Syracuse Basketball: Patrick Tape picks Duke again, Orange luck out
Syracuse basketball lost out on adding transfer Patrick Tape for the second time this offseason. Here’s why that’s actually good news for the Orange.
Welcome to the crazy world of sports.
Initially, transfer Patrick Tape was considering joining the Syracuse basketball team this offseason. Ultimately he picked the Duke Blue Devils at the end of March.
Just when we all started to move on an absolute shocker came down the pipeline, Tape had de-committed from Duke just eight days after making his decision.
Suddenly the Orange were back in the mix, so much so, that several experts predicted Syracuse to land Patrick Tape calling it a virtual lock.
Although as Syracuse fans have learned several times throughout the course of history, nothing is a lock until it’s official and sometimes even then it’s not (cough cough Darius Bazley).
On Sunday evening, Patrick Tape announced he would be returning to the Blue Devils despite
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“strongly considering” the Orange and Georgetown.
While it stinks to lose out on a talented transfer, especially one that is a big man and one that strongly considered joining your squad, maybe, in the long run, it’ll be for the best.
There’s no doubt that Tape would’ve been a great addition to this Orange roster with his shooting (averaged nearly 12 points per game), efficiency (shot just under 67 percent from the field), and rebounding (averaged just under six boards per game), but ultimately you want guys on your team that want to be there.
One of our readers brought up his initial indecision after committing to Duke was concerning (and that was prior to him recommitting on Sunday evening).
You don’t want wishy-washy players on the roster, but that doesn’t mean Syracuse is done on the recruiting front. There’s still an obvious need for some help down low and we’ll see where the team pivots with Patrick Tape no longer an option.
Although there was good news on the recruiting front over the weekend. Despite missing out on Patrick Tape twice, the Orange went one-for-one with guard Alan Griffin.
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The former member of the Fighting Illini averaged over 41 percent from deep last season on top of averaging 8.9 points per game and 4.5 boards per contest.