SWC75
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THE SITUATION
This is the second year of the Red Autry Era here at SU. The first year produced an achievement worth noting that nonetheless tells us what the state of this program has been over the last decade. For the first time since the 2014 season, (I’m identifying basketball seasons by the second year, the one in which the most games are played and the championships decided, so that’s the 2013-14 season), we won 20 games in the regular season. We’d done that 30 times in the previous 43 years. In the least 10 years the number of votes we’ve gotten for the Top 25 in the final regular season poll is ZERO. Our 2016 was a controversial choice for the NCAA tournament and made it to the Final Four and finished 10th. Our 2018 team made it to the Sweet 16 and finished 25th. Our 2021 team also reached the Sweet 16 and had the most votes of any team that didn’t make the Top 25. But those results were after NCAA tournament runs: none of those teams received a vote for the Top 25 before the tournament began. We’d been ranked 33 times in those previous 43 years.
Things had clearly declined in the latter Jim Boeheim Era. Many fans wanted to go outside the program for a replacement, figuring that an internal promotion would just produce more of the same. But John Wildhack, probably influenced by Boeheim and maybe the university administration, appointed Jim’s top assistant and former player, Adrian ‘Red’ Autry as the new head coach. Red promised changes, saying we would be using a man-to-man defense, as well as zone, which Boeheim had used exclusively in his last 14 years. He was greeted with a difficult schedule that included a tournament in Hawaii where we lost to #7 Tennessee and #11 Gonzaga. We also played Louisiana State, Georgetown, and Oregon as well as a 20 game ACC schedule, (21 counting our won-and-done appearance in the ACC tournament). Winning 20 games against that schedule was a pretty good accomplishment. But the results made it clear that there’s still a gap between SU and the Top 25 or even an NCAA invite. We lost to Tennessee by 17, Gonzaga by 19, Virginia by 22, North Carolina by 36, Florida State by 16, Wake Forest by 29, Clemson by 15 and closed out with an 18 point loss to North Carolina State in the ACC tournament. We wound up 20-12 but only outscored our opposition by 22 points. For the third straight year, we didn’t play in either the NCAA tournament or the NIT. In 2022 we had a losing record for the first time since 1969 and were not eligible. In 2023 and 2024, we just didn’t feel like going to the NIT. (In this era of opt-outs, there’s virtually no point to playing in other than the NCAA tournament). We’re just not Syracuse anymore.
It's Red’s job to make us ‘Syracuse’ again. One of his -and everybody’s else’s in this era’s – problems is the transfer portal and another is NIL, “name image and likeness” money that is now used to attract athletes. Last season’s roster had the (then) NCAA maximum of scholarship players: 13 and none of them were seniors. Yet there will be only 5 of those players on this year’s roster. Starting point guard Judah Mintz declared for the NBA draft but wasn’t drafted: he signed a free-agent contract with the 76ers. His likely replacement. Quadir Copeland, transferred to McNeese State for some reason. Star power forward Maliq Brown transferred to Duke and thus will play against us. Justin Taylor, a muscular small forward who had been playing power forward for us, transferred to James Madison, in his native Virginia. Bennie Williams who should have been playing that position, was thrown off the team and will be playing for Central Florida this year. Centers Mounir Hima, Peter Carey and William Patterson all left to play for Howard, Siena and High Point, respectively, suggesting that none of them were appropriate for this level of competition.
A college sports coach in this era has to 1) re-recruit his own players, 2) recruit high school players, 3) recruit from junior colleges, 4) Bring in somebody from Europe or 5) recruit players out of the transfer portal, which is a two-way street. The big name was Eddie Lampkin, a 6-11 265 center who previously played for Texas Chrisitan and Colorado. Some lower-level teams have players who could play on a power conference level and Red brought in three who wish to try: Jaquan Carlos, a point guard from Hofstra, Jyare Davis, a forward from Delaware and Lucas Taylor a guard from Georgia State. We’ll see if they can make the grade in the ACC. He also brought in two blue-chip high school recruits: Donny Freeman, a 6-9 five star McDonald’s All-American power forward and Elijah Moore, a 6-4 sharp shooter who scored 67 points, including 13 threes, in a high school playoff game. Then there’s Petar Majstorovic, a Serbian forward who has been playing in France. These will be added to the five returnees: Guards JJ Starling and Kyle Cuffe, swing man Chance Westry, Dead-eye small forward Chris Bell and statuesque center Naheem McLeod, the tallest player ever here at 7-4. Modern basketball teams can’t be built over a period of years. They are assembled of available parts.
