My 2023-24 SU Basketball Preview - Part 2 | Syracusefan.com

My 2023-24 SU Basketball Preview - Part 2

SWC75

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Players who could have been on this team, (but if they were, some of the guys we have would not have been):

2018 recruiting class

Jalen Carey – Showed flashes in his freshman year at Syracuse, then injured his thumb, (and was beaten out for the point guard job by Joe Girard), and was limited to two games his second year. He transferred to Rhode Island and played there for three years. He still has his Covid year and announced for both the portal and the draft. That was April 3rd and I’ve found no further information on it. Here are his numbers from last year (minutes/game, then points rebounds, assists steals and blocks per 40 minutes minus missed field goals, missed free throws, turnovers and fouls committed per 40 minutes. NP, or “net points” is the result. OE, or “offensive efficiency“ is points minus missed field goals and free throws and FG, or “floor game” is NP minus OE):
28.7m 13.8p 6.9r 2.5a 1.6s 1.0b = 25.8+ 7.6mfg 0.7mft 3.7to 2.6pf = 14.6- = 11.2NP 5.5OE 5.7FG

Robert Braswell spent three years in Syracuse, playing little his first two years and redshirting his second year. In his third year, he was a key figure in the run to the Sweet 16. He was an excellent defensive player. But he transferred to Charlotte, where he played the last two seasons. Last year he played only 10 games due to a season-ending thumb injury. He was granted another year and will be playing for Charlotte again this year. His numbers from last year:
14.1m 13.6p 4.8r 0.6a 0.6s 1.7b = 21.2+ 8.2mfg 0.6mft 2.6to 6.2pf = 17.6- = 3.7NP 4.8OE -1.1FG

2019

John Bol Ajak redshirted his first year here, then played the last three years as a rarely used reserve: 234 minutes in 35 games. He once entered the transfer portal and came back because he had no takers. Now he’s back in it. He was a great asset to the program as a person but I wasn’t able to find out where he is now. I put together his career numbers for this:
6.7m 2.4p 7.4r 4.4a 0.9s 0.9b = 16.0+ 1.0mfg 0.5mft 2.2to 4.6pf = 8.3- = 7.7NP 0.9OE 6.8FG

Jesse Edwards has grown from a little, (under?)-used reserve to one of the best centers in college ball. Unfortunately, he followed the NIL-brick road to West Virginia. He was a highly mobile player on both offense and defense who could run the court and was dynamite off the pick-and roll and developed into a fine rebounder and shot blocker. He was starting to develop a back-to-the basket game that he’ll need in the NBA, (maybe not if he goes back to Europe). If we had him with this team, we could be a top-ten team. But we don’t. Maybe we can be anyway if get some big early wins. His numbers from last year:
32.6m 17.7p 12.7r 1.9a 1.7s 3.3b = 37.3+ 4.8mfg 1.5mft 2.5to 3.6pf = 12.4- = 24.9NP 11.4OE 13.5FG

Joseph Girard III came here as one of 7 players in high school history to have averaged 50 points a game in a season. He has had easily the best college career of any of them. His skills were that of a shooting guard but because of the failures of Jalen Carey and Brycen Goodine he became our point guard. His handle was never strong and he wasn’t a great passer or much of a penetrator. He lacked the quickness of foot to be a really good defender but had quick hands and made a lot of steals. But he was out there for one reason: to shoot from outside. He wasn’t really a dead-eye, more of a volume shooter with plenty of range. But every team had to account for him on defense and that opened up driving lanes for his teammates. We will have no one like him on this year’s team. He’ll be jacking them up for Clemson this year and we will play them twice. His numbers last year:
34.7m 19.1p 3.3r 3.4a 0.9s 0.0b = 26.7+ 9.5mfg 0.5mft 2.8to 1.1pf = 13.9- = 12.8NP 9.1OE 3.7FG

Brycen Goodine was supposed to be a big-time talent but he’s been a big-time bust. As a high schooler, he played in All-Star games and participated in both three point and dunk contests. Jalen Carey had already proved himself to not be a point guard so we assumed Goodine would pair with fellow freshman Joe Girard in our back court for the next few seasons. But he couldn’t beat out Girard for the point. He transferred to Providence where he didn’t play much either and then, after two years there, to Fairfield, where he played more but only for 4 games before getting injured. He’ll try it again for the Stags this year. His numbers in those four games last year:
15.8m 18.4p 3.2r 0.6a 0.6s 0.6b = 23.4+ 8.3mfg 1.3mft 1.9to 5.1pf = 16.6- = 6.8NP 8.8OE -2.0FG
(-2.0 is not a good stat for a point guard)

Quincy Guerrier came here from Canada with the kind of big, strong body we needed on a team that likes skinny big men with long arms to play the zone. He could drive to the basket powerfully, rebound and score inside. Jim Boeheim was always trying to get him to do that more. Everybody wants to jack up threes these days. Quincy jumped to Oregon thinking they’d let him do that there. In two years there, he played less and actually shot fewer threes than he did here, (they wanted him to use that body for the same things JB wanted). Now he’s spending his Covid year at Illinois, (meaning he won’t play against us, unless it’s in the post-season). I wonder what they will want him to do. His numbers last year:
25.6m 14.0p 7.2r 1.6a 0.6s 0.6b = 24.0+ 6.5mfg 1.7mft 2.0to 3.1pf = 13.3- = 10.7NP 5.8OE 4.9FG

2020

Frank Anselem spent two years backing up Jesse Edwards. He could play defense and rebound but lacked Jesse’s offensive skills. He moved on to Georgia where he played the same minutes, (exactly), and still lacked the offensive skills. He’s still there. His numbers last year:
14.6m 7.9p 8.9r 0.7a 1.0s 1.9b = 20.4+ 3.1mfg 1.2mft 2.0to 5.1pf = 11.4- = 9.0NP 3.6OE 5.4FG

Woody Newton After all the foreign names we’d had to get used to pronouncing in recent years, I was looking forward to a front line of Woody Newton, Jesse Edwards, (even though he’s actually Dutch) and Bennie Williams. It never happened. Newton, who declared he had the defensive skills “to lock up anyone in the country” and was supposed to be a three level scorer as well, had a couple good games early in his career here but then played less and less. After the season, he bugged out to Oklahoma State in search of playing time. He finally got more of it last year but still didn’t score much. It’s hard to tell how good a defender he was from the stats beyond steals and blocks. Here are last year’s numbers:
17.0m 10.1p 8.0r 1.1a 0.8s 0.6b = 20.6+ 6.1mfg 1.1mft 1.9to 4.8pf = 13.9- = 6.7NP 2.9OE 3.8FG

Kadary Richmond seemed to be the point guard everyone wanted after they tired of Joe Girard’s limitations. He was big, athletic, a good passer and a strong defensive player. But he wanted to shoot threes and JB didn’t want him to, at least at this stage of his career. It was painful when he jumped to Seton Hall, where he’s played well at times but has not become the All-American many of us were sure he would become. Last year’s numbers:
27.5m 14.6p 7.5r 5.9a 2.9s 0.4b = 31.3+ 7.0mfg 1.7mft 3.2to 2.8pf = 14.7- = 16.6NP 5.9OE 10.7FG
Actually, those are pretty good numbers, (he hit 44% from three). Maybe this is his year to become an All-American. It won’t be for us. But we may have some of our own.
 

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