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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2984577, member: 289"] Next: People have been discussing what the team might be like next season, so I’ll add my views. The problem is that you can’t really know what the team will be like until you know who will actually be on it. There are many ways to lose players these days and many ways to acquire them, which means that both could happen at many different times. You can recruit players from high school, prep school or junior college. You can take in transfers. Undergrad transfers have to sit out a year but grad transferred can use a loophole to play immediately. You can recruit players from abroad. Players can be granted extra years for medical reasons. I’ve felt for years that if players leave early and their pro careers haven’t worked out they should be able to come back school to get their degree, play for the school team until their eligibility runs out and maybe kick-start their careers. It would be like a prospect going back to the minors to work things out or a non-athlete returning to college to get a degree they need to enhance or change their career. Jonny Flynn, Donte Greene, Paul Harris, Chris McCullough, come home! It would be a way to get some of the talent we keep losing back. You can lose players to graduation, (or at least an end of eligibility). Some guys transfer. Foreign players have a reputation for going home early to play in their pro leagues. The NBA could come calling, or at least players could hear their call in their minds. One of Syracuse’s big problems is that we lose players early to the pros who, (after Carmelo) are not the sort of players who are going to win you a national title in a year or two but might help do it if they stayed for four years. (I have never understood why the NBA, a league that pulls in talent from around the globe and has the smallest rosters and line-ups isn’t much more selective than they are with their draft picks.) We’ve seen school after school win the title with four year players but we can’t seem to get there because we can’t seem to keep our players here. Then there are injuries, disciplinary and legal problems and academic problems. In 2017 we started with 10 players. One of them never showed up, another left two weeks into the season and a third tore up his knee and suddenly we were down to 7 guys. The numbers game is interesting. We had 11 recruited players on this year’s team. I prefer that term to scholarship players because JB, who walked on when he was a player, likes to give available scholarships to walk-ons. He prefers not to have more than 10-11 recruited players even though the NCAA allows 13 because the last couple of guys will never play and could become disgruntled and cause problems. He also wants flexibility: he doesn’t want to tie up a scholarship for four years that could go to a better player in the next class. Ten guys gives him completion for positons, depth, (even in 2018 we were able to get to the Sweet 16 without the three guys we lost), and he can scrimmage 5 on 5 with all recruited players, which is a better way to prepare for the other guy’s recruited players than being guarded by a walk-on. Of the 11 recruited players on the 2019 team, two are seniors, Paschal Chukwu and Frank Howard. There was talk that Paschal could apply for a medical redshirt because in 2017 he got hit in the eye with a stray ball and had to have an operation. He played only 7 games that year and that was few enough that he could be granted an additional year. He was even asked about it by a local reporter and said he’d decide after the season whether to apply for the extra year. Jim Boeheim, on his radio show, said that Paschal could not apply for the extra year because he sat out a year after his transfer and you can’t do both. Why that would prevent it I don’t know and the reporter said that he’d been unable to find anything that said in NCAA rules. But Paschal would be 24 years old next season and we’ve heard nothing about him applying for the medical redshirt so I would presume that he won’t be back. Tyus Battle has formally announced that he’s finally going pro, even though he isn’t on any draft boards. That gets us down to 8 recruited players. Jim has gotten commitments from four high school players and is pursuing a fifth guy. That would get him up to 13 guys, which would be OK with the NCAA but contrary to Jim’s historical tendency. I asked him about that on his show and he said “The likelihood of everybody coming back is small.” Then we heard that Oshae Brissett was “testing the waters”. I wouldn’t be surprised if he lost him and maybe someone else and that Jim knew or thought we might when I asked him that. The only thing I can do now is to speculate on what next year’s team would look like if Oshae came back and we got that fifth guy with