Chris McCullough commits to Syracuse

The Syracuse Orange men's basketball program may have landed its first recruit for the Class of 2014, as CuseNation.com's Mike McAllister is reporting five-star power forward Chris McCullough has made a verbal commitment to play for the Orange.

McAllister cites McCullough's prep school teammate Ron Patterson as the source. Patterson, a Class of '13 prospect, committed to play at SU on Saturday.

McCullough is rated the 17th-best player in the Class of '14 according to ESPN's Recruiting Services and is the third-best power forward according to Scout.com. The 6'10, 220-pounder chose SU over the St. John's Red Storm, Louisville Cardinals and Pittsburgh Panthers.

McCullough is a very long and athletic forward with obvious upside. He runs the court with long fluid strides, gets off his feet quickly, and gets his head on the rim. He is equally mobile laterally and is consequently a potentially versatile defender down the road

The Bronx, NY native is one of five prospect to commit early to SU, which already has landed four recruits in the Class of '13: three-star guard Patterson, five-star point guard Tyler Ennis, three-star small forward B.J. Johnson and three-star power forward Chinonso Obokoh.

Though, the Orange still need to wait two years for McCullough to arrive on campus, this could mean they're now a favorite to pick up a commitment from another '14 prospect, Isaiah Whitehead, who's a native of Brooklyn and is rated the 41st-best player by ESPN. Both players have talked about playing together in college.

Syracuse is also reportedly the favorite to earn a commitment from '13 recruit Tyler Roberson sometime in the next few weeks.