Maliq Brown Will Officially Visit Syracuse This Weekend
Class of 2022 Culpeper (VA) Blue Ridge power forward Maliq Brown will officially visit Syracuse basketball this weekend, sources told All Syracuse. Brown will travel to Central New York on Thursday. The visit begins Friday. Brown is good friends with Syracuse commit Justin Taylor.
Brown, a 6-9, 210 pound forward, picked up an offer from the Orange back in March. Brown also holds offers from Georgetown, TCU, Penn State, VCU, Wake Forest, Texas A&M, St. John's, NC State, Virginia Tech and others. He visited Virginia Tech earlier this month.
RELATED: WHAT MALIQ BROWN'S VISIT MEANS FOR SYRACUSE RECRUITING
The visit from Brown comes after Syracuse had a big recruiting weekend last weekend, with forward Chris Bunch and center Peter Carey taking official visits. Carey announced his commitment just two days after his trip.
When Syracuse offered, All Syracuse spoke with Blue Ridge head coach Cade Lemcke to find out more about Brown's game.
"He's one of these long, lengthy power forwards that covers a lot of space with their wingspan and with their ability to rebound outside their area," Lemcke said previously. "Their ability to contest shots. Maybe not all that different than like a Hakim Warrick. In the zone, especially on the wing of that zone defense, can cover so much area and then also he has very high defensive IQ. So his ability to get deflections and block shots on the backboard when people aren't necessarily anticipating it. Because of his defensive IQ that he can cover that ground and use his length to either deflect the ball, block the ball and then obviously to get rebounds.
"Syracuse doesn't press a ton although it seems like they're pretty successful when they do press. He's very gifted being at the top of a press defense. Whether he's guarding the inbounder and then looks to trap. Or stunts and doesn't trap right away but forces a team to pass over someone with crazy wingspan, he's very gifted on that end. Offensively, you don't need to run play for him. He knows how to use the rim to protect himself. He knows how to use pump fakes and to score around the basket with either hand. We do not need to run plays for him and he still ends up scoring because he just knows how to work the shot corner. He knows how to space when a guard is driving to create an angle to get a pass and finish. He just knows how to score around the basket.
"What's been the most impressive over the last year is that he's added the perimeter shot to his arsenal as well. He hit a few threes this year and looks more and more confident shooting the ball from out there. So now if you have a pick and pop situation, or a trail four situation and they reverse the ball to him, he can be a threat to hit the outside shot. The reason why so many players love to play with him is that he's humble, he doesn't need plays run for him, he's a very willing screener, he's very willing to make up for other guys' shortfalls on the defensive end. He runs the floor really well. He finishes on the break. But I do see a lot of Hakim Warrick in him. He continues to just get better and better.
"He came to us as a 6-4, football first basketball second quarterback, wide receiver. Then he grew to 6-8 and is up to 6-9 right now. He's retired from football, but that understanding of spacing, the development of his hands, that has helped him on the basketball court."