the acknowledgement that things could change if some of them aren’t there when practice starts next fall. Bourama Sidibe will have the inside track on the positon most of thought he would win two years ago. I think he could more than adequately fill it if fully healthy. But will he ever be fully healthy? He’s still listed as 6-10 205 but I think that must have been a reading from when he was recruited. I’d say he’s more like 220 by now, not bulky but not really skinny in the way Chukwu and Dolezaj are. I went back to his high school tape to see what he looked like when fully ambulatory: [MEDIA=youtube]8VxwEtXbOL8[/MEDIA] I see him do several things we never saw from Chukwu: jump shots, drives to the basket, athletic blocks not just based on his height and alley oops where he actually catches the ball. If he can do those things, he’ll be a significant upgrade over Chukwu. But that’s a big if. The center recruit we know we have is John Bol Ajak, (I’ve heard it pronounced as if it was one word: Bowl-a-jack), who was rated the 32nd best prospect in his class in the summer of 2017 by the two47 website. Then he suffered an Achilles injury and then a hip injury. He wasn’t able to play much or well. His ranking slipped all the way to #410 and the #68 center. That didn’t impress Syracuse fans but the coaching staff stuck with him and he stuck with them and committed to come here. He’s another in a long line of ‘project’ big men from countries where they didn’t grow up playing the game after Fab Melo, Baye Keita, Rakeem Christmas, (who grew up in the Virgin Islands), Chinoso Obokoh, Chukwu and Sidibe. JB always says that big men take longer to develop – they are “growing into their bodies” and that foreign players who didn’t grow up playing the game also take longer so a foreign big man can take doubly long. We need somebody who can help us next season. On the bright side, he seems to have recovered from his injuries and is supposed to be playing better so we may get someone who is closer to his peak #32 ranking than his current #410 ranking, which appears to need revision. I liked this interview with JBA in which he describes his game: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23YTyV1cXMo"]JOHN BOL AJAK commits to SYRACUSE (2019 Westtown School)[/URL] He sounds like a hard-working, ambitious young man and his description of his game is that of a skilled offensive player who wants to get better. He certainly seems to have a skill set very different from what we’ve seen from Chuwku the last few years: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guiffnR-Gy4"]6' 11" JOHN BOL AJAK Westtown School c/o 2019 (Syracuse Commit)[/URL] Two47 lists him as 6-10 205 but he says in the tape that he’s 6-11 and somebody said he was up to 240 now. I hope he develops that inside game he was talking about to balance his skills. I know nothing about his defensive capabilities. The fifth recruit JB is still going after is 6-11 205 Jesse Edwards from the Netherlands, who arrived in the US in the fall and is playing for IMG academy in Florida, where a lot of top prospects go. He was first reported as weighing only 188 pounds but is now listed at 205. He’s not rated at all by the sources that do such things because he just got to this country. The IMG coach: ““He’s long and a typical skilled Euro big. More of a face up five man than back to the basket guy. Has range up to 15-17 feet. Solid low post package. Can pass, dribble and shoot. With his length, he is a very good rim protector. Gets better every day and has loads of potential.” There is a highlight film on him: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qrVt7P0_uI"]Highlights: Syracuse basketball recruit Jesse Edwards of IMG Academy[/URL] Again, I see things Chukwu could never do: jump shots and drives to the basket. Again, not much there about defense. Critics claim that JB doesn’t recruit offensive centers. He’s certainly trying to. He wanted Isaiah Stewart and Tre Mitchell, two muscular inside scorers but didn’t get them. His protégé Mike Hopkins, who had been the lead recruiter on Stewart, convinced him to come out Washington. We then focused on Mitchell but were never in front for him because we came in so late. So these guys who can shoot and drive will be it for now. For several years the ‘pick and roll’ had been a part of our offense but you wouldn’t know it because our bigs couldn’t catch the ball, dribble it or score. These three guys have the ability to do that. That would be a major upgrade to our offense. What our defense will be like with Bol Ajak or Edwards in the middle, I don’t know. If they can keep their motors running for 40 minutes that would be an improvement over what we’ve had. If Sidibe is still having physical problems and the other guys aren’t ready or come up short, we are back to Marek Dolezaj playing center. He’s an interesting player but