Syracuse Basketball: Judah Mintz ranked nation’s No. 2 PG, top-40 player

As Syracuse basketball prepares to officially begin its 2023-24 season in about a month, fabulous preseason prognostications are coming in for sophomore point guard Judah Mintz.

The 6-foot-3, 178-pound Mintz, who hails from Fort Washington, Md., was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s All-Freshman team in 2022-23, when the Orange went 17-15 overall and he averaged more than 16 points per game.

Looking ahead to the 2023-24 term, the ‘Cuse has an athletic, deep and versatile backcourt, and Judah Mintz is one of the key leaders in this position group. He is expected to be in the starting rotation in early November when Adrian Autry commences his first stanza as the Orange’s head coach.

Not too long ago, one of the top hoops journalists out there, Andy Katz, published his list of the top-10 point guards across the country heading into 2023-24, and Judah Mintz was rated No. 2 nationally.

That’s some high praise and well-deserved for Mintz, who was a 2022 four-star prospect out of the powerhouse Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va. Katz wrote, “Mintz averaged 16 points and nearly five assists a game and now should flourish even more under Adrian Autry’s more wide-open game.”

Syracuse basketball sophomore point guard Judah Mintz is getting a lot of preseason love.

Also recently, The Field of 68 released its list of the top-100 players in college basketball for the 2023-24 campaign, and per a post on X, Mintz has arrived at No. 52 nationwide. Again, that’s a terrific preseason rating for him.

As I noted in a separate column at the beginning of October, College Basketball Report published a ranking of the top-30 returning point guards for 2023-24, and here, Judah Mintz arrived at No. 4 around the country.

In late September, our good friend Tristan Freeman, the editor of FanSided site Busting Brackets, put out a piece where he ranked the top-100 returning players in the sport prior to 2023-24 kicking off.

"Freeman placed Judah Mintz at No. 38 overall, writing, “One of the top returning freshmen players in NCAA Basketball, Mintz started all 32 games and nearly led the Orange in scoring. Mintz had a 16-point and 10-assist game versus Georgetown, along with a season-high 24 points in games against Monmouth and Pittsburgh. With both Joe Girard and Jesse Edwards gone, this is Mintz’s team as a sophomore and with an improved three-point shot, he should be a big factor in the ACC.”"

To that end, of late, both college basketball insider Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and Jonathan Givony, a top NBA Draft analyst for ESPN, have noted that Judah Mintz is showcasing an improved perimeter jump shot as he moves into his sophomore year on the Hill.

In his freshman season for the ‘Cuse, Mintz averaged 16.3 points, 4.6 assists, 2.3 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 2.4 turnovers per game, while connecting on 44.3 percent from the field, 75.1 percent from the free-throw line and 30.3 percent from beyond the arc.

Toward the latter part of the 2022-23 season, Mintz was starting to look better with his long-range shooting, and if that carries over to this coming stanza, he will significantly contend for All-ACC and All-America honors, while hopefully leading Syracuse basketball back to the NCAA Tournament.