Syracuse Basketball: With veteran out, two bigs must go full beast mode

Two Syracuse basketball centers who have drastically improved, according to Orange coaches, should get the bulk of minutes in the early part of the 2021-22 campaign, given that graduate student Bourama Sidibe is unfortunately injured yet again.

Last year, as a senior, Sidibe missed virtually the entire term. He elected to return to the Hill for a fifth stanza of eligibility, but word broke on Wednesday that he will miss some time to start 2021-22.

According to a tweet from national analyst and journalist Jeff Goodman, “Sidibe suffered a knee injury and will be out approximately a month,” with the tweet adding that “Sidibe missed last season with injury to his other knee.”

First and foremost, my heart goes out to Bourama. He’s a really nice young man, and I sincerely hope that he’s back at full strength soon. It’s proven a rough two seasons in a row for him, although I hope he can get going in the near future of his grad-student year.

It’s time for two Syracuse basketball centers to shine.

Junior Jesse Edwards is poised to be the team’s starting center in 2021-22, and he was in head coach Jim Boeheim’s starting rotation when the ‘Cuse hosted Pace in an exhibition contest on Wednesday night.

Edwards has added strength and, in my opinion, is primed for a nice junior term. But he’s not going to play 40 minutes a game, and with Sidibe out for the foreseeable future, that provides sophomore Frank Anselem with an opportunity to show what he can do on the court.

As we noted in a recent column, Boeheim has said that Edwards and Anselem “are light-years away from where they were last year,” according to a tweet from Donna Ditota of Syracuse.com.

That is particularly encouraging, due to the unfortunate news regarding Sidibe. Edwards showed flashes of promise a campaign ago, but Anselem barely played. I would expect Frank to earn some decent run moving forward.

Edwards has a soft shooting touch and a solid overall offensive game. Anselem is a little rawer, but both his athleticism and upside are through the roof.

Both of them need to act aggressively and assertively as they anchor the 2-3 zone defense, and each of them has to rebound with authority. Edwards had some nice finishes against Pace, and I could see him contend for double-doubles per game in 2021-22.