he’s not an ACC center by any definition so that will be a failure. We’re going to be loaded at forward, even if Oshae Brissett doesn’t come back. If he does, I want to him stronger with a stronger handle. I’d also like to see him work on a medium range and a pull-up jumper. I saw pays where he got the ball inside of the three point line and wasn’t going to dribble back out to it. So his only option seemed to be, (in modern basketball thinking), to drive into the teeth of the defense and try to find a way to corkscrew through all the arms and the legs to score. The defenders weren’t coming out to guard him and his occasional three pointers didn’t change that. If he could score from 10-15 feet, they would have to come out and get him and that would open things up for his drives. If Oshae doesn’t come back, (and if somebody emerges at center), then Marek Dolezaj will finally get a chance to operate at his natural positon at this level: power forward. If that happens, I think we’ll his confidence and aggressiveness increase. We’ll see him hit three pointers and medium-range shots, occasionally drive to the basket, feed the post and also pass it back out for three pointers, (which always seem more likely to go in when the shooter is already squared to the basket and the pass comes back out to him rather than from the side). He can also block shots and make steals. Starting and getting starter’s minutes in his natural position could be the key for him. Elijah Hughes will have to make the same conversion Tyus Battle did two years ago: from a 3rd option to the primary option, with the attendant defensive attention. Tyus made that conversion very well and believe Elijah will, too. He’s athletic and a fine shooter. He needs to learn to drive to the basket much more than he does. He’s actually a better jump shooter than Tyus was, with much better range. Robert Braswell looked like a gem when he played, putting up both prolific and efficient numbers and looking like he already knew exactly what was going on out there. He can shoot it and might be the best athlete on the team. The only reservation was that he was playing against reserves and walk-ons and his stats come from a very small sample, (55 minutes played all year). But he looked like a future star. The question is: will he get to show it? If Brissett is back, Dolezaj doesn’t go home and here comes Quincy Guerrier, where is Braswell’s place? He, like Dolezaj, would probably benefit from Brissett leaving, even if the team wouldn’t. As with Sidibie, I decided to look at Braswell’s high school film to remind me of the skills he’s capable of: [URL="https://www.hudl.com/video/3/10393969/5a9755c0b3c8a10ba4cc99b8"]Senior Year Highlights[/URL] I not only see good outside shooting, some dramatic dunks and blocks but also a couple of terrific, Leo Rautins-style laser passes from way outside to the baseline that suggest excellent court vision. Quincy Guerrier maybe the best of the incoming recruits. People compare him to Oshae Brissett because he’s a similar size and is also from Canada. He says he’s a better shooter than Oshae. Others have suggested C. J. Fair, who could hit the outside shot but was more of a drive-to-the-basket guy who had an array of pull-ups and floaters to supplement his lay-ups and dunks. Quincy is another foreign player who doesn’t appear some rankings but the Syracuse.com said he was the equivalent of a top 50 recruit. He’s said to be the best recruit in Canada. He was going to enroll in January and begin working out with his future teammates but there was a snag in getting the good old NCAA to approve his transcript, which had to be translated from the French. His coach said “He might be short a credit so he might have to take another class here.” Uh-Oh! Donna Ditota in Syracuse.com described him as “a 6-foot-7 physically imposing forward… At 19 years old, the future Syracuse basketball forward has built a body that already looks rugged enough to play with pros. He is 6-foot-7 and a sculpted 220 pounds. When he scrimmaged on his recruiting visit with Syracuse players last fall, Guerrier appeared bigger and brawnier than most of his future teammates”, (Brissett is 6-8, 210). Red Autry: “The biggest thing I saw about him that I initially liked was his size, his dimensions. He fits what we do. And from a game standpoint, you know what he does. He scores. That’s something you rarely find. A lot of times kids try to do a lot of different things. And you can just tell he’s an attacker, he’s an aggressive offensive player. He competes and he plays extremely hard.” Brissett: “He’s going to be a shock to a lot of people. Offensively and defensively as well. He has a great motor. He wants to win. That’s his main thing.” “Guerrier believes his shooting stroke is the best part of his offensive game, but Appiah says simply “he’s a scorer.” Appiah worries that Guerrier