Syracuse Basketball 2015-16 Orange Season Primer

It’s only August, and the season is still several months away, but it’s never too early to take a look at the upcoming Syracuse basketball roster and gain some insight on what this season could possibly hold.

Let’s start by talking about the roster. There are currently 11 scholarship players on the roster for the season, including Kaleb Joseph, Trevor Cooney, Malachi Richardson, Michael Gbinije, Franklin Howard, Tyler Lydon, Tyler Roberson, Dajuan Coleman, Chinonso Obokoh, Moustapha Diagne, and Paschal Chukwu (will not play this season due to transfer rules).

For the casual fan, the first thing to note is, what’s up with all the guys named Tyler lately? If you add in Tyler Ennis from a couple years ago and Tyus Battle, a commitment from the 2016 class, that’s four Ty’s in four years. I have no idea what the significance of that is, but it certainly would be fun to hear announcers next year saying “Tyler passes to Tyler, who dishes to Tyus, back to Tyler, back to the OTHER Tyler…”

All kidding aside, it is hard to know what to expect from this year’s team. We have senior leadership from Gbinije and Cooney, but we lost our dominant big man Christmas to graduation and the NBA, McCullough as well, and also lost Ron Patterson and BJ Johnson to transfers.

What does that mean for the team? It means that some of the incoming freshmen (Richardson, Howard, Lydon, Diagne) are going to need to step in and give some quality minutes. Malachi looks like a great candidate for that, as he is a long, athletic shooter who can get hot in an instant.

Malachi Richardson posing for photos. Photo by Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Malachi had an outstanding year at Trenton Catholic, averaging 18.7 points and just under three 3-pointers per game. He’s deadly from the outside when he gets hot, but he is a bit streaky at times, and can get lost in the flow of the game when he camps out at the 3-point line.

Hopefully he will adjust to the college game quickly and can help us from long range, as last year SU was dreadful from distance, hitting only 30.1% of their shots, which was good for 327th in the country. That is an ugly number, but a large part of the problem was that we only had two players who could shoot, Cooney and Gbinije, and one player (Patterson) who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn… a very large barn. Adding Malachi will help, as will Tyler Lydon.

Lydon is a very interesting prospect. A 6-foot-9 power forward, he has a very fluid shot and can also drain 3-pointers effectively.  He’s a perfect stretch-four, being able to play down low in the blocks and all the way out behind the arc. He’s incredibly athletic, has excellent hands, and has a very high basketball IQ.  He’s also an excellent defender that can block shots and rebound.  He has drawn comparisons to Chandler Parsons and even a “poor man’s Kevin Durant.” Those are some pretty big shoes to fill.

Howard and Diagne, I’m not quite sure about yet. Diagne is a low-post power forward, and definitely has some skills around the basket, as he had 12 points in the Mary Kline Classic senior game, a game that is mostly dominated by ball-hogging guards trying to show off their one-on-one skills.  He looks like a typical big man for SU, in a similar mold to Baye Moussa Keita, which is fitting since they are both originally from Senegal.

Howard is coming off a pretty bad knee injury from last year that kept him out and definitely hurt his ranking. However, he came back strong this year and lead his team to the state championship game. He has a decent outside shot, good basketball awareness, and is a solid passer. It will be interesting to see how his skill set translates at the college level, and whether or not he will see much playing time.

Besides the incoming freshman, there are some other question marks for the team. Will this be the year Cooney becomes the dead aim sharpshooter he’s always been touted as? Will Gbinije turn into a leader and superstar like he is capable of? Will Dajuan Coleman come back from his two years of injury and give us solid minutes? Will Boeheim/Hopkins play more than 6-7 guys? I think we all know the answer to the last question at least.

Dajuan Coleman and Trevor Cooney will need to have a big impact this year. Photo by Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

While it may be too early to make any real assessments as to how good this team can be, they certainly have the potential to be a solid unit. If everything falls into place, this team could surprise a lot of people. We know the defense will be solid with that smothering zone, so it’s really all about offensive production. And with the talent that’s coming in this year, coupled with some veteran leadership, the sky’s the limit.

Stay tuned for part two of this article next week, when I will discuss more of the returning players and what their roles should be for the team.