Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History

Lawrence Moten is known by most Syracuse Basketball fans for one thing: being SU’s all-time leading scorer with 2,334 points in his career. Moten though should be remembered for so much more than that.

Standing at 6’5, Moten could play the shooting guard or small forward position and was great at rebounding out of the 2-3 zone. He was as skilled offensively as anyone who ever played for Syracuse University, and that showed right away starting freshman year.

As a freshman, he came right in and contributed heavily averaging 18.2 points, six rebounds, two assists, 1.1 blocks, and 1.4 steals a game according to Sports-reference.com. If anyone averaged those numbers today that individual would probably be a one-and-done and jump to the NBA following the season. Moten though was special and averaged those types of numbers his whole career at Syracuse which lasted all four years.

Following his freshman year, he would be named the Big East Rookie of the Year as well as to the All-Big East Third Team according to Orangehoops.org. The rest of his career he would garner First Team All-Big East honors as well as become the Big East’s All-Time Leading scorer. (He currently sits 6th all-time in Big East history, according to Sports-Reference.com.) These accomplishments put Moten in rare company as not many college athletes finish with First-team all-conference honors three times, are the school’s all-time leading scorer, and finish top ten in their conference all-time.

For his entire Syracuse Basketball career Moten would average 19.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.8 steals, 0.7 blocks, and shoot 71% from the line. He would lead the Orangemen to three NCAA berths (including a Sweet 16), a Big East Regular Season Championship as a freshman, and a Big East Tournament Championship as a Sophomore.

Although Moten is most recognized for being Syracuse Basketball’s all-time leading scorer, he also sits highly on other all-time lists at SU. He currently sits 1st in field goals, 4th in free throws made, 6th in minutes played, 7th in three-point field goals made, 26th in assists, and 34th in rebounds, according to Orangehoops.org and Cuse.com.

As much as I’d love to crown Lawrence Moten as the best Syracuse Basketball player of all-time because of his amazing scoring ability and consistency across his SU career, I can’t do so because there were four other athletes whose all-around resumes were just that much better. Moten’s legacy though is secure in that he is probably the best scoring threat Syracuse has ever had, and that’s saying quite a bit.