Syracuse Basketball: Don't expect Chance Westry, William Patterson to play this season

I kind of figured this would be the case, but head coach Adrian Autry seemed to indicate in his weekly radio interview that guard Chance Westry and center William Patterson aren't expected to play at all for Syracuse basketball in the 2023-24 campaign.

On Thursday night, in his weekly call-in show that's posted to the X account of Cuse Sports Talk, a quote from Autry on Westry and Patterson came through this way: "I'd just rather have them finish out the year and get ready for the summer, have some good workouts and get prepared for next year's team."

The Orange notched a massive home win over No. 7 North Carolina earlier this week, and now the 'Cuse is set to travel to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Syracuse basketball (16-9, 7-7 in the ACC) has six regular-season games left, four of which are on the road. And the Orange's depth has been significantly impacted due to various injuries and other factors.

Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry indicated Chance Westry and William Patterson won't play this season.

The 6-foot-6, 190-pound Westry came into the 2023-24 stanza with high expectations of himself. He didn't play much as a freshman at Auburn due to a knee injury, and Westry hasn't played at all this term for the 'Cuse after transferring from the Tigers to Syracuse basketball in the off-season.

Westry, a four-star prospect out of the portal hailing from Harrisburg, Pa., who was also a four-star, top-40 overall player in the 2022 high school class, suffered a lower-body injury during a practice before 2023-24 officially got underway, a huge blow to the team's depth at the guard and wing spots.

The 7-foot-2, 220-pound Patterson, from Brooklyn, N.Y., was the sole member of the Orange's 2023 class at the high school level. With multiple centers on this season's roster, it doesn't surprise me that he is expected to take a redshirt for the 2023-24 campaign.

Then again, junior Naheem McLeod, the starting center for the 'Cuse, only appeared in 14 games this term before suffering a foot injury that ended his 2023-24 stanza. Junior power forward Benny Williams, not too long ago, was dismissed from the program.

Junior reserve center Mounir Hima barely plays, and another backup center, sophomore Peter Carey, has missed the past two games. In the most recent Atlantic Coast Conference triumph for the Orange, a stunner over top-10 UNC, Carey didn't dress because he was "in concussion protocol," Syracuse basketball said on X.

My point here is that sophomore big man Maliq Brown, the starting center these days, doesn't have a lot of help in this position group due to the team losing multiple guys. So if Autry had ended up playing Patterson of late, it wouldn't have entirely shocked me.

I'm sure that both he and Westry are working hard to prepare for the 2024-25 season. Patterson, by the way, was a three-star prospect in the 2023 class. He was ranked the No. 30 center by Rivals.com, and the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking placed him at No. 321 nationwide within this cycle.