SWC75
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Guards
Jaquan Carlos 6-0 180 (Senior)
Jaquan is another player who transferred in from a smaller school, wanting to prove he can play at this level. At 60 he’s rather short for a Syracuse point guard. That might not be a problem in man-for-man but with the lack of defensive mobility of our centers, I wonder if we’ll see more zone this year. Carlos is a pass-first point guard who wants to get the offense moving and hit the open man. He might not be a guy the other team’s defense will worry about while they get after our shooters. He averaged 10.4 points and 6.3 assists for Hofstra last year, shooting 47.1% from 2, 34.4% from three and 89.2% from the line, so he can contribute offensively, at least for Hofstra. Here are his ‘net points’ numbers:
35.5m 11.7p + 4.9r + 7.1a + 1.8s + 0.1b = +25.6 5.7mfg + 0.3Mft + 3.0to + 2.4pf = -11.4 =
14.2NP 5.7OE 8.5FG
Inside the Loud House has a very good article on Jaquan:
Syracuse Basketball: Three keys for newcomer Jaquan Carlos to find his role in the 2024-25 season
“It's a bit of an older and more experienced Syracuse basketball group than they've had the last few seasons. So Carlos won't have to babysit a bunch of freshmen. There will be room for a lot of leaders on this squad. However, as the likely leader of the backcourt, it'll be crucial for Carlos to take that leadership and play with it on the court. Running the offense, stepping up to make winning plays, and not being afraid to point out mistakes to his teammates are all important traits for a senior point guard to have. Carlos has the opportunity to put that into action.”
Here is a highlight film as a 15 year old high school player:
Here he is as a 21 year old Hofstra point guard:
Jaquan Carlos - Hofstra - 2023-24 Transfer Portal Highlights
He looks pretty exciting to me. He sees the whole court and what everybody is or is not doing. He can drive to score. He has a nice pull-up and he can hit from outside. Yet he doesn’t have to hold on to the ball all the time. He picks his spots to make plays himself.
Kyle Cuffe Jr. 6-3 188 (Junior)
Kyle’s high school tape shows a jumping jack who could probably win a team dunk contest:
Kyle Cuffe Jr Blair Basketball 19-20 Highlights
He looks like a 6-3 Michael Jordan. We never saw that player last year. He was recruited by Kansas and played 3 minutes in two games, got a rebound and missed two free throws before getting hurt. Cuffe tore his MCL and PCL ligaments while running up the court in practice. (KU sports.com). Then after he got here and broke a bone in his right hand during the summer. The player we saw played horizontal basketball. He could move around and cover people: he was a good defender. He could handle the ball and pass it some. He hit 48.7% from two, 34.9% from three but a dismal 46.2% from the line. He was 30.2 from three until he shocked everybody by hitting 3 of 4 against Clemson in a losing effort to close the regular season.
Kyle does have a highlight film from his one year at Syracuse:
Kyle Cuffe Jr. Second Year Highlights - 2023-2024 - Syracuse Orangemen
Here are his ‘net points’:
10.7m 11.9p 3.9r 1.9a 1.8s 0.8b = 20.3+ 6.6mfg 0.9mft 2.1to 5.6pf = 15.2- =
5.1NP 4.4OE 0.7FG
He was a solid contributor when he was needed and that’s likely what he’ll be this year. Could the Kyle Cuffe we saw in that tape return at some point? I think if he was still there, he would have emerged last year. Does time really heal all wounds?
Elijah Moore 6-4 176 (Freshman)
Elijah’s nickname is “Choppa”, slang for a machine gun. Elijah was, indeed, a basketball machine in a high school playoff game in which he scored 67 points, including 13 for 19 from three point range. “He participated in the 2024 High School Slam Dunk and 3-point shooting contest at Saguaro High School (Ariz.) ... Moore won the 3-point competition, defeating Kon Knueppel (Duke), Juni Mobley (Ohio State) and Jared Harris (Memphis)” (Cuse.com). 247 has him the 55th best high school recruit in the country and the 9th best shooting guard. I wonder if they rated him before that big game he had. He averaged a more modest 16.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals during the regular season, while connecting on 42.2 percent from the field, 34.0 percent from long range and 78.8 percent from the charity stripe, so maybe we should not expect what was seen that night. But he could be our shooting guard of the future.
247: “Moore is one of the best pure shooters in the national class. He has virtually textbook mechanics with a compact release and very good rotation. He’s a threat to get hot at virtually anytime and makes shots in bunches once that happens. He can also get his shot off with minimal separation from his defender and has a complimenting pull-up game when he’s run off the arc.
