Jesse Edwards

[DoctahLexus]

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.

Keita, specifically, was so darn good on defense that you could care less that his only offensive game was a wide open layup and even that wasn't guaranteed. If we can get either Anselem or Ajak to turn the corner on the defensive end of things this season I will be happy, but I would take Keita over all of these guys by a mile if we still had him, including Sidibe, based on his defensive ability alone.

Right now Ajak has the length and potentially the athleticism to mimic Keita on D, but lacks the IQ. Frank has the athleticism and is more familiar with the game, but he doesn't look all that big out there to my eyes.

 

[RF2044]

Sidibe's injury was a golden opportunity for one or more of the backup centers to stake the claim for more PT. So far, only JBA has been the only one to make the case to remain in the rotation.

He played all right on Monday, and didn't "hurt" us when he was out there.

 

[SWC75]

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.

I remember that when Ellis announced he was transferring here, Dick Vitale said "He elevates their program". Someone replied "To what? the NBA?"

I also recall that the Post Standard tried to turn Ellis' decision into an NCAA violation, claiming that his father worked for George Hicker, when it turned out that he worked for a security firm Hicker employed but not at Hicker's building and that he'd had that job for 9 years before LeRon decided to transfer.

 

[SWC75]

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?

It's been mentioned before that JB decided in the last decade that he wanted his center to guard the corners in his zone, which mean that he needed the type of athlete who could run out to try o block a three pointer. I've always hated that because I'd want my center in the paint, defending the basket. But it means that we've had a series of long, skinny recruits with no muscles or post moves.

Also, I've pointed out several times that Jim has warned us that big men take longer to develop because they are growing into their bodies and also that foreign players take longer because they didn't grow up playing the game. Yet we seem to recruit nothing but foreign big men. We've got five guys 6-10 or 6-11 and none of them were born here. Wouldn't you love to have Luke Garza - but what were the chances he would come here?

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Keita, specifically, was so darn good on defense that you could care less that his only offensive game was a wide open layup and even that wasn't guaranteed. If we can get either Anselem or Ajak to turn the corner on the defensive end of things this season I will be happy, but I would take Keita over all of these guys by a mile if we still had him, including Sidibe, based on his defensive ability alone.

Right now Ajak has the length and potentially the athleticism to mimic Keita on D, but lacks the IQ. Frank has the athleticism and is more familiar with the game, but he doesn't look all that big out there to my eyes.

Eh, Keita was great defensively, but not so great that it didn't matter that he played offense like he was wearing boxing gloves.

It would have been a really good thing had he been able to develop more on that end of the floor.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Eh, Keita was great defensively, but not so great that it didn't matter that he played offense like he was wearing boxing gloves.

It would have been a really good thing had he been able to develop more on that end of the floor.

It would have certainly been better yes, but you compare him to recent centers like Chukwu (roughly the same lack of offense and way less active on D and the boards) and Sidibe (better on offense but hasn’t had a serious impact there just yet / also far less active on D and the boards) and he is clearly superior IMO. Don't even feel the need to compare him to Coleman. Recently our centers have played like their feet are stuck to the floor, incapable of grabbing a contested rebound, let alone closing out to defend a jumper in the corner. That was far from the case with Keita. His rebounding alone improved the offense by giving it more possessions.

 

[RF2044]

It would have certainly been better yes, but you compare him to recent centers like Chukwu (roughly the same lack of offense and way less active on D and the boards) and Sidibe (better on offense but hasn’t had a serious impact there just yet / also far less active on D and the boards) and he is clearly superior IMO. Don't even feel the need to compare him to Coleman. Recently our centers have played like their feet are stuck to the floor, incapable of grabbing a contested rebound, let alone closing out to defend a jumper in the corner. That was far from the case with Keita. His rebounding alone improved the offense by giving it more possessions.

Your assessment of Keita is vastly overestimated in comparison to Chukwu.

The legend of Baye Moussa-Keita continues to grow -- he's a great kid, so glad to see that he's viewed so reverentially in retrospect -- but it sounds like you're talking about Keita at his absolute peak level of performance, and comparing that to "average" Chukwu. Chukwu didn't fufill his vast potential [especially his senior year, when JB said prior to the season that he expected a big year], but he was a steady contributor who could put the ball in the basket, and had some monster rebounding games. That's more than you could say for Keita.