sometimes “falls in love with that jump shot.” He wants him to use his size and his strength to work defenders in the post or shed them with his dribble.” That would make him similar to Hughes, who has a similar build at 6-6, 215. Here are Quincy’s highlights: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WmX5y4pY2o"]Quincy Guerrier Mixtape - BREAK OUT Season![/URL] I saw some nice-looking jumpers and dunks, an occasional graceful drive the basket. He looks like a good player but my eyes didn’t bug out. He just looked very smooth. There’s similar logjam in the backcourt. Basically, Buddy can’t play the point but the four guys competing for that spot could play his positon. We may see a lot of different combinations. Buddy is basically a classic ‘2’ guard with a terrific shot and the ability to dribble enough to get free for it. He’s not a drive to the basket guy but neither were GMAC, Andy Rautins or Trevor Cooney. He can get some assist and has the smarts and hands to make some steals. His basketball IQ is appropriately high. He can be stopped if the defense focuses on doing that but by pulling guys that far out to guard him, he opens things up for his teammates. He’s got good size at 6-5 188 and will get stronger. I was surprised that Jalen Carey was listed at 6-3 168. He seems smaller, possibly because he’s often in a crouch, dribbling to the basket. He was great at slipping through the defense to score on lay-ups and dunks in New York and he runs the court very well. He’s very quick and athletic. I haven’t seen him do a lot of passing but if he can make good on his drives, the opportunities will be there. He’s probably another guy that needs to start and have his coach’s confidence and patience to develop. But he’ll be in four way battle for the point and JB will probably have a quick hook for all four of the candidates. I took a look at Jalen’s high school film to see he seems capable of when he is “the man”: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bik46ZCsD7I"]BEST SCORING GUARD IN NJ?? Jalen Carey Early Season Highlights!!![/URL] I see a quick, smooth player with a good handle, a great first step and quick hands. I also see a jump shot with a higher trajectory than we’ve seen this year. Howard Washington would be the forgotten man except for his amazing story of having a stroke at age 20 as he was recovering from knee surgery. He was able to text the SU trainer who came to his aid and took him to the hospital, thus saving his life. He’s thus glad to alive, not just glad to be an Orangeman. How much it means to him to become the starting point guard after that will be a factor. Nobody really knows how good he can be. He’s Carey’s size at 6-3 180. He always wanted to be SU’s point guard but JB and the staff wanted Quade Green instead so Howard committed to Butler, then uncommitted when Green opted to go to Kentucky, (he’s since left there to transfer to Mike Hopkins’ team at Washington, where he should make an interesting tandem with Isaiah Stewart). Howard was rated the 14th best combo guard by two47 but there must not be a lot of combo guards because they had him rated #289 overall. His coach said “He’s a great leader, he’s really, really progressed. He can really shoot the ball, he’s terrific when it comes to making reads off of ball screens. Guys like playing with him. He’s good in terms of making sure other guys are involved. He’s an underrated athlete. He’s crafty in his ability to get to different spots on the floor. If there’s a big shot to be had, he’s got the [stones] to step up and make it.” He seemed tentative early in his freshman year, then started to be more productive, scoring 9 points with 3 rebounds, an assist and a steal against Florida State. Even then he was hardly dazzling. He wound up playing 110 minutes before his injury, recording 19 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. Having more rebounds than assists is interesting for a point guard. He must have had an instinct for long rebounds, something we could use. His high school tape shows decent point guard skills: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqB_4F4OKRI"]Howard Washington highlights triple double vs Ridley[/URL] Maybe as important he seems to have a point guard’s mentality. I like this interviews, (at the 1 minute mark), where he breaks down a game and sounds like a coach: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfFuzRKXl5c"]Jahvon Blair and Howard Washington - Post Game Interviews[/URL] Then there’s Brycen Goodine, whose recruitment has been overshadowed by that of Joe Girard III but who could be a classic Jim Boeheim type of point guard. He’s 6-4 170, smooth and athletic. two47 has him as the 94th best player in his class but the 15th best shooting guard. He’s still another shooting/combo guard that Boeheim wants to convert into a point man. Brycen played for the same school