There are reasons to think this team might “fit together” better than last year’s team did, although that is a common hope for basketball fans when their team’s record is 0-0. We had four centers on last year’s team, which suggested we’d have tremendous depth at that position. McLeod and Hima had never been anything but back-ups and Carey and Patterson were, to use a favorite Boeheim phrase, “not ready to help us”. McLeod broke his foot and Hima was also dealing with an injury. So we wound up with 6-8 Maliq Brown trying to play center in the ACC. The prospect of doing so again is one of the reasons he left. When Williams was asked to leave, the 6-6 Taylor became our power forward, leaving us physically over-matched. Mintz was a very talented player but one who dominated the ball, trying to score himself being plan A and getting the ball to teammates being plan B. He also never developed a consistent outside shot. Copeland was an athletic, energetic player who often played out of control and also lacked an outside game, (which is why Miami was shocked when Mintz fed him for a wide-open three pointer that he made to win that game). Starling got off to a slow start but became a reliable scorer in the second half of the season.
Lampkin is one thing our four centers from last year never were: a legitimate starting center. He’ll be backed up by McLeod. We’re hoping Freeman will be an instant star at power forward, but I remember hoping the same with Benny Williams. Majstorovic, (“Mastro-vich”, I think), showed me everything I’d like to see in a power forward in his tape, (below). Davis could play either forward position. Bell may be ready to explode into stardom. I think Westry, who has a big-time recruit before injuries overtook him, could be a small forward or a point guard. Carlos is a good distributor. Taylor is a good shooter but will have a hard time getting time behind Starling and Moore. Cuffe is a solid defender. I think Red can mold these guys into a pretty solid team, one that could surprise a lot of people.
My measure of the quality of a season is that I want to be curious on selection Sunday, not nervous or bored, meaning that I know we’re going to play in the NCAA tournament, and I just want know who we’ll be playing, rather than hoping they’ll be chosen or resigned that they won’t. After that the NCAA tournament is a roulette wheel where you could lose at any time. Survive and advance. But first you’ve got to get there. And I think this team will.
This is the second year of the Red Autry Era here at SU. The first year produced an achievement worth noting that nonetheless tells us what the state of this program has been over the last decade. For the first time since the 2014 season, (I’m identifying basketball seasons by the second year, the one in which the most games are played and the championships decided, so that’s the 2013-14 season), we won 20 games in the regular season. We’d done that 30 times in the previous 43 years. In the least 10 years the number of votes we’ve gotten for the Top 25 in the final regular season poll is ZERO. Our 2016 was a controversial choice for the NCAA tournament and made it to the Final Four and finished 10th. Our 2018 team made it to the Sweet 16 and finished 25th. Our 2021 team also reached the Sweet 16 and had the most votes of any team that didn’t make the Top 25. But those results were after NCAA tournament runs: none of those teams received a vote for the Top 25 before the tournament began. We’d been ranked 33 times in those previous 43 years.
Things had clearly declined in the latter Jim Boeheim Era. Many fans wanted to go outside the program for a replacement, figuring that an internal promotion would just produce more of the same. But John Wildhack, probably influenced by Boeheim and maybe the university administration, appointed Jim’s top assistant and former player, Adrian ‘Red’ Autry as the new head coach. Red promised changes, saying we would be using a man-to-man defense, as well as zone, which Boeheim had used exclusively in his last 14 years. He was greeted with a difficult schedule that included a tournament in Hawaii where we lost to #7 Tennessee and #11 Gonzaga. We also played Louisiana State, Georgetown, and Oregon as well as a 20 game ACC schedule, (21 counting our won-and-done appearance in the ACC tournament). Winning 20 games against that schedule was a pretty good accomplishment. But the results made it clear that there’s still a gap between SU and the Top 25 or even an NCAA invite. We lost to Tennessee by 17, Gonzaga by 19, Virginia by 22, North Carolina by 36, Florida State by 16, Wake Forest by 29, Clemson by 15 and closed out with an 18 point loss to North Carolina State in the ACC tournament. We wound up 20-12 but only outscored our opposition by 22 points. For the third straight year, we didn’t play in either the NCAA tournament or the NIT. In 2022 we had a losing record for the first time since 1969 and were not eligible. In 2023 and 2024, we just didn’t feel like going to the NIT. (In this era of opt-outs, there’s virtually no point to playing in other than the NCAA tournament). We’re just not Syracuse anymore.