 

[OrangeDW]

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.

I think our recent class addresses that. Kadary is a stud PG, and Anselem was rated highly before reclassifying and had strong offers. He could be a player. Looks athletic.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Your assessment of Keita is vastly overestimated in comparison to Chukwu.

The legend of Baye Moussa-Keita continues to grow -- he's a great kid, so glad to see that he's viewed so reverentially in retrospect -- but it sounds like you're talking about Keita at his absolute peak level of performance, and comparing that to "average" Chukwu. Chukwu didn't fufill his vast potential [especially his senior year, when JB said prior to the season that he expected a big year], but he was a steady contributor who could put the ball in the basket, and had some monster rebounding games. That's more than you could say for Keita.

You may be right. A part of that is Keita only played like 15 mins a game for us, usually backing up a more offensively minded player in Rak. Just seemed like a welcome spark off the bench whenever he came in. I maintain that someone with his movement in the zone is what we are lacking right now with this current group, but maybe JBA fills that role after a little more game experience. Someone posted the old SU Wisconsin tourney game from 2012. You watch him in that and just go "Yes! Where is this now??"

 

[CuseFaninVT]

It's been mentioned before that JB decided in the last decade that he wanted his center to guard the corners in his zone, which mean that he needed the type of athlete who could run out to try o block a three pointer. I've always hated that because I'd want my center in the paint, defending the basket. But it means that we've had a series of long, skinny recruits with no muscles or post moves.

Also, I've pointed out several times that Jim has warned us that big men take longer to develop because they are growing into their bodies and also that foreign players take longer because they didn't grow up playing the game. Yet we seem to recruit nothing but foreign big men. We've got five guys 6-10 or 6-11 and none of them were born here. Wouldn't you love to have Luke Garza - but what were the chances he would come here?

I understand JB's reasoning for wanting his centers to guard the corners occasionally, but it just destroys our ability to rebound. Feels like it frequently leads to either the center getting a foul on the contest, which is terrible, a missed shot that ends up with an offensive board and put back (sometimes with an and1 foul), or the guy in the corner makes the shot anyway.

I don't have a fix, just making an observation. Or JB could switch to a 3-2 with the two wings up top covering more ground. Who knows?

 

[SWC75]

You may be right. A part of that is Keita only played like 15 mins a game for us, usually backing up a more offensively minded player in Rak. Just seemed like a welcome spark off the bench whenever he came in. I maintain that someone with his movement in the zone is what we are lacking right now with this current group, but maybe JBA fills that role after a little more game experience. Someone posted the old SU Wisconsin tourney game from 2012. You watch him in that and just go "Yes! Where is this now??"

I remember Baye and Rak totally controlling the paint during our 2013 run to the final four. Chukwu could block shots but he didn't prevent drives to the basket that well.

 

[eatmatsroe]

dude would be a star for tufts and dominate the nescac

 

[orangezen]

Id like Conrad McCrae jr

 

[kcsu]

It would have certainly been better yes, but you compare him to recent centers like Chukwu (roughly the same lack of offense and way less active on D and the boards) and Sidibe (better on offense but hasn’t had a serious impact there just yet / also far less active on D and the boards) and he is clearly superior IMO. Don't even feel the need to compare him to Coleman. Recently our centers have played like their feet are stuck to the floor, incapable of grabbing a contested rebound, let alone closing out to defend a jumper in the corner. That was far from the case with Keita. His rebounding alone improved the offense by giving it more possessions.

I miss Chewy prancing down the floor.

 

[Scotch]

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.

Fab and Rak were top 15 prospects in their class. Things work out better when we recruit that level of talent.

 

[CapitalO]

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

Our centers set a bunch of high screens and pick and rolls and don't get many options to score or even touch the ball unless they grab some rebounds for some put backs or get a lob pass once in a while and then on defense they are playing zone 90% of the time, any good center recruit wants to play for a good school and coach who's system has the center being a featured scorer in their offense and on defense playing man to man this gives that center a much better chance to play at the next level also playing man to man helps his rebounding numbers. I also would say that not having any coaches on our staff that have played center at the college or NBA level doesn't look as appealing to those recruits.

