Syracuse Basketball: Keifer Sykes and teammates honorary Orange for life

One of our hoops gurus reflects on the recent magical run by Boheim’s Army, with its roster of former Syracuse basketball players and other stars.

Boeheim’s Army gave us Syracuse basketball fans more than just a jolt of excitement and pride when it won the $1 million TBT prize a couple of weeks ago in Dayton. The team also gifted us with four new honorary Orange players to follow for life.

While the majority of Boeheim’s Army was made up of Syracuse University alumni, four non-Cuse players on the roster played critical roles and earned our forever trust and affection.

Army point guard Tyrese Rice (Boston College) was the TBT’s most exciting player and named to the first-team All-TBT. Former TBT champion Overseas Elite alumni DJ Kennedy (St. Johns) and DeAndre Kane (Marshall and Iowa State) lent unique knowledge and confidence of how to win games in this tournament, steadying the ship throughout the six-game title run.

But it is the sights and sounds of 5-11 guard Keifer Sykes rising up (and I mean rising up, up, up) for the game-winning shot that is still ringing and will never leave our collective memory.

I was in the University of Dayton Arena crowd that day, just a few feet from where Sykes’ Elam Ending jumper was launched and converted, and I’ve watched dozens of more times as it went viral.

Especially when set to Kanye’s “Beautiful Morning,” the moment joined other electric Jim Boeheim-era shots in the pantheon. The enduring clip is here.

Adding to his legend, Sykes was picked up by the Indiana Pacers Summer League team that day.

His Boeheim’s Army moment also opened my eyes to a 2018 documentary film titled Chi-Town, which chronicled Sykes rise through Chicago high school basketball, into his collegiate career at Wisconsin-Green Bay and improbable dream of the NBA that is still alive today. The intimate documentary shows Syke’s personal losses, the violence in the streets he and his high school teammates have endured and what it takes to survive and thrive.

If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and give Chi-Town a watch. The film, by producers Nick Budabin and Terry Minogue for Dogwoof studio, is available on Amazon Prime or on iTunes.

By the end of Chi-Town, you know new honorary Orange Keifer Sykes better, you see his will to win and provide for his family, making his Boeheim’s Army shot resonate even more.

"Renowned movie critic Richard Roeper had high praise for the doc: “This is a beautifully photographed, thoroughly engrossing, sobering but also inspirational piece of work,” Roeper wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times."

There was a euphoric vibe on the University of Dayton Arena court that TBT championship game night. With head coach Jim Boeheim, his sons Jimmy and Buddy courtside along with other Orange royalty in the house, it felt almost as exhilarating as the last NCAA Final Four run in 2016, when Coach (and current Boeheim’s Army players Malachi Richardson and Tyler Lydon) cut down the nets in Chicago after our upset of Virginia.

Here is hoping (and expecting) that there is a day soon when these four new Orange legends are recognized at the Carrier Dome during a Syracuse basketball game half-time celebration. When that happens, Sykes, Rice, Kennedy, Kane and coach Jeremy Pope, after already being welcomed into our hearts this summer, will officially be christened Orange.