Syracuse Basketball: It shouldn’t be Buddy Boeheim vs Jalen Carey

The Syracuse basketball team has it all wrong. It shouldn’t be Buddy Boeheim vs Jalen Carey, it should be Buddy AND Jalen in the rotation.

It just doesn’t make sense. Why the hell is there a battle for minutes on this Syracuse basketball roster?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the logistics. Last season Syracuse had a limited amount of guys, so the minute spread was obvious.

This season the Orange have a first world problem to deal with. Nine players are currently averaging at least 10 minutes per contest through 18 games on the season.

Although only eight players saw minutes in Syracuse’s latest game vs Pitt on Saturday. We’ll start with the positive, Buddy Boeheim had a career-high 13 points in 19 minutes of action, a pretty good ratio that his father Jim Boeheim would like to see more of:

"“He knows he can shoot. Buddy probably had the best few days of practice this week that he has had all year. He literally made everything in practice this week. There are some weeks where he doesn’t, but he made everything this week so I was definitely going to get him in there. We need to be able to see him better, find him better. Occasionally we’re trying to throw a bounce pass inside that’s covered, when Buddy is right there sitting at the wing. Buddy is a good shooter and a good defender. He doesn’t hurt us when he’s in there and he gives us the threat to shoot from outside. There were moments where Tyus (Battle) was driving and they ignored him and stayed with Buddy on the perimeter.”"

Don’t get this wrong, Buddy as a freshman has been a pleasant surprise. He’s a three point shooter who can provide a spark off the bench and to Jim’s point even be a decoy to help his teammates out. He should be out there as much as possible.

But not at the expense of Jalen Carey. When Jim was asked if that is what happened on Saturday, he denied it:

"“No not really. We needed a shooter. Jalen Carey obviously had a bad game at Duke (had three turnovers in seven minutes on the floor), but he’s been practicing better. The one advantage with Frank Howard being out is Tyus learned how to play the point. Several times we just let him be the primary guy and he scored 10-12 of his points from the point. Earlier in the year he was trying to run the team and now he’s just taking advantage of the middle ball screens when he has the ball. It wasn’t because of Jalen, it’s because I wanted to play Tyus at the point. That’s all.”"

Now with the way Jalen played on Monday, I would understand if you wanted to send some kind of message. But Jim admitted that wasn’t the case.

There’s no legitimate reason I can rationalize why Jalen Carey should be stripped of his minutes. Look at the rotation vs Pitt on Saturday:

• Elijah Hughes (25 minutes)
• Oshae Brissett (28 minutes)
• Paschal Chukwu (26 minutes)
• Tyus Battle (40 minutes)
• Frank Howard (34 minutes)
• Buddy Boeheim (19 minutes)
• Marek Dolezaj (21 minutes)
• Bourama Sidibe (7 minutes)

So you’re telling me there’s no way to scrap together 16 minutes or less (Jalen’s average on the season)? Just a quick public service announcement, you don’t have to play Battle all 40 minutes every night. I know he’s the best player on the team, but he can get a break too, you have that luxury with the depth on this year’s roster. You should be exercising that right because this is a long season and if you have hopes beyond the regular season, you should most definitely be saving some of those precious minutes.

Freshman Jalen Carey is going to be a key cog for this Orange team this season. There’s going to be a moment when he’s needed and he’s called upon and he delivers. Think what Paschal Chukwu did in the Duke game on Monday. Everyone has a role, I don’t want to see Jalen’s disappear.

It shouldn’t be a fight for these minutes, there’s plenty of minutes to go around. Carey is a young player, he’s going to make mistakes. Jalen brings swagger, speed, and the ability to attack the lane. It shouldn’t be Buddy Boeheim vs Jalen Carey, it should be Buddy and Jalen working together in lineups and BOTH should be coming off the bench to help Syracuse.