Syracuse Basketball: Finally, Elijah Hughes gets recognition he deserves

Syracuse basketball sensation Elijah Hughes has received inclusion on the All-ACC first crew. It’s about darn time that he got an honor like this.

Syracuse basketball may have put forth a somewhat disappointing 2019-20 regular term, but redshirt junior forward Elijah Hughes most certainly did not.

In fact, he collected one of the finest seasons in recent memory by a member of the Orange program, as Hughes led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring at 18.8 points an encounter, to go along with 4.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

Yes, the ‘Cuse wrapped up the regular stanza at just 17-14 and will need to capture this week’s league tournament to earn an invite to March Madness. Despite that so-so record, I would argue that no guy within the conference is more valuable to his team than Hughes is to Syracuse.

Case in point, when he couldn’t go in the second half of this past Saturday’s road tilt versus Miami, the Orange fell by four in overtime. Last month, when Hughes tallied a mere three minutes of action at home against N.C. State, the ‘Cuse lost by five.

Throughout the current campaign, he has served as a beautiful model of consistency within a Syracuse line-up that, on many occasions, has otherwise proven fairly inconsistent.

Undoubtedly, Hughes’ accomplishments have flown under the radar due to the sub-par 2019-20 that the Orange is having. And that’s why the bevy of national awards are snubbing him from consideration.

Thankfully, the league in which Hughes and the ‘Cuse compete isn’t following that ridiculous trend. On Monday, word came that Hughes is rightfully on the All-ACC first squad. A big congratulations to this fine young man!

In the Player of the Year voting, Hughes checks in at No. 4. An argument could get made for him to have claimed this trophy, too, but Syracuse finished so far out of first place that I understand the reasoning.

What irritates me, however, is that sophomore guard Buddy Boeheim didn’t even land in the honorable-mention department after the trio of All-ACC units.

Boeheim generated 15.3 points per contest, good for 10th place in the conference, while residing at No. 1 in the league as it pertains to 3-point field-goal percentage and 3-point shots made per affair.

How can a dude nest in the top-10 in scoring across the entire ACC and not get an honorable-mention nod? That makes no sense whatsoever.

Kudos, though, that Boeheim is slotted at No. 4 for Most Improved Player. He really enhanced his overall game in 2019-20, becoming way more than simply a 3-point specialist.

No matter what transpires in the conference tourney, we should all feel proud of what Boeheim and Hughes have achieved over the past few months.