SU Hoops: Loss Of Taurean Thompson Stings, But Orange Will Persevere

Taurean Thompson is likely leaving the SU hoops squad is brutal, but not fatal. ITLH takes an in-depth look at the suddenly dire situation in CNY.

Well, this is a bummer.

Just as the Syracuse community turns its attention to the upcoming college-football season, the Orange basketball outfit took a somewhat surprising gut-punch.

Per Syracuse.com, sophomore Taurean Thompson is not expected to return to the ‘Cuse for the 2017-18 campaign. The article said that Thompson is dealing with some family health concerns and wants to play ball closer to home.

Reports have surfaced this week that Thompson may transfer to Seton Hall, a school that he considered, along with Michigan State, before deciding on SU.

First and foremost, let’s wish Thompson well. Family and health are way more important than basketball, or any other sport for that matter. Now, I’ve read online that perhaps Thompson went ghost over the summer and didn’t return messages from Syracuse coaches and players.

If that is, indeed, the case, that’s not particularly cool. However, we don’t know what Thompson is

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dealing with, and I’ll call out any ‘Cuse fan that criticizes him. Life is way too precious, and sports are way too insignificant.

Getting that out of the way, head coach Jim Boeheim and his staff must move on and work with what they’ve got for the upcoming term.

Assuming Thompson bolts, the Orange will have nine primary guys suit up in 2017-18 (remember that East Carolina transfer Elijah Hughes has to sit out for a year).

They are graduate transfer Geno Thorpe, a point guard by way of South Florida; juniors Paschal Chukwu, a center, and Frank Howard, a point guard; sophomore wing Tyus Battle; redshirt freshman forward Matthew Moyer; and freshmen Oshae Brissett (forward), Marek Dolezaj (forward), Bourama Sidibe (power forward/center) and Howard Washington (combo guard).

It’s a massive understatement to say that this group is both extremely inexperienced, and ridiculously young. Similar to 2016-17, JB and his assistants have so many new pieces to fit together. I pray that 2017-18 results in a better outcome, but, realistically, this stanza could prove rough.

Thompson, a power forward/center, showed beautiful offensive touch during his freshman stint. He can shoot the rock well for a big man, and his inside game isn’t too shabby, either. Losing this hurts. Plus, save for Battle and Howard, Thompson represented one of the more experienced players on the current roster.

On the flip side, I think we all can agree that Thompson struggled in Boeheim’s 2-3 zone. In all fairness, a lot of rookies do, and I figured he would improve his defense as a sophomore.

So, one could make the argument that maybe SU’s zone will actually improve with Thompson gone. However, dudes that will replace him at power forward or center, such as Chukwu and Sidibe, are themselves fairly raw.

The last go-round, the ‘Cuse’s defense performed pretty poorly. Therefore, the bar is set low. I’m hopeful that this present cast will exceed my relatively truncated expectations. It’s not that I’m a pessimist; rather, we just have a ton of new faces, and cohesion takes time.

My biggest worry is on offense. Other than Battle, we have no proven scorers, especially in the post. Not only will guards like Howard and Thorpe have to put up some points, but also Brissett, Dolezaj and Moyer must contribute – and right away.

That’s a lot to ask of numerous guys who have yet to see any action for Syracuse.

The bottom line is that, while I adore my beloved Orange, I get the feeling that 2017-18 will amount to a down year. Expectations proved middling at best before the Thompson development.

The bevy of college-basketball prognosticators believe that the ‘Cuse is not a top-25 team, a bottom-tier ACC bunch, and unlikely to receive a Big Dance berth.

Still, we have a Hall of Fame head coach. Anything can happen. There is an abundance of question marks, but there’s also a lot of potential talent among these nine folks.

JB seems to thrive when no one thinks his group is good. Thompson fleeing does stink, I’ll admit that. Whatever. Stuff happens.

While 2017-18 may burn a bit, optimism abounds after that. In the 2018 recruiting class, committed forward Darius Bazley is blowing up; he’s moved to a five-star prospect, and ESPN.com now places him among the top-10 studs across the country in that class.

We all assume guard Buddy Boeheim, the son of the elder Boeheim, will don a SU uniform in 2018-19. Hughes is eligible then. With Thompson and Thorpe, the grad transfer, gone, that gives Boeheim & Co. at least two more scholarships. And you never know if someone might declare early for the pros, like Battle, or transfer.

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Syracuse has promising 2018 class members, such as guards Eric Ayala and Jalen Carey, as well as power forwards Dimon Carrigan and Nate Roberts, still on its radar.

Oh, and Louis King, a five-star small forward who is generally regarded as one of the top-20 recruits in the 2018 class, took to Twitter this week to name his final eight.

Duke and Kentucky aren’t on King’s list. Syracuse is. We’ll end on that juicy note.