Syracuse hiring Alex Kline as GM

[Cusefan0307]

BASKETBALL WUNDERKIND: GM Alex Kline’s newest challenge is building SU a winning roster

Alex Kline is tasked with building Syracuse, which is about to miss its fourth-straight NCAA Tournament, a winning roster as its first GM.

t.co

 

[Cusefan0307]

 

[cusefan88]

I think we're all hopeful Kline can help build a good roster and equally pessimistic said roster can be coached well.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Great article. What a great job. It seemed he had his finger in the Fennell and Womack recruitment. Just watching the two of them play it’s very obvious they are both very skilled in all areas of the game. As they both get stronger they will become really good players. If this is the type of skilled player Kline is looking for, we should be able to turn this ship around. It’s going to be fascinating watching who we pursue in the portal. It gives me hope that SU is putting pieces in place to deal with the new world of college athletics.

 

[sufan59]

I wished we could’ve gotten him sooner, in the summer of 2023 as the article suggested we first made contact. But we have him now, so let’s see what he can do. Was Petar an Alex Kline find via the algorithm? Because that is one very talented and high upside player. Also, if we succeed due to the Alex Kline additions to the roster. Is there a serious conversation to be had about restructuring the hierarchy of the basketball org? The General Manager reporting directly to Wildhack instead of the head coach?

 

[Dcuse]

I wished we could’ve gotten him sooner, in the summer of 2023 as the article suggested we first made contact. But we have him now, so let’s see what he can do. Was Petar an Alex Kline find via the algorithm? Because that is one very talented and high upside player. Also, if we succeed due to the Alex Kline additions to the roster. Is there a serious conversation to be had about restructuring the hierarchy of the basketball org? The General Manager reporting directly to Wildhack instead of the head coach?

Not sure I agree at all with the Petar thought. He tries but looks badly out-matched to me.

 

[Fly Rodder]

I think we're all hopeful Kline can help build a good roster and equally pessimistic said roster can be coached well.

This quote gives me pause though:

An essential part of succeeding, in Kline’s mind, is being aligned with Autry. He can make as many recommendations to the head coach as he wants, but if a player doesn’t fit Autry’s system, the addition won’t work

I'm debating the system here. Also, Autry's evaluation of players for college basketball success.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Not sure I agree at all with the Petar thought. He tries but looks badly out-matched to me.

He definitely has potential but needs strength, weight training to be effective. I have to laugh though how we get the one foreign player who can’t do a basic skill, like make free throws. Hope he’d be a good fit for a hi-lo game, he’s been a good rebounder, but foul prone in his limited court time too. Of course he has years and years to improve having not been born yet according to SU’s bio. Bet he’ll be something after August.

“Personal:
Petar Majstorovic was born in August 2025, in Sombor, in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia ... He is the son of Bosko and Selena Majstorovic ... Majstorovic has two sisters, Mila and Sara ... He has enrolled in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management ... Majstorovic has not selected a major.”

Petar Majstorovic - Men's Basketball - Syracuse University Athletics

Petar Majstorovic (6) Forward - Freshman Year: He produced eight points, two rebounds and two steals in an exhibition win over CLARION ... Majstorovic contri...

cuse.com

 

[Fly Rodder]

Not sure I agree at all with the Petar thought. He tries but looks badly out-matched to me.

He tries. And complains about every whistle. Since, 2009-10, he's got the 3rd highest PF/100 poss of any SU freshman who have played more than 200 minutes behind Sidibe and Fab Melo. Dropping that to 50 minutes played only moves Dash Riley into 3rd and Petar to 4th. He has to learn to play defense without fouling and that means being in the right position.

 

[SU Mania]

He definitely has potential but needs strength, weight training to be effective. I have to laugh though how we get the one foreign player who can’t do a basic skill, like make free throws. Hope he’d be a good fit for a hi-lo game, he’s been a good rebounder but foul prone in his limited court time. Of course he has years and years to improve having not been born yet according to SU’s bio. Bet he’ll be something after August.

“Personal:
Petar Majstorovic was born in August 2025, in Sombor, in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia ... He is the son of Bosko and Selena Majstorovic ... Majstorovic has two sisters, Mila and Sara ... He has enrolled in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management ... Majstorovic has not selected a major.”

Petar Majstorovic - Men's Basketball - Syracuse University Athletics

Petar Majstorovic (6) Forward - Freshman Year: He produced eight points, two rebounds and two steals in an exhibition win over CLARION ... Majstorovic contri...

cuse.com

Classic Syracuse University attention to detail.

