Syracuse Basketball 2025-26 Roster: Athletic, high-scoring, but what about defense?

Syracuse basketball has an intriguing 2025-26 roster as the team attempts to get back to the NCAA Tournament following a four-year absence.

The Orange has 13 scholarship players, 11 of whom are new to the program. There are two returnees, six college transfers and five incoming freshmen.

The 'Cuse staff did an excellent job constructing this roster over this past off-season, and the program was undeniably helped by more name, image and likeness funds and general manager Alex Kline, who wasn't on board for the Orange's off-season recruiting efforts the year prior via the transfer portal.

Here's my breakdown of the Syracuse basketball roster in the upcoming 2025-26 season.

Projected starting line-up
Point guard: Naithan George, junior, transfer from Georgia Tech
Shooting guard: J.J. Starling, senior
Small forward: Nate Kingz, redshirt senior, transfer from Oregon State
Power forward: Donnie Freeman, sophomore
Center: William Kyle lll, senior, transfer from UCLA

Reserves
Tyler Betsey, sophomore, small forward/power forward
Sadiq White Jr., freshman, forward
Kiyan Anthony, guard/wing
Ibrahim Souare, redshirt sophomore, power forward/center
Luke Fennell, freshman, combo guard
Bryce Zephir, graduate student, guard
Aaron Womack, freshman, guard/wing
Tiefing Diawara, freshman, center

2025 class rankings from 247Sports
High school: No. 17 nationally
Transfer: No. 35 nationally
Overall: No. 20 nationally

Candidly, the Orange's six-member transfer class is underrated. George led the Atlantic Coast Conference in assists per game in 2024-25. Kingz connected on better than 40 percent from beyond the arc. Betsey, like the other two, was a four-star transfer prospect. He was also a top-50 national player in the 2024 class (and recruited by Syracuse basketball as a prep recruit).

What stands out to me is the 'Cuse has a ton of athleticism on this roster, something that was lacking a season ago. There is also tremendous height and length among guards, wings and big men. The roster is versatile and has depth at all position groups.

That being said, the center spot, in particular, is unproven. In 2024-25, the Orange was bad on defense, solid on the glass, committed way too many turnovers and didn't shoot all that great from the perimeter.

With 11 new faces, we'll have to see how this team gels as a cohesive unit, particularly on defense. I think the defense will be much improved, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a strength. Given the roster's athleticism and length, rebounding should be solid.

One facet I'll be watching is how Syracuse basketball fares on the offensive glass. It remains to be seen how good a shooting group this will be, especially from deep, but if the Orange can get easy points on put-backs following offensive rebounds, that will prove extremely helpful. The same goes for the 'Cuse cutting down on its turnovers and, by extension, forcing its own deflections and steals that result in easy transition buckets.

Guys like Starling will be aggressive in driving to the rim, and it would behoove Syracuse basketball to improve on its collective 70.5 percent free-throw shooting. If the Orange could get to, say, 75 percent at the charity stripe, and around 35 percent to 37 percent from downtown, that would further boost its offense and alleviate some pressure on the 'Cuse defense.

I'm not convinced that Syracuse basketball will be a great 3-point shooting team, but it can be serviceable, particularly if players including Kingz, Anthony, George, Freeman and Betsey, among others, are efficient in that department.

The Orange has a challenging, but not overly daunting, 2025-26 schedule, at least on paper. If the 'Cuse can take care of business in games it should win, spring a few upsets, and not get blown out by the tougher foes on its docket, Syracuse basketball is poised to hear its name called on Selection Sunday for the first time since 2021.