It's Red’s job to make us ‘Syracuse’ again. One of his -and everybody’s else’s in this era’s – problems is the transfer portal and another is NIL, “name image and likeness” money that is now used to attract athletes. Last season’s roster had the (then) NCAA maximum of scholarship players: 13 and none of them were seniors. Yet there will be only 5 of those players on this year’s roster. Starting point guard Judah Mintz declared for the NBA draft but wasn’t drafted: he signed a free-agent contract with the 76ers. His likely replacement. Quadir Copeland, transferred to McNeese State for some reason. Star power forward Maliq Brown transferred to Duke and thus will play against us. Justin Taylor, a muscular small forward who had been playing power forward for us, transferred to James Madison, in his native Virginia. Bennie Williams who should have been playing that position, was thrown off the team and will be playing for Central Florida this year. Centers Mounir Hima, Peter Carey and William Patterson all left to play for Howard, Siena and High Point, respectively, suggesting that none of them were appropriate for this level of competition.
A college sports coach in this era has to 1) re-recruit his own players, 2) recruit high school players, 3) recruit from junior colleges, 4) Bring in somebody from Europe or 5) recruit players out of the transfer portal, which is a two-way street. The big name was Eddie Lampkin, a 6-11 265 center who previously played for Texas Chrisitan and Colorado. Some lower-level teams have players who could play on a power conference level and Red brought in three who wish to try: Jaquan Carlos, a point guard from Hofstra, Jyare Davis, a forward from Delaware and Lucas Taylor a guard from Georgia State. We’ll see if they can make the grade in the ACC. He also brought in two blue-chip high school recruits: Donny Freeman, a 6-9 five star McDonald’s All-American power forward and Elijah Moore, a 6-4 sharp shooter who scored 67 points, including 13 threes, in a high school playoff game. Then there’s Petar Majstorovic, a Serbian forward who has been playing in France. These will be added to the five returnees: Guards JJ Starling and Kyle Cuffe, swing man Chance Westry, Dead-eye small forward Chris Bell and statuesque center Naheem McLeod, the tallest player ever here at 7-4. Modern basketball teams can’t be built over a period of years. They are assembled of available parts.
There are reasons to think this team might “fit together” better than last year’s team did, although that is a common hope for basketball fans when their team’s record is 0-0. We had four centers on last year’s team, which suggested we’d have tremendous depth at that position. McLeod and Hima had never been anything but back-ups and Carey and Patterson were, to use a favorite Boeheim phrase, “not ready to help us”. McLeod broke his foot and Hima was also dealing with an injury. So we wound up with 6-8 Maliq Brown trying to play center in the ACC. The prospect of doing so again is one of the reasons he left. When Williams was asked to leave, the 6-6 Taylor became our power forward, leaving us physically over-matched. Mintz was a very talented player but one who dominated the ball, trying to score himself being plan A and getting the ball to teammates being plan B. He also never developed a consistent outside shot. Copeland was an athletic, energetic player who often played out of control and also lacked an outside game, (which is why Miami was shocked when Mintz fed him for a wide-open three pointer that he made to win that game). Starling got off to a slow start but became a reliable scorer in the second half of the season.
Lampkin is one thing our four centers from last year never were: a legitimate starting center. He’ll be backed up by McLeod. We’re hoping Freeman will be an instant star at power forward, but I remember hoping the same with Benny Williams. Majstorovic, (“Mastro-vich”, I think), showed me everything I’d like to see in a power forward in his tape, (below). Davis could play either forward position. Bell may be ready to explode into stardom. I think Westry, who has a big-time recruit before injuries overtook him, could be a small forward or a point guard. Carlos is a good distributor. Taylor is a good shooter but will have a hard time getting time behind Starling and Moore. Cuffe is a solid defender. I think Red can mold these guys into a pretty solid team, one that could surprise a lot of people.
My measure of the quality of a season is that I want to be curious on selection Sunday, not nervous or bored, meaning that I know we’re going to play in the NCAA tournament, and I just want know who we’ll be playing, rather than hoping they’ll be chosen or resigned that they won’t. After that the NCAA tournament is a roulette wheel where you could lose at any time. Survive and advance. But first you’ve got to get there. And I think this team will.
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