Physically, he has solid positional size, a naturally strong build, and plus athleticism in the open floor. Defensively, he has all the physical requisites to be a contributor but needs to learn to sit down in a stance and be disciplined on that end of the floor.” [I’m not sure what learning to ‘sit down in a stance’ means.]
“Moore has a good left hand, but he is not a naturally dynamic handler or playmaker. He’s capable of attacking a bad close-out, particularly to get to his pull-up, but otherwise tends to be upright as a handler. Consequently, he’s ideally suited next to another playmaker who can get him shots.
While those guard skills need to continue to develop, his gravity as a shot-maker and potential to make shots on the move means he doesn’t have to be the type of guard who needs to shake his man off the dribble. In reality, if he learns to fully utilize the threat of his jumper, he should only be attacking off-balance defenders for the foreseeable future.”
His highlight film:
'CHOPPA WON"T MISS!!!' Elijah 'Choppa' Moore ULTIMATE High School Mixtape | Best Shooter In COUNTRY
Heck, nobody misses in a highlight film. But Choppa looks like a pretty complete offensive player, who can go to the basket to score or pass for one when there is an opening. He’ll be one of those who will benefit from having a ‘pass first’ point guard and a couple of guys who can score inside and pass the ball, too.
J.J. Starling 6-4 206 (Junior)
Right now, our shooting guard is JJ Starling, a Syracuse native who went to Baldwinsville High, then to a prep school, then Notre Dame. But when Irish coach Mike Brey retired, JJ decided to come home. 247 had him as the #22 overall recruit and the #4 combo guard, a 5 star recruit and a McDonald’s All-American. At Notre Dame, he averaged 11.2 points 2.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 29.7 minutes per game. He shot 47.1% from two, 29.9% from three and 63.8% from the line, disappointing numbers for such a highly rated recruit. But he was a freshman battling a sore knee. He got off to a slow start here. In our first 16 games, he shot 48.7% from two, 25.6% from three and 69.2% from the line and averaged 10.3 points per game. In our last 16 games, he averaged 58.3%/40.9%/73.3% and 16.3ppg, showing how he got those high ratings from the recruiting gurus. There were complaints about his defense but he showed a complete game with the ball and got 3 rebounds and 2 assists a game, about what you’d expect from a shooting guard. He now has to fight Elijah Moore and Lucas Taylor for playing time but he’ll have the inside track.
Here are his ‘net points’:
34.4m 15.4p 3.7r 2.2a 1.0s 0.2b = 22.5+ 7.3mfg 0.6mft 2.0to 1.5pf = 11.4- =
11.1NP 7.5OE, 3.6FG
And here are his highlights:
J.J. Starling 2023-24 Regular Season Highlights | Syracuse Guard
He’s a three level scorer who can handle and pass the ball well enough that some people felt he could take over at point guard. What more do you want at the ‘2’?
Lucas Taylor 6-5 200 (Senior)
Lucas is the third of the transfers from a lower level Red Autry is hoping can help us on this level. He’s from Georgia State, but before that spent two years as a reserve at Wake Forest. 247 had him as the #199 high school recruit in the country and the #46 shooting guard. Fortunately, those rankings are just a snapshot of the player at a particular point in time, not a final verdict. At Wake, he played 27 games and scored 26 points. 25 of his 41 shots were three pointers. He made 8 of them. At Georgia State, he played 31 games, 30.7 minutes a game and averaged 14.5 points, hitting 44.9% from 2, 35.4% from three and 78.7% from the line. Like Starling, he averaged 3 rebounds and 2 assists a game. These are his net points numbers:
30.7m 18.9p 3.9r 2.4a 0.8s 0.3b = +26.3, 9.4mfg 0.5mft 2.2to 3.9pf = -16.9 = 9.4NP 8.1OE 1.3FG
Here is his highlight film:
Lucas Taylor - Georgia State - 2023-24 Transfer Portal Highlights
He has a nice high arc on his shot, (which makes it hard to block), and excellent range (which also makes it hard to block). He can dribble to set up a pull-up and get to the basket occasionally. His experience might give him a chance to beat out the freshman Moore for the back-up job behind JJ.
