Syracuse’s push for Moussa Kamissoko is showing up in all the right places, and now there’s fresh movement around the 2027 five-star wing that only adds to the Orange’s momentum.
On Wednesday, Gerry McNamara and assistant Jamal Brunt were at an open gym at Kamissoko’s high school, according to social media posts. It was at least the third time Syracuse’s staff has been in to see the 6-foot-8, 180-pound small forward since the fall recruiting period opened on September 9, this time at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio.
That kind of consistent presence fits the growing sense around the recruitment. Earlier this week, On3/Rivals national reporter Joe Tipton projected Syracuse to land Kamissoko, and multiple national analysts have suggested the same to Inside the Loud House in recent days.
Kamissoko, a Bronx native, first received a scholarship offer from Syracuse in late December 2024. He transferred to Spire for his senior season after playing at Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, N.Y., the same program SU sophomore guard/wing Kiyan Anthony attended before coming to Syracuse.
The Orange also appear to have made a strong impression on an official visit earlier this month. Kamissoko has also taken an unofficial visit to Providence, along with official visits to Florida State, Oklahoma State and Illinois.
There’s also increasing uncertainty around some of his other planned trips. Reports had listed upcoming official visits to UConn, Louisville and Baylor, but Inside the Loud House has been told Kamissoko could be backing away from those visits. On Thursday morning, college basketball insider Adam Zagoria wrote on X that Kamissoko "will not visit UConn this weekend and is weighing whether to take future visits."
That comes after the latest wave of buzz around Syracuse, which is still not a done deal but is clearly in a strong position. There are even rumblings that Kamissoko could make a commitment announcement early next month.
In Other News...
Syracuse Has A Costly Problem Fran Brown Must Fix Fast
Through the first three games, Syracuse has built an unwanted identity around flags. The Orange have piled up 36 penalties for 329 yards, the kind of self-inflicted damage that can wreck drives, swing field position and make every snap feel harder than it should. It has already shown up in the most painful way, with one punt return touchdown erased by a penalty.
Fran Brown now gets a crucial bye week to sort through a problem that has been too costly to ignore. With UConn next on the schedule, Syracuse has a real chance to clean up the discipline issues before they become even more damaging in league play, but the fix has to come fast if the Orange want to stop beating themselves. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Is Reaching A Real Decision Point At Quarterback
Through the first three games, Syracuse has learned enough about its quarterback situation to know this is no longer just a slow start. Steve Angeli has been pressed into tough situations behind an offensive line that has not given him much help, and the results have been rough. He is tied for the most interceptions nationally, has put several other throws in harms way and has looked limited enough as a runner that mobility has become part of the conversation, whether from injury recovery or just the strain of the opening stretch.
The bigger issue for the Orange is that Angelis problems are not happening in isolation. Tackles Kam Pringle and center Joe Cruz have both been part of an underperforming front, and the cumulative effect has made the offense hard to trust in key moments. At some point, Syracuse has to decide whether this is simply a bad early run that can be corrected, or a quarterback setup that needs a different answer before the season gets away from it. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Has A Discipline Problem That Could Define This Season
Syracuses start to the season has come with a familiar frustration for Fran Brown: the Orange are piling up flags at a rate that no program in the FBS can match. Through the early part of the year, Syracuse leads the country in penalties per game and sits second in penalty yards per game, a sharp jump from what Browns teams had been able to avoid in past seasons. For a program trying to build consistency, the issue has become impossible to separate from the bigger picture.
Brown has already acknowledged the need for better discipline, and that matters because this kind of problem can wear on a team in more ways than the box score shows. History also offers some perspective, though, since teams with heavy penalty totals have still found ways to finish with winning records and make bowl games. The question for Syracuse is whether it can clean up the mistakes soon enough for those examples to matter. [Read more 🡒]