 

[007]

Great article. What a great job. It seemed he had his finger in the Fennell and Womack recruitment. Just watching the two of them play it’s very obvious they are both very skilled in all areas of the game. As they both get stronger they will become really good players. If this is the type of skilled player Kline is looking for, we should be able to turn this ship around. It’s going to be fascinating watching who we pursue in the portal. It gives me hope that SU is putting pieces in place to deal with the new world of college athletics.

Yup. It's a great article and probably a "must read" as a precursor for understanding one of the main talking points JW will likely use when he gives the State of the Program address after this season ends. I'm guessing that JW will talk about giving Red all the resources he can heading into a make-or-break season in 2025-26.

This will be the first off season of the Kline and Tulyagiji impact. The first test of their analytic model for talent evaluation will be Fennell and Womack. Majstroovic was a Straughn recruit. The next major and most important test will be who they target in the portal.

Concerning NIL, I think it was fascinating and surprising to read Kline's comments. "Kline feels many of the negotiated deals are “make-believe.” But he feels Syracuse “absolutely” has the budget to be competitive NIL-wise." This is huge.

With Talent evaluation, portal scouting, and NIL accounted for, that will put the target squarely on Red's coaching chops.

 

[Moontan]

He definitely has potential but needs strength, weight training to be effective. I have to laugh though how we get the one foreign player who can’t do a basic skill, like make free throws. Hope he’d be a good fit for a hi-lo game, he’s been a good rebounder, but foul prone in his limited court time too. Of course he has years and years to improve having not been born yet according to SU’s bio. Bet he’ll be something after August.

“Personal:
Petar Majstorovic was born in August 2025, in Sombor, in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia ... He is the son of Bosko and Selena Majstorovic ... Majstorovic has two sisters, Mila and Sara ... He has enrolled in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management ... Majstorovic has not selected a major.”

Petar Majstorovic - Men's Basketball - Syracuse University Athletics

Petar Majstorovic (6) Forward - Freshman Year: He produced eight points, two rebounds and two steals in an exhibition win over CLARION ... Majstorovic contri...

cuse.com

He hasn't even been born yet.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Sounds like a driven, goal oriented young man who though young has really made his mark already in evaluating basketball talent. LGO!

 

[Niastri]

Sometime around 2001, JB last truly adapted his coaching techniques, as well as his style of managing the program. He was able to keep up quite a while because he's a certifiable basketball genius. But he completely ignored things like nutrition, property dedication to S&C, analytics, and other things that were giving rival programs an edge. Even recruiting effort was slipping by the end.

With that in mind, everything in the program needed modernization and invigoration. By all these measures, Red is doing it right. His in game coaching and game planning feels weak, but I really don't know how long the normal learning curve is, where coaching meets execution (or in this case fails to meet it) or lack of talent makes him look bad.

NFL QBs tend to look terrified and shell shocked for a few seasons before really showing their talent... Maybe Red is going to suddenly have the game "slow down for him" as a head coach soon?

Alex Kline, dedicated nutrition staff, modern S&C techniques, excellent recruiting assistants, and a former Head Coach as an assistant on the bench are all supposed to make this process easier on the Head Coach. Hopefully, Red turns the corner (or the coaching change is made) quickly.

 

[Newhouser]

He definitely has potential but needs strength, weight training to be effective. I have to laugh though how we get the one foreign player who can’t do a basic skill, like make free throws. Hope he’d be a good fit for a hi-lo game, he’s been a good rebounder, but foul prone in his limited court time too. Of course he has years and years to improve having not been born yet according to SU’s bio. Bet he’ll be something after August.

“Personal:
Petar Majstorovic was born in August 2025, in Sombor, in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia ... He is the son of Bosko and Selena Majstorovic ... Majstorovic has two sisters, Mila and Sara ... He has enrolled in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management ... Majstorovic has not selected a major.”

Petar Majstorovic - Men's Basketball - Syracuse University Athletics

Petar Majstorovic (6) Forward - Freshman Year: He produced eight points, two rebounds and two steals in an exhibition win over CLARION ... Majstorovic contri...

cuse.com

If he could do the traditional Euro hoop things, he would have signed elsewhere.

 

[florange44]

Yup. It's a great article and probably a "must read" as a precursor for understanding one of the main talking points JW will likely use when he gives the State of the Program address after this season ends. I'm guessing that JW will talk about giving Red all the resources he can heading into a make-or-break season in 2025-26.

This will be the first off season of the Kline and Tulyagiji impact. The first test of their analytic model for talent evaluation will be Fennell and Womack. Majstroovic was a Straughn recruit. The next major and most important test will be who they target in the portal.

