Jesse Edwards

[Eric15]

Does Jesse have the ability to perhaps become a Leron Ellis-type center as an upperclassman, i.e. a functional college center who can rebound, defend the basket and score inside when necessary?

Or is this more likely to be a Sean Williams 2.0 situation?

 

[Yegorange]

Does Jesse have the ability to perhaps become a Leron Ellis-type center as an upperclassman, i.e. a functional college center who can rebound, defend the basket and score inside when necessary?

Or is this more likely to be a Sean Williams 2.0 situation?

What’s puzzling is he showed some potential last year. Seems to have regressed or just very rusty. Would’ve expected at least some weight/strength gain.

 

[Halfmooncuse]

He’s taking classes in Chuchus cat in tree rescue courses.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

What’s puzzling is he showed some potential last year. Seems to have regressed or just very rusty. Would’ve expected at least some weight/strength gain.

You do know that he spent most of the Summer trapped in Europe. He didn't arrive back in Syracuse until August, then he had to quarantine for two weeks.

 

[Yegorange]

You do know that he spent most of the Summer trapped in Europe. He didn't arrive back in Syracuse until August, then he had to quarantine for two weeks.

Yep. What I meant by “rusty”. Hopefully with practice he gets back into it soon. Sounds like Sid is out for awhile, and the frosh aren’t ready.

 

[donniesyracuse]

Does Jesse have the ability to perhaps become a Leron Ellis-type center as an upperclassman, i.e. a functional college center who can rebound, defend the basket and score inside when necessary?

Ellis was better than “functional.”

 

[sufandu]

Ellis was better than “functional.”

Yeah, perception probably suffers a bit because he wasn't Seikely, Coleman, or Owens, but he was a first round pick back when it wasn't just about potential.

 

[Orangefan1]

We lost out on Cliff and got Edwards...look at the results.
Bottom line is we just aren’t beating out teams like we used to for top players and that’s why we have been mediocre for several years. Not sure how it gets fixed.
Seems to be mostly a center issue

 

[Eric15]

Ellis was better than “functional.”

Fair enough. How about Chewy or Keita.

 

[pfister1]

Fair enough. How about Chewy or Keita.

I’d settle for Billy Celuck or Elvir Ovcina with an upside of Keita or Chukwu, but with our continuing effort to stockpile centers I’m beginning to wonder if the low end may be a pipe dream.

 

[Newhouser]

I assume they brought Frank on board because neither Edwards or Jon are seen as impact guys.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Frank is or has passed Edwards. Kid is an elite athlete. I think he could be Fab 2.0 for us in the middle of the zone.

 

[SWC75]

Does Jesse have the ability to perhaps become a Leron Ellis-type center as an upperclassman, i.e. a functional college center who can rebound, defend the basket and score inside when necessary?

Or is this more likely to be a Sean Williams 2.0 situation?

Somewhere in between.

LeRon:
2yrs 64g 1611m 548p 375r 67a, 97s 104b 221/455fg 100/173ft 66to 206pf = 612np (15.2/40m)

Sean:
2yrs 16g 49m 6p 5r 3a 3b 0s 3/7fg 0/0ft 4to 8pf = 1np (0.8/40m)

 

[OrangeDW]

We lost out on Cliff and got Edwards...look at the results.
Bottom line is we just aren’t beating out teams like we used to for top players and that’s why we have been mediocre for several years. Not sure how it gets fixed.
Seems to be mostly a center issue

Kadary. Woody. Frank. Benny.

Keep at it with them 2018 talking points though.

 

[Sherman20]

Kadary. Woody. Frank. Benny.

Keep at it with them 2018 talking points though.

I mean, we wound up with a very nice class in the end. But Cliff was a top 50 center from the northeast. Rutgers, whose been terrible for years (until last season), landed the kid and we didn’t even make his final list. You must admit it’s frustrating that as an elite program we haven’t been able to compete for top 50 centers, let alone top 100 centers, recently. Which is definitely a change from our years of landing guys like Watkins, AO, Jackson, Fab, Rak, even Lydon and Chukwu. (Admittedly, Frank could have been a top 50 or 100 kid if he had stayed class of 2021.) Hopefully this starts to change going forward.

 

[dasher]

I assume they brought Frank on board because neither Edwards or Jon are seen as impact guys.

Nope. They had a chance to get a highly regarded center, people forget Frank was rated higher than mac when frank was in the class of 21. I believe all three will be good with time. The only thing wrong with that is that one of them probably won't be good here. But it will all work out.

 

[Red Holzman]

Have subscribed to the perspective that the zone has a lot to do with the problem recruiting a top 50 or 100 center, along with no established position coach with a long history of sending centers to the NBA.
ie: can understand highly-rated big/strong/talented HS centers with NBA hopes that want to develop to be a lottery pick questioning whether the hours of practice/etc learning the center's challenging responsibility in SU's zone and sprinting to cover the corners is their best path to the NBA.
Best solution may be the coaching staff developing a center "project" (Frank?) into a high draft pick. They probably need to prove SU can develop centers into high NBA draft picks before many top prospects will consider SU.
Hop taking Stewart to WA was "the one that got away" -could have been a springboard for recruiting centers.
Other/better ideas how to get more top center prospects interested in SU?

