2025-26 Preseason Practice

[Orangezoo]

Of course Melo isn’t saying any differently but if the coaching staff out performs expectations with the talent on this roster it’s not an unreasonable take. The staff’s performance could be worth a 5-7 game regular season swing.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

Luke looks freaking baked

Luke looks like he was forcibly made to watch a Syracuse football game. If they really made him do that, then freshman hazing has gone too far.

 

[Cuse On 3]

Luke looks like he was forcibly made to watch a Syracuse football game. If they really made him do that, then freshman hazing has gone too far.

I heard he was forced to have a conversation with johntay cooks uncle

 

[Hopkins16]

Of course Melo isn’t saying any differently but if the coaching staff out performs expectations with the talent on this roster it’s not an unreasonable take. The staff’s performance could be worth a 5-7 game regular season swing.

Melo is retired so he should back up his comments by taking on a role similar to or bigger than Jayson Tatum. It would definitely help current players and with recruiting.

Tatum to assist Duke as hands-on player mentor

Duke said Tuesday that former Blue Devils player and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum would serve in a volunteer advisory role for the program as "chief basketball officer."

www.espn.com

 

[Cusefan0307]

Melo is retired so he should back up his comments by taking on a role similar to or bigger than Jayson Tatum. It would definitely help current players and with recruiting.

Tatum to assist Duke as hands-on player mentor

Duke said Tuesday that former Blue Devils player and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum would serve in a volunteer advisory role for the program as "chief basketball officer."

www.espn.com

lol Melo is doing plenty good for us. Does it need to be published on ESPN?

 

[Orangezoo]

lol Melo is doing plenty good for us. Does it need to be published on ESPN?

Exactly - this is only adding more pressure for Duke to win a title. Meanwhile their roster this year is being way overrated. This frosh class is not anything like last year’s.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[RedtheGOB]

Sure, we couldn't guard anybody with a decent post player, nor could we rebound when we had Brown and Justin Taylor as our big men... Our roster is worlds better than the last two years.

But we still are going to see a handful of 7' 265lb guys this season, and having no answer for them isn't exactly a comfortable place to be.

Almost every single P4 team we are playing against this year has at least one player bigger than our biggest guy. If you exclude Diawara when you consider he is unlikely to play much, it gets even a little worse.

We are putting a lot of faith in our three guys listed 6'8-6'9 and 225-235lbs when the other teams throwing out guys both taller and heavier. White is listed at 195 and Freeman 205...

We might be able to play them against mid majors at center, but we're looking at a race to see who fouls out first if they try to guard 7' 265 lb centers.

I'm interested in the handful of teams that have a big larger than our biggest man? I'm wondering if they're the backup or a project from overseas like Diawara?

Not beating up your point. I just want to know cuz I'm not seeing that many bigs over 7 that are starters.

 

[dasher]

Melo is retired so he should back up his comments by taking on a role similar to or bigger than Jayson Tatum. It would definitely help current players and with recruiting.

Tatum to assist Duke as hands-on player mentor

Duke said Tuesday that former Blue Devils player and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum would serve in a volunteer advisory role for the program as "chief basketball officer."

www.espn.com

What is the name of the place where the team practices?

 

[RedtheGOB]

Nait George imo

Same. Whole season is riding with him imo. If he allows JJ to go into JJ mode and is taking 50 shots it's because he allowed it. If he's not getting assists to Kingz or isn't getting Donnie involved inside then that's all on his shoulders too. Especially a PG that led the league in assists with limited talent at GT last year he is going to have alot of options.

He was brought in to be the man. JJ and Donnie are the talent, but should not be leading the team on the court.

 

[Niastri]

I'm interested in the handful of teams that have a big larger than our biggest man? I'm wondering if they're the backup or a project from overseas like Diawara?

Not beating up your point. I just want to know cuz I'm not seeing that many bigs over 7 that are starters.

I went through about ten future opponents rosters... All of them have guys heavier than 240 and taller than 6'10. I'm not even sure we should be counting Diawara, I feel it's unlikely he gets many minutes unless it's an emergency. But either way, every team has his substantially bigger by weight and almost all of them have guys substantially taller than Kyle.

I didn't research who was starting...

For instance, Georgia Tech has a guy, a sophomore that is 7' 300lb. He sounds custom made to abuse our front line. He played 12 minutes a game and averaged 1 and 1 last season. Without actual research, I have no idea if he's going to be relied upon heavily or if he's a project. I didn't care to spend that time for every future opponent.

