With the return of Syracuse basketball star Tyus Battle, expectations are high for next season. Here’s what records Battle can smash in his Junior campaign.
Now that we know Tyus Battle has returned to the 2018-19 Syracuse basketball squad, the hype is starting to get real. We’ve already seen a variety of experts launch the Orange into the preseason top-25.
So with expectations so high for this program, what are expectations are realistic? We’ve heard National Championship banter, one of the top programs in ACC, and even a ‘Final Four’ run thrown around once or twice.
But we don’t want to extend ourselves out that far, how about something more simple? Tyus Battle. What records can he break this season? It’s a bit unusual to have your team’s brightest star stay for more than one season, let alone three.
SU fans should be more than grateful for everything Battle has already done for this program. But next year could be his best yet. We’ve broken down the top five records Battle can break next season.
5. Points
Tyus Battle has been through it all and he has the battle scars to prove it. In his freshman season he was a rotational piece that provided some nice pop, but he didn’t have to be THE guy on the team: that was up to John Gillon, Andrew White, and Tyler Lydon and others.
It’s ironic when you look at Tyus’s freshman season to what we potentially have next season. Jim Boeheim called that 2016-17 team one of the best he ever had and it didn’t end up that way. This upcoming squad is two deep at every position so Battle won’t have to be THE guy, but we all know he’s going to be.
Boeheim has always kept a tight leash on his rotation. Battle has proven to be a really good scorer so far in his career. So last season Battle was top-three ACC scorer, but the question is, did he stat sheet stuff on a bad offensive team?
Well he’ll prove that one way or another next season on a more offensively gifted team. During that process he has a chance to rise up the points rankings. He currently is 55th on the all-time scoring list. So how high can he rise? Well last year he scored over 700 points, so if he has a similar season, he can rise as high as top-10! That would force people to consider Battle among the greatest players in Orange history, think about that for a minute.
4. Three point percentage
While Battle scored a ton of points last year, it wasn’t always in the most efficient way. But can you blame him? SU had to score points somehow and all of that onus fell on Battle, Frank Howard, and Oshae Brissett.
But really, if Battle didn’t score, SU usually lost, what other player had that kind of pressure on them last season? Because he had to force up a lot more shots, the quality of said shots fell and so did his three point percentage.
In his freshman season Battle shot 37%, last season Battle dropped to 32%, overall Battle holds a 34% mark (31st all-time, just ahead of Carmelo Anthony).
So if Battle was as good as his freshman season, he could rise to top-25 all-time. But could we see a career year from Battle? It makes sense, all we have to do to recreate that is for Battle to be THE guy but with options. So he can take quality shots and a lot of them.
The highest Battle could get being as crazy as physically possible is top-12. For that to happen Battle would have to match the best three point percentage for a career in history (Greg Monroe, 44%, 1984-87). We’re saying there’s a chance.
3. Three points made
SPOILER ALERT: Battle can’t top Gerry McNamara (well I guess technically he could if he made close to 300 threes this upcoming season). We just talked about quality vs quantity and you’ll see that with his three point shooting career numbers.
In his first season he made 60 three pointers (37% a clip). While last season he made 17 more threes, but with 75 more attempts. That’s not a good ratio, but it’s a good sample size of what we can try to guess will happen next season.
So if he canned another 77 threes (currently at 17th all-time) he could go all the way into the top-five! That would put him right behind: Preston Shumpert (249), Trevor Cooney (281), Andy Rautins (282), and McNamara (400).
As you can tell working through this list, Battle has a chance to go from fan-favorite to real time Orange legend. 77 threes that we assumed would match his career high. Also fifth place all-time would be his likely ceiling for what he could hope to accomplish for next season.
2. Free throw percentage
One of the most underappreciated stats of basketball is free throw percentage. I mean quite literally ‘free’ is in the terminology. These are supposed to be gimmes and they’re a direct result of practice, determination, and wherewithal.
Last year, Battle was as close to automatic as you can be (84%) if you could extrapolate that over a career that would be good enough for fourth all-time in Syracuse basketball history. Although we can’t do that because it’s about consistency.
In Battle’s Freshman season he was slightly less effective from the charity stripe (80%). Although a great sign for Battle is that he shot over double the amount of free throws last season than he did the year prior and his percentage increased.
Battle already is heralded with some lofty standing owning a career 83% mark (sixth best all-time), but how much higher can he go? The glass ceiling so to speak is a player that holds multiple records in SU history that’s McNamara with 89% a clip. How impressive is that? If Battle made 100% of his free throws in his Junior season, he still wouldn’t beat G-Mac’s lofty standard.
1. Total Minutes Played
What was Tyus Battle most well known for last season? Being a freaking Iron Man for the Orange. We all know Jim Boeheim has a pretty tight rotation, but we’ve never quite seen what we saw last season.
Battle averaged 39 minutes a game, for reference there’s 40 minutes in a game. But it goes beyond just the minutes he has cranked out, its the usage rates and the analytics regarding most possessions ending with the ball in Battle’s hands, via ACC Sports Reference.
So how does he compare historically? I wanted it to be a fair debate, so I eliminated every four year player in program history. So let’s be real for a second, Battle has decided to come back for his Junior campaign, but he has made it known that he will enter the 2019 NBA Draft.
So knowing that, we quite literally cross referenced every ‘three year’ player in Syracuse basketball history:
- Billy Owens (3618 minutes played) Forward, 1989, 1990, 1991
- Ryan Blackwell (3400 minutes played) Forward, 1998, 1999, 2000
- Dwayne ‘Pearl’ Washington (3178 minutes played) Guard, 1984, 1985, 1986
- Paul Harris (3152 minutes played) Guard/Forward, 2007, 2008, 2009
- Michael Gbinije (2950 minutes played) Forward, 2014, 2015, 2016
- DeShaun Williams (2751 minutes played) Guard, 2000, 2001, 2002
- Tyus Battle (2487 minutes played) 2016, 2017, 2018
Next: Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History
Based on our research, Battle is seventh all-time in total minutes played (among three year players). Last season Battle played over 1,400 minutes, in his freshman season he had over 1,000 minutes. If Battle pulls off the incredible 1,400 feat again, he’ll be the top total minutes played athlete (among three year players) in basketball program history.