Monday Musings: Jalil Bethea & DeMarco Johnson

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Jalil Bethea

Priority Syracuse basketball target Jalil Bethea is down to five schools and has four official visits scheduled this fall. They include officials to Kansas, Miami, Syracuse and Alabama. Villanova is the other school in his final five. So where does Syracuse stand with Bethea? I think they are in a good spot. Bethea continues to say relationships are extremely valuable to him and he wants to go where he’s needed. Syracuse checks those boxes better than anyone else on the list. Scheduling a second official to Syracuse is great news for the Orange. It shows how strong his interest is. That said, anytime someone visits others schools you never know what can happen. If I had to rank Syracuse’s competition in order of threats to SU I’d put Miami at the top followed by Kansas and Alabama. Miami also has been recruiting Bethea for a while and he thinks very highly of their staff. Kansas is a blue blood and that speaks for itself, but the relationship is relatively knew. Alabama has been an elite program the last couple of years, but also has a relatively knee relationship. All in all, Syracuse has a real opportunity with this second official to prove to Bethea that it is home.

DeMarco Johnson

Syracuse offered 2025 point guard DeMarco Johnson on Sunday out of Southern California Academy. The 6-2 guard also holds offers from Arizona State, California, Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech and TCU. While he is currently in California, his family is from New York. That gives Syracuse a real chance despite the current distance. In addition, Johnson is expected to visit sometime this fall to get a closer look at the program. Stay tuned as Johnson has the potential to blow up and become a priority target in 2025.