Syracuse Orange news: Jesse Edwards may have gotten snubbed, more

When I penned this column, which I acknowledge came before Syracuse Orange basketball played at Virginia Tech on Saturday night, senior center Jesse Edwards was in the top 10 nationally with 2.90 blocked shots per game.

That number also put the 6-foot-11 Edwards at No. 1 in the Atlantic Conference at the time of this writing, and by a wide margin, I might add. He was also No. 2 in the ACC in defensive rebounds per game, at roughly 7.5 per encounter.

With this as a backdrop, the 15-player watch list for the 2023 Naismith defensive player of the year recently got disclosed, and Edwards wasn’t included. Should he have been? I’m on the fence.

Clearly, Edwards has the ability to be a force within the team’s 2-3 zone defense. But prior to the ‘Cuse battle with the Hokies in Blacksburg, Va., Syracuse Orange basketball was allowing 70.0 points per affair, which isn’t all that great.

Plus, multiple guys on this watch list are suiting up for squads that are faring better to date than the ‘Cuse in the 2022-23 season. Maybe Edwards got snubbed. Maybe he didn’t. I’m curious about what other SU fans think on this topic.

Other Syracuse Orange news

Men’s lax players get preseason honors
Syracuse Orange men’s lacrosse will commence its 2023 campaign beginning at 1 pm against Vermont on Saturday, Feb. 4, at the JMA Wireless Dome.

Per SU Athletics, with the upcoming season almost here, two men’s lacrosse players were recently placed in the preseason All-America honorable-mention category by media outlet Inside Lacrosse at their respective positions.

Those Syracuse Orange men’s lacrosse players are redshirt sophomore attackman Owen Hiltz and senior goalie Will Mark. Hiltz missed the team’s 2022 stanza with an upper-body injury, but as a freshman, he tallied 29 goals and 19 assists.

Mark transferred to the ‘Cuse from Long Island University. While at LIU, he recorded 492 saves and won the Northeast Conference’s defensive player of the year award in 2021 and 2022.

SU Athletics partners with local company
Syracuse University Athletics has announced a multi-year partnership with Hidden Level that SU says “will benefit multiple areas of the Orange athletics programs and the JMA Wireless Dome fan experience.”

Founded in 2018, Hidden Level is headquartered in Syracuse, with its corporate office at 1014 N. Geddes St. The company is a provider of a scalable and cost-effective airspace monitoring service.

Through this new partnership, according to the media statement on cuse.com, Hidden Level has become the official airspace safety partner of SU Athletics, as well as the presenting sponsor of the Kuhn Gameday Lounge and the Hidden Level student section at Syracuse Orange football and basketball games.

SU Athletics says that this partnership covers all 20 Syracuse Orange sports teams, and Hidden Level is supporting ‘Cuse student-athletes through the LEARFIELD NIL Fund.