Concerning NIL, I think it was fascinating and surprising to read Kline's comments. "Kline feels many of the negotiated deals are “make-believe.” But he feels Syracuse “absolutely” has the budget to be competitive NIL-wise." This is huge.

With Talent evaluation, portal scouting, and NIL accounted for, that will put the target squarely on Red's coaching chops.

I want to know what the algorithm says about Eddie, Carlos, and Davis based on 2023-24 performance. That’s the first test of the algorithm, does it say “ not likely to succeed” ?

of course, we’ll never know.

Let‘s get the follow up article explaining how the algorithm predicted success for X, Y, and Z transfers currently at Louisville, Florida, or seemingly every other school in the country except Cuse.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[kirbivore]

Going forward, hopefully we have other targets that are gettable that Kline has helped identify or you target some combo guards as well for the PG role (we and plenty of other teams have experience with that.)
You can say it's not Moneyball, but NIL is now a business.
Programs that can source competitive funding, target and seal good players, and manage NIL well will see success.
Those that don't will fail.

Compared to the football factories SU will need game the system like the Tampa Bay Rays.

 

[kirbivore]

He definitely has potential but needs strength, weight training to be effective. I have to laugh though how we get the one foreign player who can’t do a basic skill, like make free throws. Hope he’d be a good fit for a hi-lo game, he’s been a good rebounder, but foul prone in his limited court time too. Of course he has years and years to improve having not been born yet according to SU’s bio. Bet he’ll be something after August.
“Personal:
Petar Majstorovic was born in August 2025, in Sombor, in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia ... He is the son of Bosko and Selena Majstorovic ... Majstorovic has two sisters, Mila and Sara ... He has enrolled in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management ... Majstorovic has not selected a major.”

Petar Majstorovic - Men's Basketball - Syracuse University Athletics

Petar Majstorovic (6) Forward - Freshman Year: He produced eight points, two rebounds and two steals in an exhibition win over CLARION ... Majstorovic contri...

cuse.com

Similar to St. Doug finding a center that can't do a shotgun snap

 

[Trueblue25]

Lol shows how badly Boeheim sunk his own ship that building syracuse a winning roster is considered a challenge in 2025.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Lol shows how badly Boeheim sunk his own ship that building syracuse a winning roster is considered a challenge in 2025.

Well we have to admit we had a winning roster with 20 wins in 2023-2024 really with sophomores. The final standings showed us tied with Clemson in 5th place in the ACC regardless how unhappy many people may have been with the team. That was just last year.

2023-24 Men's Basketball Standings - Atlantic Coast Conference

The official 2023-24 Men's Basketball Standings for Atlantic Coast Conference

theacc.com

 

[Lukeyloo]

Kline might be able to turn this thing around and save Red’s job. The problem is what happens when Kline eventually moves on to something else.

 

[kingtidge]

Kline might be able to turn this thing around and save Red’s job. The problem is what happens when Kline eventually moves on to something else.

There's really not much evidence Red is a competent head coach I am afraid.

Throwing money at incompetence is usually a waste of time and resources.

 

[Niastri]

I want to know what the algorithm says about Eddie, Carlos, and Davis based on 2023-24 performance. That’s the first test of the algorithm, does it say “ not likely to succeed” ?

of course, we’ll never know.

Let‘s get the follow up article explaining how the algorithm predicted success for X, Y, and Z transfers currently at Louisville, Florida, or seemingly every other school in the country except Cuse.

Considering Lampkin is averaging 11 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists on positive a/to ratio on 56% shooting, I don't think he is the problem.

He's given us exactly what we expected, based on his career. Lampkin had even tied his career high in blocks already, and it's likely he'll set a career high in steals as well.

He would look a lot better if Bell was out there instead of Lucas Taylor, and Bell was hitting 42% of his threes on high volume, like most of us expected going into this season.

In fact, if Westry was healthy, and playing instead of Carlos, the whole season might look completely different.

 

[rrlbees]

Considering Lampkin is averaging 11 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists on positive a/to ratio on 56% shooting, I don't think he is the problem.

He's given us exactly what we expected, based on his career. Lampkin had even tied his career high in blocks already, and it's likely he'll set a career high in steals as well.

He would look a lot better if Bell was out there instead of Lucas Taylor, and Bell was hitting 42% of his threes on high volume, like most of us expected going into this season.

In fact, if Westry was healthy, and playing instead of Carlos, the whole season might look completely different.

Bell is shooting 45% from 3 in the last 13 games and 42% in conference. But he doesn’t get the number of shots as before.