Syracuse Basketball: No preseason love for SU from pundits means squat

Judah Mintz’s return was huge

Getting Mintz back was massive, and I believe the squad’s backcourt is loaded in 2023-24. Even after news broke that Mintz would return for his sophomore stint, some updated preseason top-25 rankings and bracketology forecasts didn’t include the ‘Cuse.

As much as I’m a homer, I wouldn’t expect these prognostications, at least for the time being, to prove overly favorable in the Orange’s direction, given that the team has a first-year head coach, has performed poorly the past two terms, and has a 2023-24 roster with a lot of new faces.

From the 2022-23 line-up, Autry retained eight players. He brought in four transfers – freshman guard J.J. Starling of Notre Dame, freshman guard/wing Chance Westry of Auburn, redshirt-freshman guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. of Kansas and sophomore center Naheem McLeod of Florida State – along with 2023 three-star center William Patterson from The Patrick School in Hillside, N.J.

Starling, much like Mintz, was on the Atlantic Coast Conference’s All-Freshman team in 2022-23. Westry and Cuffe were injured and didn’t play much at all last season. McLeod received limited minutes for a Seminoles group that often plays a deep rotation, although he did have an excellent showing versus Syracuse basketball in 2022-23, tallying a season-high 16 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and one assist.

Replacing Edwards’ production on both ends of the floor will be tough. McLeod, hopefully, can make a strong junior-year leap. The Orange’s other centers are sophomore Mounir Hima, freshman Peter Carey and Patterson. In this position group, there is a lot of promise but inexperience, too.