Chance Westry 6-6 205 (Sophomore)
Chance was another highly rated recruit we really wanted who went elsewhere and came back to us. Chance was the #44 overall player in his class and the #14 small forward. But is he a small forward – could he be a point guard? He went to Auburn and played 11 games there before suffering a knee injury. That makes his numbers that year of questionable use in evaluating him:
9.2M 10.3p 3.0r 4.2a 3.0s 0.8b = 21.3+ 9.9mfg 1.5mft 3.4to 6.5pf = 21.3- = 0.0NP -1.1OE +1.1FG
The worst thing was his shooting, which can obviously impacted by a knee injury: 50% inside the arc but 0 for 14 outside of it and 3 for 7 from the line. His highlights:
Chance Westry - Auburn - Secondary ball handler - 2022-23 Transfer Portal Highlights
He just seems to glide through the defense, is a creative passer and can make the medium range jump shot. Unfortunately, he sustained another ‘lower body injury’ just before his first season with SU began and required a “procedure”. He missed the entire season, although reports were that he would have been able to play at the end of the season but Red didn’t want to blow a year of eligibility on a few games. [He’s taken sick this year and missed some practice but will presumably be healthy for the season – but can this guy get some luck, please?] He was said to be performing so well in practice that he was one of the best players on the team. Unfortunately, we had Chris Bell scoring big at small forward and the very similar Quadir Copeland was established as our 6th man and Judah Mintz at the point. I expected Quadir to replace Judah when he announced he was going pro and then he left. That made me wonder if Chance would be our point guard this year. I still think he might, although I liked what I saw in Jaquan Carlos’ film. Perhaps they will share the spot. Or perhaps Chance will be Bell’s back-up at small forward, although his difficulties hitting three pointers would make him a poor substitute for Bell. At 6-6, he might be a more formidable defensive guard than Carlos.
I’m intrigued by Coach Autry’s comment that his dream line up would be five players who can do everything. I’ve commented that a college basketball team is like a jigsaw puzzle where you don’t have all the pieces: the coach has to try to find a way to fit them together. Red wants a team that’s like a bunch of Lego pieces that can be fit together in many different ways. This isn’t quite that but this looks like a team that fits together pretty well. It has balance between inside and outside scoring, (which we’ve missed for years). It should have scoring from both sides of the court and on all three levels, guys who can drive to the basket or run the pick and roll with several good passers who can keep the ball moving I’m less sure how good we will be on defense – that may depend on what defense we try to play. But I think it will be hard for other teams to keep up with us.
Jaquan Carlos 6-0 180 (Senior)
Jaquan is another player who transferred in from a smaller school, wanting to prove he can play at this level. At 60 he’s rather short for a Syracuse point guard. That might not be a problem in man-for-man but with the lack of defensive mobility of our centers, I wonder if we’ll see more zone this year. Carlos is a pass-first point guard who wants to get the offense moving and hit the open man. He might not be a guy the other team’s defense will worry about while they get after our shooters. He averaged 10.4 points and 6.3 assists for Hofstra last year, shooting 47.1% from 2, 34.4% from three and 89.2% from the line, so he can contribute offensively, at least for Hofstra. Here are his ‘net points’ numbers:
35.5m 11.7p + 4.9r + 7.1a + 1.8s + 0.1b = +25.6 5.7mfg + 0.3Mft + 3.0to + 2.4pf = -11.4 =
14.2NP 5.7OE 8.5FG
Inside the Loud House has a very good article on Jaquan:
Syracuse Basketball: Three keys for newcomer Jaquan Carlos to find his role in the 2024-25 season
“It's a bit of an older and more experienced Syracuse basketball group than they've had the last few seasons. So Carlos won't have to babysit a bunch of freshmen. There will be room for a lot of leaders on this squad. However, as the likely leader of the backcourt, it'll be crucial for Carlos to take that leadership and play with it on the court. Running the offense, stepping up to make winning plays, and not being afraid to point out mistakes to his teammates are all important traits for a senior point guard to have. Carlos has the opportunity to put that into action.”
Here is a highlight film as a 15 year old high school player:
Here he is as a 21 year old Hofstra point guard:
Jaquan Carlos - Hofstra - 2023-24 Transfer Portal Highlights
He looks pretty exciting to me. He sees the whole court and what everybody is or is not doing. He can drive to score. He has a nice pull-up and he can hit from outside. Yet he doesn’t have to hold on to the ball all the time. He picks his spots to make plays himself.
