The 6-foot-10 big out of Cincinnati has picked up a ton of offers in the past week.
On Thursday afternoon, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team made a new offer in the class of 2024. Big man Raleigh Burgess (Cincinnati) out of Sycamore High School was on campus Thursday and the UW coaching staff extended him a scholarship offer during the unofficial visit.
Burgess has been on fire over the past week, racking up multiple offers since Monday. The other teams that have given him a scholarship opportunity are Cincinnati, Dayton, Indiana, Iowa, Ole Miss, Penn State, Purdue, Wake Forest and others. The Rebels were the first to offer him, all the way back at the end of April.
After a great visit at the University of Wisconsin with @DeanOliver20, @coachreef and @GregGard, I’m super excited to announce that I’ve received and offer! @BadgerMBB pic.twitter.com/YxYs5vNThC
— Raleigh Burgess (@raleigh_burgess) June 16, 2022
Burgess stands at 6-foot-10 or 6-foot-11 and weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 215 pounds. He is unrated by all of the major recruiting services so far, but everything I’ve read suggests that he’ll eventually be a high 3-star or 4-star prospect once more of the ‘24 class is evaluated.
Sycamore High School went 21-3 last season while winning their conference and losing in the district finals of the OHSAA Boys Basketball State Championships. He plays his grassroots ball for Indiana Elite (Adidas circuit) with another top UW target, 2024 4-star forward Cooper Koch (Peoria, Ill.).
Its early days but Indy Elite 16u may have the deepest & most versatile big rotation in the country. Being able to roll out combinations of 2024s 6’10 Flory Bidunga, 6’10 Raleigh Burgess & 6’8 Cooper Koch is going to present a unique problem for anybody.
— PD Web (@abovethebreak3) April 10, 2022
As a freshman, he averaged 8.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. He upped those (except rebounds, I suppose) to 10.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game as a sophomore. Burgess was named second team All-Greater Miami Conference after this past season.
There is not a ton of video on Burgess yet, but this brief clip from Indiana’s Rivals site shows Burgess stepping out to shoot the three, attacking a closeout and blocking a shot. His shooting stroke looks good and his frame makes it apparent that he can add a decent amount of weight without sacrificing his mobility and athleticism.
In an interview he did recently with Phenom Hoop Report, he compared himself to Al Horford and, my personal Horford feelings aside, that is the type of player any team would want. Burgess is the third big man that UW has offered in the ‘24 cycle, along with JT Rock out of South Dakota and 4-star James Brown out of Chicago.
I would love to see some more highlights of Burgess because he looks like a player that would fit in smoothly with Wisconsin. He’s also the kind of player that might not ever truly explode onto the national scene, meaning that blue bloods from outside of the midwest may not come sniffing around. It will also be interesting to see if he and Koch want to play together in college, as Koch has been offered by a lot of the same teams as Burgess, and whether or not schools would offer them a “package deal” situation.