period of time.

"My relationship with them is a very strong relationship because I've known them for so long," Starling said. "It's my hometown. The relationship is definitely there and it's strong. They text a lot, just checking in what to see how I'm doing, but not too much that it's like they're bugging me or anything, which they're not of course. I definitely have a really strong relationship with coach G-Mac and coach Autry. It could be a variety of things. Sometimes they reach out to say 'we need you' or 'we really want you' but other times it could be in a joking manner. One time, coach Autry reached out and we were talking about music. It's just little things like that."

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