 

[chugg21]

I think our recent class addresses that. Kadary is a stud PG, and Anselem was rated highly before reclassifying and had strong offers. He could be a player. Looks athletic.

Here's hoping man. We are all hoping for the same thing.

 

[Sherman20]

It's been mentioned before that JB decided in the last decade that he wanted his center to guard the corners in his zone, which mean that he needed the type of athlete who could run out to try o block a three pointer. I've always hated that because I'd want my center in the paint, defending the basket. But it means that we've had a series of long, skinny recruits with no muscles or post moves.

Also, I've pointed out several times that Jim has warned us that big men take longer to develop because they are growing into their bodies and also that foreign players take longer because they didn't grow up playing the game. Yet we seem to recruit nothing but foreign big men. We've got five guys 6-10 or 6-11 and none of them were born here. Wouldn't you love to have Luke Garza - but what were the chances he would come here?

Jesse and Marek are European bigs, who actually did grow up playing the game. Sidibe, JBA, Frank and Chukwu are all from various African nations and had less experience playing basketball coming into college.

 

[SWC75]

Jesse and Marek are European bigs, who actually did grow up playing the game. Sidibe, JBA, Frank and Chukwu are all from Africa and had less experience playing basketball coming into college.

Jesse did not grow up playing the game. He became interested in it when he saw LeBron James on You-Tube.

How SU recruit Jesse Edwards discovered basketball through LeBron videos

Syracuse recruit and Netherlands native Jesse Edwards discovered basketball by watching LeBron James videos.

www.syracuse.com

 

[tipphill]

Sidibe's injury was a golden opportunity for one or more of the backup centers to stake the claim for more PT. So far, only JBA has been the only one to make the case to remain in the rotation.

He played all right on Monday, and didn't "hurt" us when he was out there.

i think jesse definitely has a better upside and probably frank as well. frank looked lost on offense. he needs a lot more minutes. jesse is very close to being the guy.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I don’t get it .. in the limited action he gets .. he looks far better than the other centers .. he looks taller and bigger than last year .. he has good hands .. he looks competent on the boards .. the other guys may look good in practice .. but I don’t care who the practice stars are

 

[Rautins07]

I don't get it either, based on the little action he saw yesterday, I think he should be the first choice after Marek to play the middle, most aggressive i have seen him, put the ball on the floor and showed the most I have seen.

 

[Sherman20]

I don't get it either, based on the little action he saw yesterday, I think he should be the first choice after Marek to play the middle, most aggressive i have seen him, put the ball on the floor and showed the most I have seen.

Yea, I’ve been hugely surprised that Boeheim is playing JBA off the bench before Edwards. Edwards looked promising last season, especially on offense. I thought him and Frank were the future at center once they develop. Maybe he’s struggled on the defensive end in practice, knowing the zone rotations and responsibilities. He looked good against BC yesterday. Who knows? JB has his quirks. And maybe some guys don’t practice as well as they play in games, and JB bases playing time off of how well someone does in practice.

 

[RF2044]

i think jesse definitely has a better upside and probably frank as well. frank looked lost on offense. he needs a lot more minutes. jesse is very close to being the guy.

I agree about the inherent skill, but it doesn't seem to be translating to the court.

BTW, I am a big Edwards supporter -- I heard that when he finally arrived back in the US after the uncertainty about his ability to get back for this season, that the coaches were surprised by the leap forward his skill set took. I haven't seen it thus far in terms of on-court production, and it looks like Ajak may have leapfrogged both Edwards / Anselem to be the 9th player in the rotation.

Not suggesting that things are set in stone, but the early returns for Edwards haven't been strong.

 

[moqui]

Maybe he’s struggled on the defensive end in practice, knowing the zone rotations and responsibilities. He looked good against BC yesterday.

in limited time this year, he has made at least 2 egregiously poor rotations in the zone that i have seen . . . my guess is that jb's more discernible eyes have seen a few more

also, jb has used jba as a forward in limited minutes. he used frank there, too, in cleanup time. that speaks to their lateral quickness & potential versatility as compared to jesse