Syracuse Basketball: Judah Mintz is angry, ready to shut up the naysayers

Syracuse basketball sophomore point guard Judah Mintz, one of the top freshmen in the Atlantic Coast Conference and around the country a season ago, says he’s angry. He feels the Orange, ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, is being disrespected and undervalued by the so-called experts.

I understand how the 6-foot-4, 185-pound Mintz, who hails from Fort Washington, Md., feels. With 2023-24 right around the corner, officially kicking off when the ‘Cuse hosts New Hampshire on Monday, Nov. 6, the majority of national and ACC pundits aren’t super high on Syracuse basketball.

Of course, preseason prognostications are merely speculation. The ‘Cuse will have plenty of opportunities to silence the critics in the near future. But I get what Mintz is saying.

Yes, there are some experts here and there who are bullish on the Orange, projecting the team to finish in the top four of the ACC standings and have a bounce-back term, or suggesting to the country not to sleep on the ‘Cuse.

At the same time, there are numerous pundits who are forecasting Syracuse basketball to hover around the bottom third of the ACC race in the upcoming term and not land an invite to the 2024 NCAA Tournament. That is irritating to Judah Mintz, and by extension, to his Orange teammates.

Syracuse basketball sophomore point guard Judah Mintz is ready to prove the naysayers wrong.

While I agree with Mintz here, I also understand why some national experts aren’t super optimistic regarding the Orange prior to 2023-24 commencing. For one, the squad has a first-year head coach in Adrian Autry, who is replacing a Hall of Famer in Jim Boeheim.

What’s more, the ‘Cuse has gone a combined 33-32 over the past two seasons, missing the Big Dance in both campaigns. On paper, the roster looks talented and versatile, but the Orange also lost two of its top scorers from a stanza ago to the transfer portal, the ‘Cuse brought in four new transfers of its own, and a significant portion of the 2023-24 roster consists of underclassmen.

Additionally, under Autry, Syracuse basketball is expected to utilize different playing styles on both ends of the floor. To top it all off, the Orange has a challenging non-conference docket, and the initial part of its ACC schedule is also rough.

"Still, Judah Mintz and his teammates are confident that the ‘Cuse is poised for great things in 2023-24. At the recently held ACC Tipoff event, Mintz said in part, “We’re focused. We’re angry. I’m angry. Just being deemed as a lower team, lower tier than what Syracuse is used to being. … We want to get right back to where we were in the Big East.”"

Those comments, by the way, came courtesy of a post on X from James Szuba of the fantastic Web site NunesMagician.com.

Personally, I like that Mintz is angry. I like that his teammates are angry. Mintz, who tested the 2023 NBA Draft process before deciding to return to the Orange for his sophomore year, is garnering a lot of preseason national and ACC accolades.

A former four-star, top-40 national prospect in the 2022 class, Mintz delivered a strong senior season at the powerhouse Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., before committing to the ‘Cuse.

In 2022-23, when Syracuse basketball went 17-15 overall, 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.

Media reports and commentary from experts state that Judah Mintz’s 3-point jumper is looking better ahead of 2023-24, and that’s huge as he seeks to round out his all-around skillset.

Mintz, last year, was named to the ACC’s All-Freshman team. He’s a significant contender for All-ACC and All-America honors as a sophomore. Pundits are labeling him as one of the country’s top point guards in preseason conversations, a top-50 overall player, and a guy who will emerge as a star in the sport in 2023-24.

All of that is well and good, however, Judah Mintz says he and his teammates are laser-focused on one thing. Winning.

"Case in point, he recently said to Griffin Della Penna of SyracuseOnSI, “We don’t want to just make the (NCAA) Tournament, but we want to make a run. We want to be really good, from a Syracuse standpoint. That’s why I came back. That’s what everyone here is trying to accomplish this year.”"

Call me crazy, but I think that Syracuse basketball, led by Mintz, is going to surprise a lot of folks this coming stanza, and the Orange will hear its name called on Selection Sunday next spring, in my humble opinion.