Judah Mintz on Syracuse Visit: 'It Helped Their Chances'
Syracuse basketball's 2022 class is five deep, but the Orange is looking to add one of the cycle's best combo guards to highlight it. Judah Mintz, who stars for Oak Hill Academy, was on campus over the weekend for an official visit. He was one of the over 31,000 fans in attendance when the Orange faced Duke.
"It was crazy, really," Mintz said. "Thirty something thousand people, I've never seen that at a college basketball game. It was definitely something special."
The Syracuse fans and students recognized Mintz at the game, and did their best to try to help convince him he was already in his future home.
"I took pictures with a few of them," Mintz said. "It was a nice feeling to have people recognize me."
Mintz spent time with the Syracuse players, most notably freshman Benny Williams, to get further insight into the program.
"I talked to Benny," Mintz said. "He hasn't had the greatest freshman year you could say, but he seems to really like it there. Even though he's not playing that much, he seems to really like it. Likes the school, likes the coaches. That says a lot."
In addition, the Syracuse coaches made their pitch during the trip.
"They just want me to come in and be able to be a playmaker," Mintz said. "They want me to be able to be a big part in letting them have a big season next year since this season isn't going how Syracuse usually goes."
Three Syracuse signees, Justin Taylor, Peter Carey and Chris Bunch, joined Mintz for the game against Duke in the Dome. They also tried to make their pitch that joining forces would make Syracuse a formidable team.
"They were just saying how good of a class we could be if I joined," Mintz said.
Mintz says the visit had an impact on where Syracuse stands in his recruitment.
"It definitely helped it," Mintz said. "I still don't know where I'm going, obviously, I still have another visit. It helped their chances, I would say."
Prior to Syracuse, Mintz visited Xavier, DePaul and NC State. His last visit, to Wake Forest, starts on Wednesday. He says a decision is targeted for early April, but he does not have a specific date scheduled yet.
Oak Hill head coach Steve Smith has a long relationship with the Orange coaches, trusts the staff with his players, and believes Mintz would go in and play a significant role right away if he picked Syracuse.
"I would have no problem if one of my players picked Syracuse for college," coach Smith said. "I've had, of course, Carmelo (Anthony) went there, Eric Devendorf, Billy Edelin, I've had several players go there and they've all been good players. He (Mintz) is too. It's not like he's a marginal guy. I think (if) he goes there, he plays right away. I know coach G-Mac really well. I call Adrian 'Red' because I've known him from high school, that's how long I've been coaching. I've known Red a long time. I really like their staff.
"Judah's a good player. He's going to be a great player wherever he goes. I think he would be fine at Syracuse. I'd have no problem if he picked Syracuse. I've known coach Boeheim forever too. We played golf years ago, many times. I've been up to speak at his camp back when high school coaches did that kind of thing. I've been to Syracuse myself, great place, basketball school, he (Mintz) knows that."
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