Assuming the 2021-22 campaign is over for Syracuse basketball, following the Orange’s nine-point setback to Duke in the ACC Tournament last Thursday, we’re taking a look here at various statistical leaders for a ‘Cuse team that is 16-17 overall and would represent the first term under .500 for head coach Jim Boeheim in his 46-year tenure leading the Orange.
Unsurprisingly, senior shooting guard Buddy Boeheim leads the ‘Cuse in scoring, at 19.2 points per contest, per ESPN data. He led the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring during the 2021-22 regular season and was named to the All-ACC first team.
As it relates to scoring, all five of the squad’s starters, if you include injured junior center Jesse Edwards, averaged double-digits in scoring.
After Buddy Buckets, senior forward Cole Swider, who has poured it on of late, checked in next at 13.9 points a game, followed by junior point guard Joe Girard III at 13.8 points, graduate student forward Jimmy Boeheim at 13.7 points, and Edwards, who played in 24 encounters, at 12.0 points.
In a perfect illustration of just how reliant the Orange was on its starting rotation in 2021-22, the next closest player in scoring for the ‘Cuse was graduate student center Bourama Sidibe, who averaged just 3.0 points per affair.
Let’s discuss several other categories of Syracuse basketball statistical leaders.
Buddy Boeheim averaged the most minutes per contest, at 38.0, which was also No. 1 in the ACC when I penned this piece. Save for Edwards, the other four Orange starters all averaged at least 34 minutes a game, another indication of the team’s thin bench this year.
Swider led the team on the glass, at 6.8 rebounds per encounter, although both Edwards and Jimmy Boeheim corralled at least a half-dozen boards per game.
Girard paced the ‘Cuse in assists per contest, at 4.2, as well as steals, at 1.6, along with turnovers committed, at 2.8. Before he got injured, Edwards was one of the best shot-blockers in the ACC, and he led the Orange in this category, at 2.8 blocks per game.
Buddy Boeheim snuck out the lead in free-throw shooting percentage, at 88.4 percent. Both Girard and Swider also connected on at least 85 percent from the charity stripe.
From 3-point land, Swider was No. 1 on the team, at 41.1 percent, while Girard was a really close second, at 40.3 percent.
From the field as a whole, if we’re talking about primary rotational players, Edwards was first on the ‘Cuse, at 69.5 percent, and Jimmy Boeheim was second, at 46.6 percent.