Syracuse Basketball: Expert says two of 25 best ACC players wear Orange

Two Syracuse basketball sophomore guards are high up in a ranking of the best players in the Atlantic Coast Conference ahead of the 2023-24 season.

The Orange’s upcoming campaign, the first for Adrian Autry as the team’s head coach, begins on Monday, Nov. 6, when the ‘Cuse will welcome New Hampshire to the JMA Wireless Dome.

The team’s 2023-24 roster of 13 scholarship players includes a ton of sophomores, and the two receiving the most preseason coverage from national and ACC pundits are undeniably point guard Judah Mintz and guard J.J. Starling, a Central New York native who transferred to the Orange after a solid freshman year at Notre Dame.

The 6-foot-4, 185-pound Mintz, who is from Fort Washington, Md., and the 6-foot-4, 206-pound Starling, who hails from Baldwinsville, N.Y., were highly rated players in the 2022 recruiting cycle.

Both of them were also on the ACC’s All-Freshman team during the 2022-23 stanza, when Syracuse basketball went 17-15 overall and missed the NCAA Tournament for the second season in a row.

A year ago, Mintz averaged around 16 points per game for the ‘Cuse, while Starling averaged roughly 11 points per contest for a struggling Fighting Irish group that saw long-time head coach Mike Brey depart after 2022-23 concluded.

An expert has two Syracuse basketball sophomores among the top-25 ACC players.

In the ACC’s preseason media poll that was disclosed in late October, Mintz arrived on the league’s All-ACC second team. I believe that both he and Starling will contend for All-ACC honors in 2023-24, and also that Mintz will be in the running for All-America accolades.

Recently, Joey Loose, who covers college basketball for FanSided sister Web site Busting Brackets, published his rankings of the top-25 players in the ACC for the 2023-24 term. He’s got Starling at No. 18, while Mintz checks in at No. 7.

Loose, by the way, places former Syracuse basketball senior guard Joe Girard III at No. 25. Girard, this past off-season, transferred to Clemson for his graduate-student year.

Elliot Cadeau, a freshman point guard at North Carolina and a former Orange recruit, is No. 24. Duke sophomore center Kyle Filipowski, also a former ‘Cuse target, resides at No. 1 in Loose’s ACC player rankings.

Starling and Mintz are the presumed starters at the guard positions for Syracuse basketball at the onset of the 2023-24 season. They are part of an athletic, deep and versatile backcourt for the Orange this year, even with sophomore Chance Westry, an Auburn transfer, out indefinitely due to a lower-body injury.

Loose, in his story, wrote in part that “Starling could be due for a big step forward as a sophomore; we’ll just have to see how his game comes together this year.”

Regarding Judah, Loose said, “One of the most exciting freshmen from last season, you can bet that Mintz will have another explosive season and Syracuse will really need it.”