that sent us Michael Carter-Williams. Jeff Kelly of Otto’s Grove: “He’s got a nice stroke from the free throw line, and while he’s not yet a knock-down three point shooter, he is, to use another St. Andrew’s example, much more advanced and has a better looking stroke from outside than Michael Carter-Williams at the same age…. He’s certainly a very good ball handler and uses his size and quickness to get where he needs to be on the floor. I saw him pretty much always make good decisions with the ball when he looked to pass, and he didn’t really try to force anything. That goes for his shot selection, as well…. Defensively, he’s got the potential to be a real difference maker at the top of the 2-3 zone. He’s got long arms, good agility, and anticipates well. He was disruptive on defense,” His highlight film: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ3eduBfgNE"]It's TOO EASY for Syracuse Commit Brycen Goodine!! | Shows Out with BABC[/URL] Easy is good! I saw everything there I’d want to see- an easy shooting motion, good passing over and through the defense. Good driving ability and he can go up the ladder when he needs to. Whether a ‘1’ or a ‘2’, he’ll be a good player for us. A backcourt of Carey and Goodine would be about as athletic as it gets. (Goodine will be competing in a dunk contest at the Final Four Friday night.) Then there’s Joe Girard III. He’s one of six players in US high school history to average 50 point a game in a season and he nearly did it twice. He’s led Glens Falls to two New York State Class B football championships and one basketball championship. He comes from the same high school as Jimmer Fredette, the NCAA’s player of the year in 2011. Jimmer scored 2,404 points when he was at Glens Falls. Joe has scored 4,766. Here they are working out together: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IsdErvg3po"]Joe Girard III works out with Glens Falls legend Jimmer Fredette[/URL] Joe’s a little smaller, (6-1 178 vs. 6-2 195) but, being a football player, he’s well-built. Besides the obvious comparison to Jimmer, he’s been compared to SU’s own Gerry McNamara, (his chief recruiter who will be working with him as an assistant coach at Syracuse) for his incredible shooting ability and range, Eric Devendorf for his ability to dribble-drive to the basket, (he won the state title by dribbling around a double-team and then avoiding a third defender along the base-line to make the game winning shot), and even to SU quarterback Eric Dungey because he quarterbacked that Glen’s Falls team that won those two state titles. JB and GMAC were in the Dome when Glens Falls won the state football title. Boeheim: "He's a great player. He's a great competitor. He runs the show…He's a competitive kid… The fact that he plays both ways says a lot about his toughness.'' Mike Waters, who covered the game: “He eluded defenders like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, never seeming to be in a hurry and still avoiding a would-be tackler's grasp.” GMAC: “With Joe coming in and Buddy (Boeheim) being here, we have two of the better shooters out there. Possibly the best shooter in each of the last two classes. His shooting ability translates, but he has some ability off the ball to make plays for himself and others. He can create his own shot. All of the pieces are there.” The bad news is that the other five guys who averaged 50 points a game are named Bobbie Joe Douglas, Ervin Stepp, Johnny Benjamin, Bennie Fuller and Kent Hyde. Have you ever heard of them? They all built up big numbers playing for small, rural high schools and were unable to duplicate them at the college level. None of them averaged more than 7.5 points per game. The highest scoring player Jim Boeheim had recruited before this was probably Hal Cohen who averaged 35 points a game for a small school, (Canton) and 5.6 over a four year career at SU. He was one half of the “Cohen-Headd” backcourt at SU in the late 70’s, (Coneheads – get it?). Headd, who’d averaged 17.7 points at CBA was the better half, scoring 10.9ppg in his career here….But then he had played at a higher level of high school competition…. Two47 rates Joe the 192nd best player in the country, hardly a glowing review. But Girard chose the Orange over his other finalists Boston College, Duke, Michigan, Notre Dame and Penn State. He also had offers from Baylor, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, St. John's and Washington among many others… Last summer, Girard played on the Nike EYBL circuit with the Albany City Rocks. In 16 games, Girard averaged 12.2 points (second on the team to Isaiah Stewart), made 40.8 percent of his shots and 36.6 percent (40-for-109) of his shots from 3-point range.” (Mike Waters, Syracuse.com). That’s quite a statistical come-down from Joe’s Glens Falls numbers, where he was taking most of his team’s shots. But City Rocks was