Syracuse basketball will look to rebound in the upcoming campaign after a disappointing 2021-22 season that saw head coach Jim Boeheim endure his first losing stanza in 46 years guiding the Orange on the Hill.
This past season, the ‘Cuse went 16-17, understandably frustrating the Orange fan base, with some hoops fanatics calling for Boeheim to retire.
In all fairness, Syracuse basketball lost an abundance of close games, and if the Orange could have made a few plays here and there in a variety of contests, the ‘Cuse likely would have finished above the .500 mark and possibly earned a berth to either this spring’s Big Dance or at least the NIT.
But the defense proved a major liability throughout 2021-22, and the Orange’s offensive firepower simply wasn’t enough to prevent a losing season.
As we forge ahead to 2022-23, like many other teams in the sport of college basketball, the ‘Cuse will have a vastly different roster. Gone are senior shooting guard Buddy Boeheim, graduate student forward Jimmy Boeheim, senior forward Cole Swider and graduate student center Bourama Sidibe.
Sophomore center Frank Anselem and sophomore wing Chaz Owens are in the NCAA’s transfer portal. Syracuse basketball coaches pursued local big man Quincy Ballard, but he ultimately chose to move from Florida State to Wichita State after considering the ‘Cuse.
Arriving on the Hill is a six-member 2022 recruiting class that presently ranks in the top-10 nationally, per Rivals.com. I assume the Orange coaching staff could try to get another back-up center out of the portal, but that won’t prove easy.
So, if my math is correct, as things currently stand, Syracuse basketball has 11 scholarship players for 2022-23, and the ‘Cuse does have two available scholarships for the upcoming term.
The 2022-23 roster, at least for the time being, consists of junior guard Joe Girard III, junior guard Symir Torrence, junior center Jesse Edwards, freshman forward Benny Williams, redshirt sophomore power forward/center John Bol Ajak, and the six 2022 signees.
The Orange’s 2022 commits feature four-star guard Judah Mintz, four-star shooting guard/small forward Justin Taylor, four-star point guard Quadir Copeland, four-star small forward Chris Bunch, three-star power forward/center Peter Carey, and three-star power forward Maliq Brown.
In late January, Jim Boeheim did say that he thought a couple of the ‘Cuse 2022 signees could start in 2022-23, and I’ll be highly interested to see how that shakes out.
As we discuss the projected starting line-up for 2022-23, I think a couple of slots are extremely debatable, while some of them, at least to me, are not.