3 takeaways from Judah Mintz returning to Syracuse
In a bit of a surprise, Syracuse guard Judah Mintz withdrew his name from the upcoming NBA Draft close to the Wednesday (May 31st) midnight deadline, officially announcing he will be returning to the Orange for his sophomore season.
Here are three takeaways:
Mintz can build on his one SU season where he was consistently strong in non-conference and ACC play.
Named to the ACC All-Freshmen team, Mintz led the conference in steals, and won five rookie of the week honors.
He led all freshman in points per game (16.3 just behind Joe Girard's 16.4 ppg for team honors) and assists per game (4.8). Mintz recorded his career-high 24 points against Monmouth and Pittsburgh (Dome), and had a career-best 10 assists versus Georgetown.
Mintz's primary foible was his outside shooting, where he connected on just 30.3 percent of his shots from 3-point land. He'll have a chance to show that he can be a reliable shooter in his second season in Orange.
Another win for Adrian Autry.
In this day of the transfer portal, players shuffle in and out with ease, with many high-major programs losing half (and often more) of their roster. In Autry's first season as head coach, he's mostly mitigated those departures, with Girard and Jesse Edwards as the only key departures from last year's team.
That's not to say that replicating Edwards and Girard's production (roughly 30 points a game) will be easy, but Autry still was able to retain his entire six-man freshmen class, a rare feat in today's college basketball world.
The 2023-24 backcourt makeup is now set.
Mintz returning bolsters what should be a deep and talented backcourt that Autry and his assistants have revamped for their initial season. There's five somewhat interchangeable guards on the roster; Transfers JJ Starling, Chance Westry and Kyle Cuffe joining sophomores Mintz and Quadir Copeland.
It will be interesting to see how often Autry deploys a three-guard/two big men look, balanced with three big men and two guards.
Down the road, the staff has recruited talented NYC guard Elijah Moore for 2024 along with extending offers to a combined horde of backcourt players in the Classes of '24 and '25.
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