Just proving to myself that our roster is kind of small was enough.

Every team we play is going to have bigger players than us. No big deal, at least we aren't sending Dolezaj out there to guard Bacot this year.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[nyucuse]

I think we have a much better chance in Vegas than you think.

Every team is in flux, every season these days. Nobody really knows what they have until they see it on the court against good competition. Syracuse has two returning players, and that seems more the norm than the exception these days.
I just read a season outlook for Kansas, and their starting 3 guard lineup is two mid major transfers and a highly recruited freshman. They are loaded with inexperienced talent... But they are starting the lower level recruits with experience. We shall see.

Houston has some really good recruits as well, but lost its leading scorer and is going to try to replace that scoring with freshmen.

Nobody really knows how the team is going to perform, and that goes for just about everybody.

I would actually put the over under at 23.5 wins for Syracuse this year. Lots of winnable games, lots of toss-ups and few likely losses. I think we'll be in every game this year.

I think Syracuse is going to have a completely different product with the talents of Kline and Harris added to the program.

You can't overstate how bad the offseason was before last season, and how good this one was. Kline seemed to help with scouting and allocation of funds, and we pulled in a bunch of extremely long armed athletes who use length of limb as a proxy for height. Having guys that can reach 9' high seems to be a primary criteria for big men, and the defense is going to be greatly improved by having all those long arms deflecting passes and shots. We will be switchable, which didn't work well last year because of mobility issues throughout the defense.

Then, we got one of the best point guards in the country at throwing diagonal alley oop passes to those athletic big men. We haven't had a true point guard at Syracuse in a long time.

On top of the innate talent increase with the transfer class, Harris has set a different tone than previously. These guys look better than any team I've ever seen at Syracuse. The intensity of their workouts is going to leak into their intensity in everything else they do. Gone are the days of Cole Swider posting video of him working out by himself, quietly, without a drop of sweat on him. These kids are being reformed into monsters in the gym.

Huge improvements to offense and defense, along with massive upgrade in depth, and I predict at least a 10 win improvement over last season.

Your lips to God's ear, my friend...

 

[Orangezoo]

I went through about ten future opponents rosters... All of them have guys heavier than 240 and taller than 6'10. I'm not even sure we should be counting Diawara, I feel it's unlikely he gets many minutes unless it's an emergency. But either way, every team has his substantially bigger by weight and almost all of them have guys substantially taller than Kyle.

I didn't research who was starting...

For instance, Georgia Tech has a guy, a sophomore that is 7' 300lb. He sounds custom made to abuse our front line. He played 12 minutes a game and averaged 1 and 1 last season. Without actual research, I have no idea if he's going to be relied upon heavily or if he's a project. I didn't care to spend that time for every future opponent.

Just proving to myself that our roster is kind of small was enough.

Every team we play is going to have bigger players than us. No big deal, at least we aren't sending Dolezaj out there to guard Bacot this year.

And we had Eddie and Naheem last year for other teams doing similar research and won 14 games. You gotta dig a level below that… and it’s not worth the time anyways to do so.

 

[tee1222]

Nobody ever wants to talk about it like not going near your pitcher in the middle of a no hitter, but that ain't right for like EVER with our luck these past few years so here goes:

Although I have zero holy powers and I'm pretty sure G-d and I have things to sort out, I'm taking a stand right now and tossing holy water, Glen Morangie, mean old alligator blood and any other substances I can find on the who-knows-who-they-named-it-after Center to reverse kibosh on the ballers so that not a single one of them get injured. I'm serious.

Let's do this year right and make some noise.

And please don't comment here about my Yanks, my Giants, my Isles, my Knicks, your Jets-Mets-Nets-Bills-Rangers, cause it has no place. It's for this year's Cuse winners that will bring us back to great days.

And nuts to UConn, Puke, Georgetown or any other team that gets in our way.

 

[althea]

Good to hear that Donnie recognized that he needed to work on his defense.

 

[Cuse On 3]

Good to hear that Donnie recognized that he needed to work on his defense.

Mature statement from the young man. So glad he’s back

 

[Cuse On 3]

From a small sample size, this team already looks far more mature. Swapping out guys like Bell, Copeland, and Moore for Kingz, White, Kyle, Bryce, and George feels like an upgrade not just in maturity, but in pure talent.

if any bball insiders in here have any tidbits on how the team is meshing and their maturity over previous years, would love to hear.