much closer to college level completion than NYS Class B, so that’s a better indicator of what JG3’s numbers in college might be like. But I’d take those numbers at SU. GMAC averaged 13.3ppg, 40.1% from the field and 35.7% from three as a freshman. (And we won the national championship with Gerry hitting 6 three pointers in the first half.) That’s about the same. Here he is at Dyckman Park in a NYC streetball tournament where he was MVP: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m400m4Qq9ts"]Joe Girard III: NY's Scoring Leader Pulls Up to Dyckman | SLAM Day in the Life[/URL] The comments are interesting, pro, con and racist. Here is one of his many highlight tapes: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1lz6UGwI38"]Syracuse Commit Joe Girard III GOES OFF for 59 Points! NY HS All-Time Leading Scorer![/URL] I see a guy with range from 25, maybe 30 feet. He’s not a stationary jumper shooter- he sues the dribble to create his own shot, including a nice jab-step. He can drive through (high school) defenses to score. His game is two-dimensional: he doesn’t dunk or even get to the bottom of the backboard on his lay-ups. It’s 1950’s style basketball. He seems to have plenty of swagger, which is OK if you can back it up. I see some passing and some quick hands on defense. I also saw him rather easily backed down to the basket on an opposing players move. The last time we had a short point guard was John Gillon. That worked out offensively but not defensively. GMAC was never a defensive terror. A quote from Dolph Schayes comes to mind: “If I out-score my guy and my teammates outscore their guys, how are we going to lose? I suspect Joe sees it the same way. I like the GMAC with a bit a Devo and bit of Dungey comparison. I’ll take that. I don’t think he’ll be the next Ervin Stepp. I could see Joe winning the point guard completion or sharing time with Buddy Boeheim at shooting guard. He and Buddy would be quite a pair bombing from the backcourt. (Joe will be participating in a three point contest at the Final Four the same night that Goodine is in the dunk contest.) I think the guard positons are going to be a game of musical chairs and a couple of guys might still be standing when the music stops. Then we’ll see if they want to stick it out here. Overall, I see a team with plenty of talent, speed and athleticism, although the last two could vary with the line-up. It could be a shorter team, certainly without a 7-2 center. That would also depend on the line-up they use. But I don’t care how tall the players are if they play the game well and we can put a lot of guys out there who can do that. I’m concerned about the rebounding, especially if Brissett doesn’t come back. I don’t know that anybody else on the team has a reputation for excelling in that area. A team like this should get out and run every chance they have. But if they can’t get the ball or have to send everyone to the boards to do it, they won’t be able to run – unless they press. The team is built to press for 40 minutes but we won’t do that. I still see no reason we couldn’t have at least a token press on every possession and then fall back into a zone. We could get turnovers over it and eat up some of the shot clock before the other team can get into their offense. But there is a reason: JB doesn’t like to press, even though he played on teams in high school and college that did it all the time. One thing I think we will see next year is this offense being executed more like it’s supposed to be. We run pick and roll plays with centers who can’t catch, shoot, dribble or score. I think a healthy Sidbie, Bol Ajak, Edwards, (if we can get him) or Dolezaj could all do that. We still won’t have a post-up scorer but JBA said he was working on that and maybe the others are, too. We should have plenty of firepower outside with at least 2-3 guys at all times who can hit the three. We may have some games where we’ll bomb somebody the way Virginia and Baylor bombed us. I have no idea what kind of defensive team this will be without Chukwu and a whole new backcourt. After a year where we got everyone back but they played worse, we are going to have a situation similar to the couple of years before that when there were several openings and several new pieces to play with that brought different sets of skills to the party. An ‘X” factor for the team will be a trip to Italy this summer where they will play several games. The NCAA only allows schools to do that every seven years. It gives them not only extra practice time and game experience but is a good team-building exercise. The last time we did this was a tour of Canada in 2013 against their top teams. That fall we began a season in which we won our first 25 games and achieved a #1 ranking. But that was a different team in a different time. [/QUOTE]

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