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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1934023, member: 289"] On the surface, it’s a strange year to have such grand ambitions. We lost 13 games. We lost our top three scorers –fifth year seniors Michael Gbinije and Trevor Cooney and freshman Malachi Richardson who broke out of an extended slump at just the right moment vs. Virginia and caught the eye of the NBA. Richardson looked as if he could become a big star on the college level but he wasn’t one yet and SU fans groaned when he took the NBA bait. We also lost little used back-up center Chinsoso Obohkoh and disappointing point guard Kaleb Joseph, who had started as a freshmen, both of whom transferred out. That was 5 of our 9 scholarship players. That left us with: DaJuan Coleman, a former McDonald’s All-American whose college career had been torpedoed by multiple knee surgeries Tyler Roberson, a ferocious rebounder with few other skills whose ferociousness turned on and off like a light, such that assistant coach Mike Hopkins, (who will take over for JB when he leaves), called him “Turned on Robie” or “Turned off Robie”, depending on how he played in the last game. Tyler Lydon, who had a promising freshman year but was not yet the primary focus of the defense, as he will be this year. And Franklin Howard, a good passer who can’t shoot. That’s the ‘right’ team? A rule Boeheim actually doesn’t much like came to the rescue. A few years ago the NCAA declared that a player who had graduated from his current school but who had redshirted and still had a year of eligibility left could transfer to another school and play immediately if that other school had a course of graduate study not available at his current school. Predictably, schools developed classes in vague areas that simply sounded different from anything at other schools, (or, at least, had a different title). When quarterback Drew Allen transferred from Oklahoma to Syracuse, he was asked what he was majoring in and he couldn’t even answer the question. He pulled a card out of his pocket, dropped, picked it up and read it off. I forgot what they called it but he said it helped with “leadership” skills. Basically, the rule allowed fifth year seniors to become free agents and shop their services around. JB, (who doesn’t like change much anyway), took a dim view of it publically but realized that everybody else was going to take advantage of the rule and he needed to do so in a big way to remain competitive. He needed players and he got two good ones, lightening quick guard John Gillon, (only the one eye in his name, although there are two in his head, fortunately), from Colorado State and versatile swing man Andrew White from Nebraska, who can really rip the cords. He already had a bird in the hand with Paschal Chukwu, the tallest player in Syracuse history at 7-2, who had transferred in after one year at Providence. The freshman recruiting class consisted of Tyus Battle, who just missed being a McDonald’s All-American and who can play either guard positon, (he wants to play the point because he figures that’s what he’d be in the NBA,) and forwards Taurean Thompson and Matthew Moyers. That gets us up to ten scholarship players, meaning we can go 5 on 5 in practice with no walk-ons, which we could not do last year. It will be probably the tallest team we’ve ever had, which really helps the zone. It will also be an offensively versatile team and, potentially, our first truly deep team since the 2012 steamroller. The biggest question but maybe the best thing is how the individual talents seem to fit together. The most interesting thing will be to see how Boeheim, the Hall of Famer, will use those talents. [/QUOTE]

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