Syracuse Basketball: Will Tyus Battle reach immortality in year three?

Tyus Battle, Syracuse Basketball’s prodigiously polished scorer who has been eulogized ahead of his junior year, may end up making it his finest.

When the 35th-best hooper in the country, Tyus Battle, pulled up to join the Syracuse basketball team in 2016, there were immediate and long-term expectations for the 6-foot-6 New Jersey native to exceed ordinariness before his tenure in central New York came to a close.

Battle, the fourth scoring option for a Syracuse team that failed to reach the NCAA Tournament in 2017, averaged 11 points on less than nine shots per game in year one.

Despite his mainstream scoring output, it was his clutch genes that made the departures of Tyler Lydon, John Gillon, and Andrew White in the summer of 2017 somewhat feasible for Orange fans. His 21 and 23-point outbursts in winning efforts against Boston College and No. 9 Virginia kept Syracuse’s NCAA Tournament aspirations alive until the waning moments of Selection Sunday.

Syracuse Orange

Ahead of the 2017-18 season, the Orange were primed to flop following three key departures, and for the second-straight year, reach the NIT. In the eyes of adversity, Battle wasn’t in the mood to see Syracuse preach mediocrity for the second-straight season, but rather stun the nation as they did in 2016.

Year two saw plenty of drastic improvements and newfound opportunities for the sophomore leader.

Battle averaged nine more points per game, good for the third-most in the ACC (behind Marvin Bagley III and Jerome Robinson). 29 points on the road against both Georgetown and Boston College and 37 points at No. 23 Florida State are just three of the many instances in which Battle rose to and exceeded the call of duty as a sophomore.

Oh, and an Orange team that many thought would be NIT bound during the preseason, defeated Michigan State in the Round of 32 and took Duke to the wire in the Sweet 16 round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

Here we are, year three. After an unexpectedly strong March Madness run last season, the media knows not to count out Syracuse, simply because of Tyus Battle, who many believe has the tools to reach immortality as a junior.

According to Sports Illustrated’s 2018-19 Top-10 preseason candidates for NCAA Player of the Year, the favorites to win the Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year Award are UNC’s senior forward Luke Maye, Duke freshman phenom R.J. Barrett, and Purdue’s critically acclaimed junior combo guard Carsen Edwards.

And then there is the challenger’s tier, one that features the likes of Kansas’ Dedric Lawson, Nevada’s Caleb Martin, and Battle.

Battle’s decision to spend a third season at Syracuse could both pave way for his seamless transition to the NBA in 2019 and give the Orange their most reliable team in recent memory. Plenty of outlets including NCAA.com and Athlon Sports have Syracuse at No. 12 and No. 14 in their preseason rankings and have eluded to the fact that Battle’s return elevated the Orange from an unranked team into one with Sweet 16 potential.

Syracuse still has their work cut out for them this season. Orange head coach Jim Boeheim has plenty of lineup experimenting to make before he can find his favorite five and roll with them through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Despite all that is uncertain in central New York, the college basketball world has safely said that Battle’s potential to dominate the NCAA in unmatched ways during the 2018-19 season could leave plenty of lingering, fabled impacts on the future success of the Syracuse basketball program.