 

[MDCuse]

Not sure Jesse is long for this program. There may be some potential there, but he's behind Frank and Bol already. Bol actually looked solid in his first half minutes Tuesday. Frank is, by far, the highest upside guy of the whole group. His ability was evident against Rider (yes, I know it was Rider).

 

[Sherman20]

Have subscribed to the perspective that the zone has a lot to do with the problem recruiting a top 50 or 100 center, along with no established position coach with a long history of sending centers to the NBA.
ie: can understand highly-rated big/strong/talented HS centers with NBA hopes that want to develop to be a lottery pick questioning whether the hours of practice/etc learning the center's challenging responsibility in SU's zone and sprinting to cover the corners is their best path to the NBA.
Best solution may be the coaching staff developing a center "project" (Frank?) into a high draft pick. They probably need to prove SU can develop centers into high NBA draft picks before many top prospects will consider SU.
Hop taking Stewart to WA was "the one that got away" -could have been a springboard for recruiting centers.
Other/better ideas how to get more top center prospects interested in SU?

We developed Fab (Big East Defensive Player of the Year) and Rak into an NBA draft picks. Why did we struggle recruiting centers after those successes? It’s all just very odd, and no one has really offered a satisfying explanation. Maybe there just isn’t one. I agree that if Frank develops, hopefully that will help.

 

[Sherman20]

Not sure Jesse is long for this program. There may be some potential there, but he's behind Frank and Bol already. Bol actually looked solid in his first half minutes Tuesday. Frank is, by far, the highest upside guy of the whole group. His ability was evident against Rider (yes, I know it was Rider).

I thought Jesse looked very good on offense last season but struggled on defense because he lacks physicality and didn’t yet understand the rotations and responsibilities.

 

[Jeremy L.]

We developed Fab (Big East Defensive Player of the Year) and Rak into an NBA draft picks. Why did we struggle recruiting centers after those successes? It’s all just very odd, and no one has really offered a satisfying explanation. Maybe there just isn’t one. I agree that if Frank develops, hopefully that will help.

To me, it's because Fab and Rak had legitimate low post talent. Guys like Jesse, Baye, Chewy, etc. are just super tall and super lengthy which is fantastic for rim protection, but that's about all they offered and couldn't really pick up a low post game during their time at Cuse.

 

[the villager]

Coach keeps talking about what he sees in practices as an indication of who can play in a real game. One could assume Jon bol Ajax is the best center in practice and Jesse is not.Also Brass must do ok in practice as he gets game time.

 

[tipphill]

Have subscribed to the perspective that the zone has a lot to do with the problem recruiting a top 50 or 100 center, along with no established position coach with a long history of sending centers to the NBA.
ie: can understand highly-rated big/strong/talented HS centers with NBA hopes that want to develop to be a lottery pick questioning whether the hours of practice/etc learning the center's challenging responsibility in SU's zone and sprinting to cover the corners is their best path to the NBA.
Best solution may be the coaching staff developing a center "project" (Frank?) into a high draft pick. They probably need to prove SU can develop centers into high NBA draft picks before many top prospects will consider SU.
Hop taking Stewart to WA was "the one that got away" -could have been a springboard for recruiting centers.
Other/better ideas how to get more top center prospects interested in SU?

i believe that the negative recruiting re the zone. maybe hire a coach that has developed centers

 

[chugg21]

We developed Fab (Big East Defensive Player of the Year) and Rak into an NBA draft picks. Why did we struggle recruiting centers after those successes? It’s all just very odd, and no one has really offered a satisfying explanation. Maybe there just isn’t one. I agree that if Frank develops, hopefully that will help.

One was the #1 center recruit in the country and the other was #2 and got them in back to back years. That was fun. DaJuan was #4 and never panned out for a multitude of reasons but that was way back in the 2012 class. Since then it's been 8 straight classes with nothing but hopes that long projects would work out. Combine that with never being able to get PG straightened out since Ennis and those are the 2 major reasons that we are what we are.

 

[orangecuse]

Does Jesse have the ability to perhaps become a Leron Ellis-type center as an upperclassman, i.e. a functional college center who can rebound, defend the basket and score inside when necessary?

Or is this more likely to be a Sean Williams 2.0 situation?

Whhhhhaaaatttt! Leron Ellis type? Kudos for digging so far back...to the late 80's, when hair bands still ruled the day! Ellis was highly ranked, and when he transferred to SU from UK, I recalled the Syracuse community thinking...national championship here we come baby! Ellis, of course, never did elevate us to that level of success, but Edwards has zero chance whatsoever, IMO, for any SU fan thinking/dreaming anything close to that level. I think those glorious rockin days of the 80's, hair bands, etc., have a better shot at becoming current mainstream music again before Jesse is of any significant relevance in SU hoops. In the meantime, I'll keep listening to Hair Nation on Sirius/XM until that day.