Class of 2026 C Abdramane Siby (Mali) COMMITTED TO SYRACUSE (4/15/26)

[rrlbees]

what does this givony guy know?

 

[Niastri]

what does this givony guy know?

How to post cool videos of our new recruit.

 

[Melancer46]

If anyone wants to watch the full game to see what's not shown in the highlights, here's yesterdays breakout performance in full.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

So, is this guy the starter, or is it Owen Wilson? Hopefully we didn’t recruit two back ups with no clear starter….

 

[Cheriehoop]

So, is this guy the starter, or is it Owen Wilson? Hopefully we didn’t recruit two back ups with no clear starter….

I would imagine competitive practices for most coaches determines the starters.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

I would imagine competitive practices for most coaches determines the starters.

Hooray

 

[tptcuse]

Hooray

I think we're going to be happy with Wilson. Seems like a clear starter. It will be nice to see a player with actual muscles again.

 

[RF2044]

He's not a stiff, and uses his LOOOONG arms very well getting deflections and blocks.

LOT to work with here.

Would love to see him add a hook shot w/ either hand, so he'd basically have an unblockable shot in the paint,
for those few times when he can't dunk it.

Kid's going to be a monster when he gets to 230+.

 

[Orangezoo]

Kid's going to be a monster when he gets to 230+.

Just imagine if he develops a little handle and a better shot too… scary

 

[SUtoga]

If anyone wants to watch the full game to see what's not shown in the highlights, here's yesterdays breakout performance in full.

Watched his minutes and here are some takeaways I saw:

(1). He is EXTREMELY switchable. He was matched up on smaller and theoretically quicker guards numerous times. He stayed in front of them the vast majority of times. The one time he was beat he still deterred a shot because of his length. He’s close to the textbook definition of a modern defensive big.

(2). He can struggle when going against big physical centers who fight hard for post position. The times he was beat was because the other centers simply out physicaled him in the post. The sooner he can get to campus and gain 15 pounds, the better. This isn’t really a surprise at all, and can be totally fixed with a good nutrition and weight lifting plan.

(3). He might struggle with fouls his first year. He’s so long and a good shot blocker he can often gamble and get caught in a bad spot. Experienced and gifted post playing centers will most likely draw fouls on him his first year. This will improve with more game experience.

(4). Offensively he sets good screens. Seems to have decent hands and touch around the basket. As he bulks up and develops a post game, I don’t think he will ever become a dominate offensive player, but I absolutely think he could average 10-12 points given time and experience.

(5). His free throw stroke is great. I can honestly see why he shoots around 80%. He didn’t take a mid range, but just based on his free throws I absolutely think he could develop a good mid range game.

(6). Overall takeaways: He’s a good defender day 1, with the talent to be an excellent one in future years. I don’t think he will ever become an offensive machine, but I think he could develop into a good offensive player. I honestly think with the right coaches and development plan he has the talent to be one of the best centers in the ACC. It will probably take a year or two for him to fully realize his potential, but I think he has the tools. Day 1 he profiles as a backup center with good defense.

 

[walsh2012]

Im excited for this kid

 

[ImperialOrange]

Watched his minutes and here are some takeaways I saw:

(1). He is EXTREMELY switchable. He was matched up on smaller and theoretically quicker guards numerous times. He stayed in front of them the vast majority of times. The one time he was beat he still deterred a shot because of his length. He’s close to the textbook definition of a modern defensive big.

(2). He can struggle when going against big physical centers who fight hard for post position. The times he was beat was because the other centers simply out physicaled him in the post. The sooner he can get to campus and gain 15 pounds, the better. This isn’t really a surprise at all, and can be totally fixed with a good nutrition and weight lifting plan.

(3). He might struggle with fouls his first year. He’s so long and a good shot blocker he can often gamble and get caught in a bad spot. Experienced and gifted post playing centers will most likely draw fouls on him his first year. This will improve with more game experience.

(4). Offensively he sets good screens. Seems to have decent hands and touch around the basket. As he bulks up and develops a post game, I don’t think he will ever become a dominate offensive player, but I absolutely think he could average 10-12 points given time and experience.

(5). His free throw stroke is great. I can honestly see why he shoots around 80%. He didn’t take a mid range, but just based on his free throws I absolutely think he could develop a good mid range game.

(6). Overall takeaways: He’s a good defender day 1, with the talent to be an excellent one in future years. I don’t think he will ever become an offensive machine, but I think he could develop into a good offensive player. I honestly think with the right coaches and development plan he has the talent to be one of the best centers in the ACC. It will probably take a year or two for him to fully realize his potential, but I think he has the tools. Day 1 he profiles as a backup center with good defense.

Add to your point on foul struggles he's currently playing in a league that allows more physical play. Whistles will be a lot quicker in US reffed games.

 

[CapitalO]

Siby is in a good situation right now 1st plus is he is not a project 2nd plus this staff will do a much better developing his body and skills and 3rd he will go against Wilson and Goodrick in practice for a year. 2 big dudes who have been playing college ball for a few years.

 

[General20]

If anyone wants to watch the full game to see what's not shown in the highlights, here's yesterdays breakout performance in full.

Thanks for sharing. That was cool to watch. Going in I knew Siby put up really good numbers in his U18 league (which I consider to be similar to high school ball here) then he went to this league where he mostly rode the bench. This is a league with a lot of fringe NBA guys (both coming from the NBA and going to it). His team got a guy drafted in each of the last 2 years, so I basically consider him to be the equivalent of a freshman on a very good P5 college team. I think if we got this guy and he was sitting the bench on Duke last year people would be very excited about him. That's pretty much how I feel. He's no guaranteed success, but I definitely like the chances of a guy with his measurements who sat the bench on a power team as a freshman and we get him as a sophomore.

This is my first time watching him in a full game. We know the numbers he put up, but context really matters. The opposing team's starting center was a guy named Demajeo Wiggins, a 28 year old who goes 6'9 240, and is averaging 14 & 7 in that league. He's an American, who put up 14 and 10 for Bowling Green before going overseas. Obviously at 28 he has amassed a lot of experience since then and is, I believe, what we would now call on this board a 'grown ass man.' He wouldn't be the best center Syracuse plays all year, but I think you'd have a tough time finding 5 better centers on rosters we will play next year, and Siby won this match up. Wiggins had 11 and 2 in this game and 4 of those points came when Siby was on the bench.

If Siby has a weakness its strength, especially lower body strength. He's not good at fighting for position underneath and doesnt try a lot. Still Wiggins is 9 years older, as strong as anyone Siby will face in college, and has a more polished post game than anyone Siby is likely to go up against in college and still Wiggins really struggled against Siby's length. The shots he did make were tough shots. When Siby adds some lower body strength, forget about scoring anything easy under the basket. It just wont happen. I think he will be a nightmare for anyone in the ACC to score against right now.

Siby moves well and switches well on D (his team switched often on screens). He had a Warrick like block against a 3 point shooter he switched off on (not as impressive as Warrick's block, but what is). So defensively he seems like the real deal all around.

On the boards he didnt do a lot of fighting for territory down low. Instead he used his length and athleticism to swoop in and grab out of area rebounds. A compensation strategy clearly born from the need to fight against older stronger guys constantly. It seemed to work for him.

Offensively his team didnt look for him a lot. He scored twice in the post, but his team fed him the ball in PERFECT positions both times. Dont expect him to be a guy you can just dump the ball down to and he will make a move and score. His points will come from transition, offensive rebounds, and feeds off pick and rolls where the defenses lose him when he's rolling to the basket ... this last one his how he scored most of his points. He made really effective screens and always rolled to the hoop after. A few times his team found him for dunks.

I like that he produced against tough competition when he finally got his chance. I also like how he will compliment Wilson. In Wilson we have a "shorter" guy who is a banger and can win the positional battle down low. In Siby we have a rare combination of height and length and some athleticism to go with it. To me it seems Gerry has a guy to win the side to side battles and another guy to win the up and down battles. He can put in whoever we need to best match up with our opposition.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

I think we're going to be happy with Wilson. Seems like a clear starter. It will be nice to see a player with actual muscles again.

I hope so. My skepticism has only grown during this recruiting/portal cycle.

 

[Orangezoo]

I hope so. My skepticism has only grown during this recruiting/portal cycle.

Everyone was salivating over and wanted Najai Hines. Hines is a beast at his size with massive potential that he has to fill out. At 6-11 over 260 and his per 40 numbers it’s easy to see why.

Wilson is a couple inches shorter but otherwise has a similar body type , athleticism for his frame and skillset with a lower ceiling but at the college level the margins here are small. Hines put his per 40 figures up in the BE so conference wise it’s a mismatch but he also only played under 20 mpg. That said at the college level Wilson is very similar in terms of the impact he has on the game and is a couple years further along. Hines is probably a year away from being close to his potential as a college player. That doesn’t mean he won’t be a problem this year but that potential that demanded top of the market pay is more likely only going to partially show up as is always the case with bigs.

Wilson will be heading into his 4th year as a redshirt junior having reached that point of development where he is refining his game not still figuring out the position at this level still. So essentially we wanted Hines but you get the best alternative out there who is further along development wise and costs less.

When I look across the country at teams with coaches completing a rebuild the only real comparable is Providence which of course I’m a broken record about. They have the coach that many wanted here and maybe still do. Their approach has been different where they have chased guys higher in the portal rankings than we have. At this juncture there is only the portal ranking and name recognition ( PC has guys ranked higher and some better known names) that differs between how the teams are built along with weaker offensive metrics shooting wise top to bottom for the PC guys. The casual fan or rankings hugger likely thinks PC crushed us in the portal but there really isn’t anything more when you look at metrics that says they have done better and in fact leans towards a willingness to ignore poor shooting in favor of higher rated player by subjective rankings. To me that sums up a rebuild for any program- you won’t have a perfect roster on paper so coaching and development have to be worth a few million in NIL or more you didn’t have to spend. The rubber meets the road this fall for both programs as neither has won or lost the offseason at this point in time.

PC fans are out doing the griddy on social media while we are shaking our heads for not seeing a flashier name committed yet there is no reason for either such reaction at this point.