Syracuse Basketball: Top 3 things Orange fans want to see in 2020

With the 2019 Syracuse basketball season over it’s time to look ahead. Here are the top 3 things we want to see next season from the Orange.

Syracuse basketball fans likely set their relationship status to complicated this week on social media.

On one hand, the Orange ended the season on a positive note by pounding a Roy Williams led North Carolina team by nearly 30 points.

While on the other hand, Syracuse had some great momentum heading to the next round of the ACC Tournament and this season will forever be a series of ‘what ifs’.

That, of course, all transpired due to the novel coronavirus outbreak that has taken over our daily lives. Since that’s the case, we decided to look ahead to the 2020-21 season. Here are the top three things Orange fans should want to see next year.

3. Move Jesse Edwards into the starting lineup.

Bourama Sidibe had a great finish to the season, but let’s not forget about all the struggles he had throughout the year. The middle of the 2-3 zone was weaker than ever when it comes to rebounding and making shots inside the lane difficult.

Meanwhile, Jesse Edwards showed spurts where it seemed like he can be a real force in the middle of the zone. Edwards is bigger and stronger than Sidibe, and now that he will have a whole offseason to work on his low post game and rebounding. Quite frankly he could perform better as the starting center than Sidibe.

2. Put Marek Dolezaj at Power Forward for good.

Despite a somewhat underachieving year from Marek Dolezaj, he has been put in terrible situations by the coaching staff. Dolezaj was never supposed to be a center in this 2-3 zone, but he has been forced into playing center because of his good basketball instincts and his willingness to fight inside.

However, he doesn’t have the body to be a center that can be consistent. Dolezaj would seem to always be in foul trouble, and he is too important of a player to be sitting on the bench at the end of games. Move him to power forward and that’ll solve a lot of your issues.

1. More consistency from Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard III.

We learned this past season that this team will go as far as its shooting will take them, and that will continue into next year under Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard. Boeheim made some serious growth from his freshman to sophomore year, including becoming one of the best shooters in the conference.

However, the Florida State game when he didn’t even score a single point was a black mark on the resume. He has to become someone that can drive to the rim when teams are running him off the three-point line. Consistency is key.

JG3 was thrown right into the fire in his freshman year, and he did a fairly good job at handling it. However, by the end of the season, it seemed like he couldn’t even throw the ball into the ocean if he was standing on the shore.

It’s a huge jump to go from high school basketball in Glen Falls to the ACC, but at the end of the day it’s about making shots and he did that in high school. Joe struggling to make open shots this past season was strange, to say the least.

He has shown a lot of potential and promise, but next year will truly be his time to shine if Girard is ever going to be what Orange fans hope he can become.