Biggest questions facing Syracuse basketball after the Orange's exhibition games

With three exhibition games in the books, the Gerry McNamara era of Syracuse basketball is finally ready to get started for real. It’s no secret that McNamara takes over a program that sits at a crossroads with an uncertain future. Even the immediate future is uncertain, as McNamara has assembled a roster full of young players and new faces. With just three exhibition games to draw any type of conclusions, here are the five biggest questions facing Syracuse basketball before the start of a new season.

Is there enough at point guard?

The point guard position, if nothing else, will be interesting to watch this season. The Orange has two vastly different players. Garwey Dual is a long, lean, defensive-minded point guard. He’s not a high-level scorer or an elite distributor, but he can create turnovers defensively and has shown a nice mid-range game. Meanwhile, Ryan Moesch is undersized but lightning-quick and has shown a nice shooting touch from the perimeter.

Neither is a prototypical point guard, nor is either a proven player in a power conference. It should help that McNamara has two players with distinct skill sets sharing the point guard duties. But it remains to be seen if the duo will hold up against the better teams Syracuse will face this season. In recent years, seasons have gone south because the Orange lacked suitable point guard play, and while there is hope, that remains a question heading into the season.

Big man depth

The early returns on Luke Wilson have been good. He’s going to be the starting center, and as long as he can stay out of foul trouble, Wilson looks like a player who can be influential on both ends of the court. The big man won’t be Syracuse’s leading scorer, but inside scoring won’t be a black hole this season.

On the other hand, the depth behind Wilson is a huge question mark. Tasman Goodrick looks to be the first big man off the bench. But the Siena transfer is making a big step up in competition level, and that showed in his struggles against UConn. While that’s not a fair evaluation, it does create questions about whether he can be a viable deputy for Wilson. There are even more questions about how far along Abdramane Siby is in his development and whether he or fellow freshman Iker Martinez will see minutes once ACC play begins.

What to make of Kiyan Anthony

At this point, Anthony is the elephant in the room. The expectation is that he would take a step forward as a sophomore, but that wasn’t the case in the three exhibition games. His struggles against UConn can be forgiven, but even after playing Siena and Niagara, Anthony finished the three exhibition games with six total points, shooting 2-for-17 from the field and missing all eight of his perimeter shots. Even at the free-throw line, he was just 2-for-5.

It was hard to watch and raised questions about whether the Orange will be able to rely on Anthony this season. With the health of Aiden Tobiason in question, Anthony may be needed to step up early in the season. Also, when Tobiason is healthy, he, Gavin Doty and Mark Morano are likely to get most of the playing time on the wing. That may not leave a lot of minutes for Anthony if he can’t turn things around after his abysmal performance in the exhibition games.

How deep does the rotation go?

This is one of the biggest questions facing McNamara at the start of the season. He’s brought in enough players during the offseason to go 12 deep in any given game. But is he going to regularly play 12 in every game? Can he identify certain lineups and combinations that will work in different situations?

Sooner or later, McNamara will have to trim the rotation. That doesn’t mean he’ll limit himself to six or seven players the way his mentor would, but cutting things off at nine or 10 players seems more reasonable. With just two games against smaller-conference teams before Syracuse’s first big test against Indiana, McNamara doesn’t have a lot of time to figure out which players are not ready to be regular contributors to the Orange this season.

Is this team ready for the ACC?

Needless to say, this is the million-dollar question. In the long run, there is a belief that McNamara will get the quality of players he needs to compete in the ACC. The early returns on his recruiting have been positive. But for his first season in charge, McNamara doesn’t necessarily have a roster that jumps off the page talent-wise.

Of the 12 players competing for regular playing time, half are either freshmen or sophomores. The other six have found success in small or mid-major conferences, but they haven’t competed in a power conference. Dual has spent time at Seton Hall and Providence, Wilson was a top player in the Sun Belt, and Tobiason was a star in the American Conference. But that’s the closest anyone on the roster gets to playing against top competition outside of Anthony and Sadiq White last season. Whether there’s enough talent to consistently win games in the ACC is a huge question heading into the season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow