Syracusian
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Syracuse University Basketball
2012-2013 Men’s Season Preview
Coming off of a school record 34 win season and an elite eight appearance, the Orange’s first official practice tomorrow! Midnight Madness will kick off Syracuse’s 2012-2013 season, which will be held at the Carrier dome again. If the event is anything like last year’s event, it should be a lot of fun!
Returning Starters
Syracuse will return two starters from last year’s team as well as most of the key bench players.
Senior Brandon Triche who averaged 9.4ppg and 2.6 assists in only 22.5 minutes per game last year will get a big increase in playing time and assume a leadership role (Young). Triche split time last year with Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters, and also Michael Carter Wiliams. With Jardine and Waiters both in the NBA Draft, Triche should be on the floor much more than the 22.5 minutes that he played last year.
Sophomore Rakeem Christmas who started 35 games last season but only played 11.5 minutes per game will also return (Young). Although Christmas only averaged just less than 3ppg and 3rpg a game last season, Christmas had a really positive output in the four NCAA tournament games with the absence of Sophomore Fab Melo (Who was ruled ineligible for the NCAA tournament). I would look for Christmas to have a very successful season and a make solid improvement from a year ago and play similar to how he did at the end of the year.
Returning Players
Our new starters, bench players, incoming freshman and a redshirt freshman will all be a key factor of our success this upcoming season. With the loss of Sophomore Dion Waiters, Senior Kris Joseph, Senior Scoop Jardine, and Sophomore Fab Melo who combined to average 42.7ppg last year, it leaves a gaping hole in our offense (Young).
With the Orange losing so much, last year’s key bench players G Michael-Carter Williams, F James Southerland, F C.J. Fair, and C Baye Keita will all need to step up and a couple of them will most likely find starting positions on the team. Incoming 5* C DaJuan Coleman (a local product from Jamesville DeWitt high school), 4* F Jerami Grant (who comes from a basketball family), and a redshirt freshman Trevor Cooney will all look to contribute as well this season.
Starting Lineup (in my opinion)
The Orange’s projected starting lineup this upcoming season will consist of:
•PG Michael-Carter Williams
•SG Brandon Triche
•SF C.J. Fair
•PF Rakeem Christmas
•C DaJuan Coleman
Analysis - Starters
•Michael-Carters Williams is primed and ready for a tremendous season after coming in as a highly touted recruit and also getting solid minutes last year. He will assume the PG position. He has terrific vision and a great basketball IQ. Even as an incoming freshman, I always had confidence when MCW was in the game. There has been some debate about whether or not Triche will start as our PG (the guards will share the responsibilities no matter who starts at the point guard). This kid has all of the tools to be one of the best point guards Syracuse has ever had. Look for a huge year out of him and for him to be among the best point guards in the nation.
•Brandon Triche will be our only starting senior (unless James Southerland starts). Brandon Triche has started every single game since he came to Syracuse. Having 107 games under his belt, starting every game on two different teams that were ranked #1 in the nation, being on three NCAA tournament teams that played in the round of 32, sweet sixteen, and the elite eight will really be a huge benefit for Brandon. Triche is in great shape and has all of the tools to become a star senior at Syracuse and be among the nation’s stars.
•C.J. Fair is perhaps the biggest key (but I can say this about 3-4 players). Fair’s ‘want’ is really important for me. Fair is always in the right place at the right time, always rebounds well, and he always finds a way to get into the lane at ease or hit a nice jumper. This is all attributed to his effort he puts in (in my opinion). Fair only started 9 games last year, but he averaged 8.5 ppg last season. This year he should be the full time starting SF and really give us a solid contribution.
•Rakeem Christmas as I’ve already stated should be much improved and really help is in the rebounding area. I think lots of rebounding issues come from the zone obviously, but I really think the length/height/bulkiness of Christmas will help us out a lot. I don’t see Christmas scoring too much, but he’ll add about 9ppg and 6rpg. Those numbers seem great in my opinion and I would be extremely happy with that. Especially considering the fact that Christmas is going to be rotated with Southerland, Fair, Coleman, and Keita.
•DaJuan Coleman will have a huge impact for us. He’s also been playing at the King of Kings tournament in Utica with teammates Brandon Triche and Michael-Carter Williams. He looks to be in great shape. I think he’ll have a great career at Syracuse and will have a fantastic freshman year for the Orange. Just to throw out some projections, I would say about 10pgg and 7rpg. Those shouldn’t be too steep, and perhaps he can even average more than during Big East play. DaJuan is a perfectly designed player to play in the Big East and I think he’ll show that immediately. He’ll most likely be shuffled in and out of the lineup, but I would project him to play about 26-29 minutes a game. Coleman will be splitting time with Keita and also Rakeem Christmas, but even with sharing time with the other two possible centers I see Coleman getting a lot of playing time.
Bench Players
Our success in the past three seasons have really stemmed from having a solid bench in my opinion. In 2009-2010, although we didn’t have a deep bench, Sophomores Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine were huge benefits to us and gave us great sparks off of the bench. In 2010-2011 our bench was kind of all over the place. Waiters and Fair gave us some solid minutes and play, but nothing too special. In 2011-2012, we probably had our best group of bench players that we’ve ever had. Waiters, Southerland, Fair (or Christmas, whoever you want to consider to be the bench player), Keita, and Michael-Carter Williams.
I would again look for this year to be much of the same as 2009-2010 and 2011-2012. One thing that will really give us a boost is the shooting ability of at least two of our bench players. James Southerland and Trevor Cooney will really give us a whole different look if one or both of them are in the game at the same time since both of them have incredible shooting ability. Shooting has been an issue with us the past two years in my opinion and has been an issue since Andy left in 2010. If all of the reports/rumors of Cooney are true (according to syracusefan.com) we'll be in great shape when he's on the floor. I also like having the options of either having both Southlerland and Cooney on the floor or one or the other and having different lineups.
•James Southerland (senior) should be one of our key contributors off of the bench yet again. Southerland’s ability to shoot the ball is perhaps the best on the team (Trevor Cooney) and Southerland has also showed a lot of improvement over the years and I expect him to get better this season as well. I think his progression through the years has shown and I expect him to have a breakout senior season this year. Having a player like Southerland as a senior bench player (if he doesn't start) is an absolute luxury. He's going to have a fantastic year. I expect averages near 7-10ppg and about 4rpg this season. I also expect Southerland to have a nice stat line when it comes to blocks and steals as well. If he can score and shoot consistently we're going to have an even better year.
•Trevor Cooney (RS freshman) is a fantastic shooter, has good athleticism, and he also has a year of practicing against his teammates. We've all heard reports of Cooney in practice (Bees/Others also posted something recently about it). Since Cooney is one of the three guards that we have, he’ll see quite a few of minutes. I’m guessing he’ll play about 12-14 minutes a game. Not only is he an awesome shooter, but he also has the ability to get into the lane and either hit a pull up jump shot or finish around the basket. His shooting ability could really open things up for him, especially if he has the ability to pump fake and drive/finish/pass.
•Baye Keita (junior) will be our primary backup center, and with Coleman being a freshman, I can see him playing a significant amount of minutes for us. We'll definitely see Christmas playing some center, but Keita should get most of the backup minutes there in my opinion. I would expect a decent defensive turn out from him, but not much offense. A couple easy dunks/easy put backs per game is about all I’m expecting. Where Keita really excels is in his effort and hustle. Keita is always playing as hard as he possibly can and as the experience/practice comes, he’ll only get better with time.
•Jerami Grant I personally don’t project Grant to give us too much. I really don’t see him contributing in any major game this season, but I could see them getting in if Boeheim sees that it’s needed, or if someone is in foul trouble. Outside of garbage minutes, I really don’t see Grant getting much playing time. I do like Grant’s potential this year and in the future, the main reasoning for lack of playing time is due to too much talent being in front of him.
Record Projections
Record Projections are really hard to predict, especially with the fact that Syracuse has recently had two of the best seasons in their history (2009-2010 and 2011-2012 seasons). We're going to be playing 31 regular season games and 18 Big East games, and hopefully everyone tries to win the coveted award that SyracuseFan.com offers. I personally think our previous year’s bench players and some of the incoming freshman will step right up and play extremely well.
I would project us to go 26-5 in the regular season and go 14-4 in Big East play. As for the Big East Tournament, I would say we’re going to do better than we have in the past 5 years. I say we win three games (three games no matter what round we begin in). I also think we’ll get a solid NCAA tournament seed, either a #2 or #3. And I also see us going to the elite eight once again and having a chance at a final four.
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This was originally done by me as a newsletter/paper for a summer class I was taking for a pre-req. I never got around to posting it unfortunately. Anyhow, since practice begins tomorrow, I figured this would be a good read for most people.Any comments would be great. I read the forums daily and appreciate everyone's posts and input. Hopefully everyone enjoys it.
