Niastri
Two Time Iggy Award Winner: Edwards for Three!
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- Aug 28, 2011
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So... With our recent transfer recruiting failures, let's take a look at what we have right now. We have 10 scholarship players, all of whom seem candidates to get minutes.
Lampkin, transfer from Colorado, an 2023-2024 NCAA tournament team. Listed at 263lbs, that looks like it's a bit on the light side. He's listed at 300lb on Sports Reference. I would guess he's closer to 300 lb based on his game footage against Florida. Lampkin averaged 10.6 points, 7 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game on .579 shooting. Averaged almost no blocks or steals for Colorado after averaging 1.2 steals and .9 blocks per game before Colorado. This was certainly a system issue. He almost shied away from getting blocks in the games I watched. He is very physical and will help win the physical battles against bigger teams, battles that we had been consistently losing.
Freeman, a McDonald's All American, has likely grown from his listing above. Some sites are saying 6'9" 210lbs. Some are saying even taller and heavier. Either way, Freeman is long and athletic enough to give us good rebounding and some shotblocker abilities, although this isn't his strength. Freeman is an All American because he scores so well. At times he handles the ball like a guard, he's got a full post move suite, and he has accurate range to 3 point land.
Bell is the best three point shooter since... Buddy Boeheim? Maybe Bell can prove himself to be as good of an all around scorer as Buddy turned out to be. But if he can hit 42% from three again next year, we only need him to shoot 3s. Bell's defense is miserable. I once sarcastically suggested he lets people go past him on defense because he gets so much applause when he occasionally gets the catch up blocks. Bell's terrible defense might be more important to how well the team does in the fall than his shooting. It's much easier to go from terrible to merely bad on defense than it is to go from an elite shooter to even more elite shooter.
Starling is a bit of a conundrum. He came out of high school with a reputation as a shooter and all atoms scoring guard. Yet, he was bad at Notre Dame and showed only moderate improvement last season. His TS% went from .482 to .533 with the change in scenery. But it was a tale of two seasons with Starling. In Syracuse's first 16 games, Starling shot .48 TS on .244 3pt shooting. The second half he shot .577 TS and .363 from 3pt shooting. If we get the second half Starling, or incremental improvement, he'll be an above average starter in the ACC. His defense also needs to improve, but I didn't find it as conspicuously bad as other starters on last year's team.
The fifth starter is Westry or Carlos or Cuffe or maybe Moore.
My prediction is Westry. He was recruited here out of Auburn after being intensely recruited out of high school. At 6'6" inches, he has a true point guard's game. Penetrate and distribute. He hasn't shown much as a shooter, this wasn't a feature even as a high school player. Reports are that he's healthy and my personal belief is that Westry was good enough in practice after returning that other similar players were scared out of the program. Westry could be great, and barring his multiple years of injury might already be in the league. A lot of this team's ceiling depends on Westry being healthy and effective, both unknowns.
McLeod is huge. And that's his best basketball skill. You can't teach that kind of length. He is nothing short of a terrific shotblocker, but has little offensive game to reference. He's almost the antithesis of Lampkin, and the two of them could become the basketball equivalent of Thunder and Lightning. Each will be effective in their own style. There will definitely be some games where McLeod's 5.3 blocks and 11.8 rebounds (per 40 minutes last year) will be valuable.
Cuffe had his moments where he looked good, but mostly came across as just another guy. Maybe with another year removed from his severe injury problems, he'll show us more.
Moore is a recruit known first and foremost for his shooting. His offensive highlights were, for a long time after committing, only three point shots and breakaway dunks. Lately he's been showing dribble penetration and finishing at the rim. But his shooting is his singular skill. He's getting good reviews defensively from his AAU coaches as well, but it's a defensively challenged world, so all things are relative.
Regarding Davis and Carlos, they were recruited from lower division teams to be reserves on a team returning decent, but not great, talent. Their recruitment was underwhelming at best. Davis is only our third forward currently, and Carlos our only pure point guard, so both will play, but hopefully they don't need to play much.
I expect both to be fine deeper in the rotation, but if either becomes the starter and has to play big minutes, it means very bad things for our record.
