Five-star 2018 recruit Darius Bazley has decommitted from Syracuse and will become the first high school player to turn professional in the NBA G League, according to Yahoo Sports.

Bazley, the No. 9 recruit in ESPN’s 2018 rankings, committed to SU back in July 2017. He scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 17 minutes at the McDonald’s All-American Game Wednesday.

The 6-foot-9 power forward out of Princeton (Cincinnati) High School headlined Syracuse’s 2018 recruiting class that features the likes of No. 37 recruit Jalen Carey and Buddy Boeheim, son of SU head coach Jim Boeheim.

Carey said that the decommitment has come as a surprise and that he is still waiting on a response from Bazley. “It’s crazy right now,” he told The Daily Orange. Carey originally found out the news from his dad, who called him a few minutes after the news broke. Syracuse guard Elijah Hughes texted Carey confirming the news, Carey said.

Syracuse Athletics declined to comment on Thursday afternoon, citing that coaches were in the process of traveling to the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.

“He would’ve been a big piece for us, but we just got to work around that now,” Carey said. “(Syracuse) made the Sweet 16 this year without him so we just going to have to find a way to get back.”

Carey also added that he is still 100-percent committed to Syracuse.

Bazley’s decommitment from Syracuse comes just two days after redshirt freshman Matthew Moyer announced his decision to transfer. In that time, walk-on turned scholarship guard Braedon Bayer announced he will use his fifth year of eligibility elsewhere.

With Bazley’s decommitment and Moyer’s transfer, Syracuse’s forward depth has thinned. The Orange’s current roster contains just two forwards: Oshae Brissett and Marek Dolezaj.

The minimum age to join the G League is 18, which Bazley will turn on June 12. After a year, when Bazley is not signed to an NBA team, he will be eligible for the NBA Draft, which he is projected to go inside the 2019 top 10.

Bazley will not make more than $26,000 in G League earnings next season, according to ESPN.

Boeheim said last month that, in general, he would be a proponent of top high school players like Bazley skipping college and going straight for the pros. Boeheim said the one-and-done rule “has to go.”

Established in 2006, the rule requires U.S.-based players to be one year removed from high school before being eligible for the NBA Draft. The rule was implemented because of concern over whether players were mature enough to enter the NBA. The result has been a college basketball landscape including players who have no intention to stay at school more than one season required. Ten of the first 11 picks of last year’s draft were college freshmen.

“Hopefully we’ll get guys who want to be in college,” Boeheim said Feb. 24. “If they really want to go to the NBA (out of high school). Bill Gates didn’t want to go to college. I think he did alright. Golf, tennis players don’t have to go to college.”

Syracuse Director of Athletics John Wildhack told The Daily Orange on Friday night, before SU’s season-ending loss in the Sweet 16, that he also would be a proponent of ridding the one-and-done model. When speaking in general terms, it is clear that both Boeheim and Wildhack would favor moves similar to that of Bazley — going directly from high school to the pros.

“If somebody is good enough to turn pro out of high school,” Wildhack said, “and that’s what they want to do, whether it’s the NBA or G League or international, they should be able to do that.”

— Senior staff writer Matthew Gutierrez contributed reporting to this story.

Published on March 29, 2018 at 4:05 pm

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