Inside The Huskies

Top Recruit Chris Bunch Chooses Syracuse Over UW, Rutgers

The 6-foot-7 wingman gave the Huskies a long look before deciding.
Dan Raley|
Top Recruit Chris Bunch Chooses Syracuse Over UW, Rutgers
Top Recruit Chris Bunch Chooses Syracuse Over UW, Rutgers

Chris Bunch, pulling in his college basketball followers from coast to coast, chose Syracuse over Rutgers and Washington, revealing his college destination on Thursday on the CBS Sports App.

Husky coach Mike Hopkins had made the 6-foot-7 forward from Concord, California, one of his recruiting priorities, but got no farther than making it into the player's final three. 

Bunch, considered one of the better perimeter shooters for a wing man in the Class of 2022, had called Hopkins one of the most energetic coaches he'd ever encountered. Yet in the end, he selected one who was more demanding and successful.

Jim Boeheim. 

"I always told my dad at a young age I wanted to play for a legendary coach," Bunch said in his CBS interview. 

Bunch, who visited the UW last month on an official recruiting trip, is currently playing his senior season at a Utah prep school, the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, after competing last year for De La Salle in his California hometown. He is rated as the nation's No. 58 player by 247Sports.

The Huskies are two weeks away from playing an exhibition game against Central Washington and unveiling what amounts to a new team after losing six players to the transfer portal and welcoming seven new guys.

Recruiting is of the utmost importance to Hopkins, who's had two consecutive lackluster seasons at the UW.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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