Syracuse basketball recruiting: 5-star 2022 PG Dior Johnson commits to Orange

After taking a visit to central New York last weekend for the Duke game, class of 2022 guard Dior Johnson has committed to the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball program. Johnson, a five-star guard originally from Kingston, New York, announced his decision on twitter.

Johnson currently plays basketball at Mayfair High School in Lakewood, California. He runs with Strive For Greatness, LeBron James’s program, on the AAU circuit.

In a post on Sports Illustrated, Johnson said he had nothing against the Blue Bloods of college basketball, but wanted to go somewhere where he could compete against them and beat them.

Said Johnson of his visit, “I went on an unofficial there last weekend and it just felt like home. I’ve known the staff there since the seventh grade and that’s when they first started to recruit me. I played in the same AAU organization as Buddy Boeheim, which is Coach Boeheim’s son so the staff was always around.”

It was announced that the Syracuse coaching staff offered Johnson last summer, but he noted that Jim Boeheim and Gerry McNamara were really on him since middle school.

“I’ve been talking with G-Mac and Boeheim since I was in seventh grade. I like Syracuse,” Johnson told TNIAAM last August.

Johnson is the No. 4 ranked recruit in his class and the No. 1 point guard, per 247. When we spoke with him at the 2019 Slam Summer Classic, Johnson said he’d try to be the next pro guard out of Syracuse if he committed. He also alluded to the idea of going straight to the NBA if the association repealed the one-and-done rule.

“If I end up going there, I like them both (McNamara and Boeheim). I like their style of play. It’s a 2-3 (zone), that’s my style of defense,” Johnson said. “On offense they let their guards go. I feel like Syracuse hasn’t had any pro guards come out quick. If that happened, I’d try to be the next.”

Johnson is the first Syracuse commit in the class of 2022. The Orange also have offers to JJ Starling, Zion Cruz, Chance Westry, Roddy Gayle and Donovan Clingan in the same class. Cruz, the No. 20 ranked recruit in the class of 2022, was also at the Duke game last weekend.

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