Everyone involved with the program would like another player or two recruited over the existing players... But what about what we currently have?
| PLAYER | POS. | HT. | WT. | CLASS | STATUS |
| Eddie Lampkin | C | 6-11 | 263 | Gr. | Colorado |
| Jyare Davis | 6-7 | 216 | R-Sr. | Delaware | |
| Naheem McLeod | C | 7-4 | 265 | Sr. | Injured 2023-24 |
| Jaquan Carlos | G | 6-0 | 170 | Sr. | Hofstra |
| Chris Bell | 6-7 | 188 | Jr. | ||
| Kyle Cuffe, Jr. | G | 6-2 | 190 | R-Jr. | |
| JJ Starling | G | 6-2 | 206 | Jr. | |
| Chance Westry | G | 6-6 | 190 | R-So. | Redshirt 2023-24 |
| Donnie Freeman | 6-8 | 190 | Fr. | ||
| Elijah Moore | G | 6-4 | 175 | Fr. |
Lampkin, transfer from Colorado, an 2023-2024 NCAA tournament team. Listed at 263lbs, that looks like it's a bit on the light side. He's listed at 300lb on Sports Reference. I would guess he's closer to 300 lb based on his game footage against Florida. Lampkin averaged 10.6 points, 7 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game on .579 shooting. Averaged almost no blocks or steals for Colorado after averaging 1.2 steals and .9 blocks per game before Colorado. This was certainly a system issue. He almost shied away from getting blocks in the games I watched. He is very physical and will help win the physical battles against bigger teams, battles that we had been consistently losing.
Freeman, a McDonald's All American, has likely grown from his listing above. Some sites are saying 6'9" 210lbs. Some are saying even taller and heavier. Either way, Freeman is long and athletic enough to give us good rebounding and some shotblocker abilities, although this isn't his strength. Freeman is an All American because he scores so well. At times he handles the ball like a guard, he's got a full post move suite, and he has accurate range to 3 point land.
Bell is the best three point shooter since... Buddy Boeheim? Maybe Bell can prove himself to be as good of an all around scorer as Buddy turned out to be. But if he can hit 42% from three again next year, we only need him to shoot 3s. Bell's defense is miserable. I once sarcastically suggested he lets people go past him on defense because he gets so much applause when he occasionally gets the catch up blocks. Bell's terrible defense might be more important to how well the team does in the fall than his shooting. It's much easier to go from terrible to merely bad on defense than it is to go from an elite shooter to even more elite shooter.
Starling is a bit of a conundrum. He came out of high school with a reputation as a shooter and all atoms scoring guard. Yet, he was bad at Notre Dame and showed only moderate improvement last season. His TS% went from .482 to .533 with the change in scenery. But it was a tale of two seasons with Starling. In Syracuse's first 16 games, Starling shot .48 TS on .244 3pt shooting. The second half he shot .577 TS and .363 from 3pt shooting. If we get the second half Starling, or incremental improvement, he'll be an above average starter in the ACC. His defense also needs to improve, but I didn't find it as conspicuously bad as other starters on last year's team.
The fifth starter is Westry or Carlos or Cuffe or maybe Moore.
My prediction is Westry. He was recruited here out of Auburn after being intensely recruited out of high school. At 6'6" inches, he has a true point guard's game. Penetrate and distribute. He hasn't shown much as a shooter, this wasn't a feature even as a high school player. Reports are that he's healthy and my personal belief is that Westry was good enough in practice after returning that other similar players were scared out of the program. Westry could be great, and barring his multiple years of injury might already be in the league. A lot of this team's ceiling depends on Westry being healthy and effective, both unknowns.
McLeod is huge. And that's his best basketball skill. You can't teach that kind of length. He is nothing short of a terrific shotblocker, but has little offensive game to reference. He's almost the antithesis of Lampkin, and the two of them could become the basketball equivalent of Thunder and Lightning. Each will be effective in their own style. There will definitely be some games where McLeod's 5.3 blocks and 11.8 rebounds (per 40 minutes last year) will be valuable.
Cuffe had his moments where he looked good, but mostly came across as just another guy. Maybe with another year removed from his severe injury problems, he'll show us more.
Moore is a recruit known first and foremost for his shooting. His offensive highlights were, for a long time after committing, only three point shots and breakaway dunks. Lately he's been showing dribble penetration and finishing at the rim. But his shooting is his singular skill. He's getting good reviews defensively from his AAU coaches as well, but it's a defensively challenged world, so all things are relative.
Regarding Davis and Carlos, they were recruited from lower division teams to be reserves on a team returning decent, but not great, talent. Their recruitment was underwhelming at best. Davis is only our third forward currently, and Carlos our only pure point guard, so both will play, but hopefully they don't need to play much.
I expect both to be fine deeper in the rotation, but if either becomes the starter and has to play big minutes, it means very bad things for our record.
Everyone involved with the program would like another player or two recruited over the existing players... But what about what we currently have?
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