Syracuse Basketball: Duke, UNC changes won’t boost SU recruiting much

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim may stick around for several more years on the Hill, but a changing of the head-coaching guard within the Atlantic Coast Conference is still commencing.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, a three-time NCAA champion, has already retired, giving way to former Tar Heels player and assistant coach Hubert Davis.

Just down the road from Chapel Hill, N.C., things recently got pretty seismic in Durham, N.C. That’s because Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has five national titles and collected more career victories than anyone else in Division I men’s basketball, will retire after the 2021-22 season.

Krzyzewski’s replacement is Jon Scheyer, who won an NCAA championship at Duke as a player in 2010 and has served on Coach K’s staff for eight years.

The news about Williams and Krzyzewski brought out a ton of articles from analysts, commentators and journalists regarding how these developments could benefit the recruiting efforts of other big-time programs, such as Kansas, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Villanova, Michigan, Baylor, Michigan State and others.

But what about fellow ACC schools? I could certainly see teams such as Virginia, Florida State and Louisville perhaps seeing some sort of boost. As it pertains to our beloved Orange, the jury is still out, in my humble opinion.

Syracuse basketball won’t necessarily benefit from new coaches at Duke and North Carolina.

So the line of thinking is that some high-school prospects who may have strongly considered the Blue Devils or the Tar Heels could look elsewhere now that the Hall of Famer Williams has retired and the Hall of Famer Krzyzewski is done after this upcoming term.

That’s fair. But in the case of the ‘Cuse, Boeheim may roam the sidelines for a few more years, but after that, Syracuse basketball could be in a similar position with its recruiting pitches.

What’s more, both Davis and Scheyer had a ton of success as players at their respective alma maters and they’ve been assistant coaches for a while, which of course includes being involved in recruiting.

Neither can likely ever fully replace his predecessor. That’s an unfair expectation to have. And Davis, Scheyer and Boeheim also have to contend with a growing number of professional options for high-school prospects.

Perhaps a good short-term barometer is the recruiting processes of Orange 2022 four-star targets Kyle Filipowski and Justin Taylor. From what I can tell, the ‘Cuse is in a solid position with each of them.

Filipowski, a power forward from the Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Wilbraham, Mass., took an official visit to the Hill on June 5-6. Taylor, a wing from the St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Va., made his official visit to Central New York on June 9-10.

Duke is involved with Filipowski, while the same goes for North Carolina and Taylor. If Scheyer lands Filipowski, and Davis secures Taylor, then that’s at least one example that Syracuse basketball isn’t necessarily going to capitalize on two legends within the sport’s coaching ranks who are riding off into the sunset.