Kyle Cuffe Jr. 6-3 188 (Junior)
Kyle’s high school tape shows a jumping jack who could probably win a team dunk contest:
Kyle Cuffe Jr Blair Basketball 19-20 Highlights
He looks like a 6-3 Michael Jordan. We never saw that player last year. He was recruited by Kansas and played 3 minutes in two games, got a rebound and missed two free throws before getting hurt. Cuffe tore his MCL and PCL ligaments while running up the court in practice. (KU sports.com). Then after he got here and broke a bone in his right hand during the summer. The player we saw played horizontal basketball. He could move around and cover people: he was a good defender. He could handle the ball and pass it some. He hit 48.7% from two, 34.9% from three but a dismal 46.2% from the line. He was 30.2 from three until he shocked everybody by hitting 3 of 4 against Clemson in a losing effort to close the regular season.
Kyle does have a highlight film from his one year at Syracuse:
Kyle Cuffe Jr. Second Year Highlights - 2023-2024 - Syracuse Orangemen
Here are his ‘net points’:
10.7m 11.9p 3.9r 1.9a 1.8s 0.8b = 20.3+ 6.6mfg 0.9mft 2.1to 5.6pf = 15.2- =
5.1NP 4.4OE 0.7FG
He was a solid contributor when he was needed and that’s likely what he’ll be this year. Could the Kyle Cuffe we saw in that tape return at some point? I think if he was still there, he would have emerged last year. Does time really heal all wounds?
Elijah Moore 6-4 176 (Freshman)
Elijah’s nickname is “Choppa”, slang for a machine gun. Elijah was, indeed, a basketball machine in a high school playoff game in which he scored 67 points, including 13 for 19 from three point range. “He participated in the 2024 High School Slam Dunk and 3-point shooting contest at Saguaro High School (Ariz.) ... Moore won the 3-point competition, defeating Kon Knueppel (Duke), Juni Mobley (Ohio State) and Jared Harris (Memphis)” (Cuse.com). 247 has him the 55th best high school recruit in the country and the 9th best shooting guard. I wonder if they rated him before that big game he had. He averaged a more modest 16.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals during the regular season, while connecting on 42.2 percent from the field, 34.0 percent from long range and 78.8 percent from the charity stripe, so maybe we should not expect what was seen that night. But he could be our shooting guard of the future.
247: “Moore is one of the best pure shooters in the national class. He has virtually textbook mechanics with a compact release and very good rotation. He’s a threat to get hot at virtually anytime and makes shots in bunches once that happens. He can also get his shot off with minimal separation from his defender and has a complimenting pull-up game when he’s run off the arc.
Physically, he has solid positional size, a naturally strong build, and plus athleticism in the open floor. Defensively, he has all the physical requisites to be a contributor but needs to learn to sit down in a stance and be disciplined on that end of the floor.” [I’m not sure what learning to ‘sit down in a stance’ means.]
“Moore has a good left hand, but he is not a naturally dynamic handler or playmaker. He’s capable of attacking a bad close-out, particularly to get to his pull-up, but otherwise tends to be upright as a handler. Consequently, he’s ideally suited next to another playmaker who can get him shots.
While those guard skills need to continue to develop, his gravity as a shot-maker and potential to make shots on the move means he doesn’t have to be the type of guard who needs to shake his man off the dribble. In reality, if he learns to fully utilize the threat of his jumper, he should only be attacking off-balance defenders for the foreseeable future.”
His highlight film:
'CHOPPA WON"T MISS!!!' Elijah 'Choppa' Moore ULTIMATE High School Mixtape | Best Shooter In COUNTRY
Heck, nobody misses in a highlight film. But Choppa looks like a pretty complete offensive player, who can go to the basket to score or pass for one when there is an opening. He’ll be one of those who will benefit from having a ‘pass first’ point guard and a couple of guys who can score inside and pass the ball, too.
J.J. Starling 6-4 206 (Junior)
Right now, our shooting guard is JJ Starling, a Syracuse native who went to Baldwinsville High, then to a prep school, then Notre Dame. But when Irish coach Mike Brey retired, JJ decided to come home. 247 had him as the #22 overall recruit and the #4 combo guard, a 5 star recruit and a McDonald’s All-American. At Notre Dame, he averaged 11.2 points 2.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 29.7 minutes per game. He shot 47.1% from two, 29.9% from three and 63.8% from the line, disappointing numbers for such a highly rated recruit. But he was a freshman battling a sore knee. He got off to a slow start here. In our first 16 games, he shot 48.7% from two, 25.6% from three and 69.2% from the line and averaged 10.3 points per game. In our last 16 games, he averaged 58.3%/40.9%/73.3% and 16.3ppg, showing how he got those high ratings from the recruiting gurus. There were complaints about his defense but he showed a complete game with the ball and got 3 rebounds and 2 assists a game, about what you’d expect from a shooting guard. He now has to fight Elijah Moore and Lucas Taylor for playing time but he’ll have the inside track.
