JJ Starling, 2022 4-star, cuts list to 5

JJ Starling, a 6-foot-4 combo guard out of Baldwinsville (N.Y.) La Lumiere tells On3 he is down to five schools – Syracuse, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Stanford, and Duke.

Starling has already taken official visits to Syracuse, Stanford, and Notre Dame. He will take a second official visit to Syracuse on Sept. 10-12, followed by Northwestern on Sept. 17-19, and lastly Duke on Sept. 24-26.

Starling also visited Maryland and Alabama, but there are no longer under consideration.

JJ Starling says he would like to make a decision sometime in October.

Syracuse is the ‘hometown school’

The Syracuse Orange is only 15 minutes away from where Starling grew up.

“What I really like about them is the coaching staff,” Starling said. “As a player, the coach is very important. I got to have a bond with them and be able to connect with them and be able to talk to them outside of basketball. So I can perform the way I perform. Same with the guys on the court. I don’t want to be playing with toxic teammates. I wanna play with guys ready to win and guys who play the right way.”

Northwestern’s campus is beautiful

“As I said, all of these colleges in my top five have a great coaching staff, great players,” Starling said. “I actually went to Northwestern on an unofficial this summer. I really liked the campus. It’s beautiful. They have a great group of guys. The schools in my top five, want more than basketball. That’s the biggest thing.”

Starling’s friends at Notre Dame

Starling returned from his official visit to Notre Dame earlier this week.

“It was great,” Starling said. “I toured the campus, and you get a feel for not only the coaches but also some of the teachers, like the counselors. It’s a great place. Everyone is welcoming and nice. I know some of the guys there like Blake (Wesley), JR (Konieczny), P Hubb (Prentiss Hubb). I know most of the guys, just because I’ve been up there unofficially two or three times…it’s a great place.”

Education at Stanford

“As we all know, that’s a great academic spot,” Starling said. “One of the best universities in the world for education. My parents and I both harp on education and knowing that it’s bigger than basketball. That spot is great to have that mindset. They really represent what I stand for.”

Starling says a lot of the recruiting pitch from Stanford is their academic programs.

“They talk a lot about academics because they want you to know what you’ll be in for,” Starling said. “Stanford is not just another college. The workload is going to be crazy. At the same time, they talk about basketball too and say how I’ll be paired with a great group of guys and how I’ll be able to come in and play my game and do what I do best.”

Starling on his offer from Duke

“I really didn’t expect it,” Starling said. “We’ve been in contact since like my sophomore year. Just calls and they were showing high interest. But I was still completely surprised when I got that offer because like you said, it’s a big blue blood school. Everyone dreams of going to the North Carolina’s, Kentucky’s, Duke’s… so it was big time. It was really big time.”

How does Coach K retiring and Jon Scheyer taking over affect his decision?

“I’m not really listening to any outside voices,” JJ Starling said. “I’m not gonna let that determine how I feel about a school. You’re gonna have the people who say ‘oh he’s not gonna do well’ or ‘this program is gonna start off bad because it’s a new coach’ but Coach (Jon) Scheyer has been in the program for a while…he played there, he was an assistant there. And everybody started somewhere like Coach K didn’t get there by having a big name like starting out.”

Are any current players/commits recruiting Starling?

“I’ve heard from every school, whether it’s guys on the team or the commits but I’m not gonna lie, the most I’ve heard from is Duke,” Starling said. “I’m cool with Kyle (Filipowski), I’m cool with Dariq (Whitehead). We’ve been playing against each other for so long. We see each other all the time. We just saw each other at the Slam thing, you know and there always going to be like ‘come to Duke, come to Duke, come team up’ and stuff like that. So yeah, I’d definitely say the Duke commits.”