Here are his ‘net points’:
34.4m 15.4p 3.7r 2.2a 1.0s 0.2b = 22.5+ 7.3mfg 0.6mft 2.0to 1.5pf = 11.4- =
11.1NP 7.5OE, 3.6FG
And here are his highlights:
J.J. Starling 2023-24 Regular Season Highlights | Syracuse Guard
He’s a three level scorer who can handle and pass the ball well enough that some people felt he could take over at point guard. What more do you want at the ‘2’?
Lucas Taylor 6-5 200 (Senior)
Lucas is the third of the transfers from a lower level Red Autry is hoping can help us on this level. He’s from Georgia State, but before that spent two years as a reserve at Wake Forest. 247 had him as the #199 high school recruit in the country and the #46 shooting guard. Fortunately, those rankings are just a snapshot of the player at a particular point in time, not a final verdict. At Wake, he played 27 games and scored 26 points. 25 of his 41 shots were three pointers. He made 8 of them. At Georgia State, he played 31 games, 30.7 minutes a game and averaged 14.5 points, hitting 44.9% from 2, 35.4% from three and 78.7% from the line. Like Starling, he averaged 3 rebounds and 2 assists a game. These are his net points numbers:
30.7m 18.9p 3.9r 2.4a 0.8s 0.3b = +26.3, 9.4mfg 0.5mft 2.2to 3.9pf = -16.9 = 9.4NP 8.1OE 1.3FG
Here is his highlight film:
Lucas Taylor - Georgia State - 2023-24 Transfer Portal Highlights
He has a nice high arc on his shot, (which makes it hard to block), and excellent range (which also makes it hard to block). He can dribble to set up a pull-up and get to the basket occasionally. His experience might give him a chance to beat out the freshman Moore for the back-up job behind JJ.
Chance Westry 6-6 205 (Sophomore)
Chance was another highly rated recruit we really wanted who went elsewhere and came back to us. Chance was the #44 overall player in his class and the #14 small forward. But is he a small forward – could he be a point guard? He went to Auburn and played 11 games there before suffering a knee injury. That makes his numbers that year of questionable use in evaluating him:
9.2M 10.3p 3.0r 4.2a 3.0s 0.8b = 21.3+ 9.9mfg 1.5mft 3.4to 6.5pf = 21.3- = 0.0NP -1.1OE +1.1FG
The worst thing was his shooting, which can obviously impacted by a knee injury: 50% inside the arc but 0 for 14 outside of it and 3 for 7 from the line. His highlights:
Chance Westry - Auburn - Secondary ball handler - 2022-23 Transfer Portal Highlights
He just seems to glide through the defense, is a creative passer and can make the medium range jump shot. Unfortunately, he sustained another ‘lower body injury’ just before his first season with SU began and required a “procedure”. He missed the entire season, although reports were that he would have been able to play at the end of the season but Red didn’t want to blow a year of eligibility on a few games. [He’s taken sick this year and missed some practice but will presumably be healthy for the season – but can this guy get some luck, please?] He was said to be performing so well in practice that he was one of the best players on the team. Unfortunately, we had Chris Bell scoring big at small forward and the very similar Quadir Copeland was established as our 6th man and Judah Mintz at the point. I expected Quadir to replace Judah when he announced he was going pro and then he left. That made me wonder if Chance would be our point guard this year. I still think he might, although I liked what I saw in Jaquan Carlos’ film. Perhaps they will share the spot. Or perhaps Chance will be Bell’s back-up at small forward, although his difficulties hitting three pointers would make him a poor substitute for Bell. At 6-6, he might be a more formidable defensive guard than Carlos.
I’m intrigued by Coach Autry’s comment that his dream line up would be five players who can do everything. I’ve commented that a college basketball team is like a jigsaw puzzle where you don’t have all the pieces: the coach has to try to find a way to fit them together. Red wants a team that’s like a bunch of Lego pieces that can be fit together in many different ways. This isn’t quite that but this looks like a team that fits together pretty well. It has balance between inside and outside scoring, (which we’ve missed for years). It should have scoring from both sides of the court and on all three levels, guys who can drive to the basket or run the pick and roll with several good passers who can keep the ball moving I’m less sure how good we will be on defense – that may depend on what defense we try to play. But I think it will be hard for other teams to keep up with us.
