All things considered, Adrian Autry’s first year at the helm of the Syracuse basketball program was a success. While they did not make the NCAA Tournament after and the Orange ended up sitting out further postseason opportunities due to a number of players immediately heading toward the transfer portal, they notched 20 regular season wins and 11 conference victories for the first time in a decade.
Judah Mintz’s return to the program from testing the NBA draft waters was a successful one, as he earned ACC Second Team honors. Malik Brown, who was pressed into full-time duty at center after an injury to Naheem McLeod, was named to the conference’s All-Defense Team after leading the ACC in steals, just ahead of Mintz.
It was not all sunshine and rainbows for SU, though, as they traveled to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational and were thumped by ranked opponents Tennessee and Gonzaga prior to Thanksgiving. Shortly after returning to the mainland, they were routed in their conference opener at Virginia, getting waxed by 20 points.
Syracuse bounced back with five straight wins, including handling traditional rival Georgetown on the road and notching a signature non-conference victory with a decisive neutral-court performance against Oregon in back-to-back efforts in December.
When the calendar turned to January, the ride got bumpy immediately as they were drilled at Duke. While SU only lost consecutive conference games once, they were only able to muster a pair of back-to-back wins in January and a four-game win streak in late February and early March to keep their bubble dreams on life support.
After dropping their season finale at Clemson, Syracuse entered the ACC Tournament with a double-bye as the #7 seed. The Orange left the tournament immediately, turning in a sloppy performance in getting escorted out the door by eventual champions North Carolina State, a team they had swept during the regular season.
Shortly after was when the action really picked up for SU.
The roster almost completely turned over from the start of the season. Already gone was forward Benny Williams, who had been suspended prior to the start of the season, then was held out of multiple games with no official explanation provided. After a team-wide embarrassing effort at Wake Forest to begin February, Williams was dismissed from the program.
Maliq Brown, Peter Carey, Quadir Copeland, Mounir Hima, William Patterson, and Justin Taylor all entered the transfer portal and found new homes. Mintz declared for the NBA draft, was not selected, but ended up signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. All those departures left five scholarship players on the Syracuse roster.
POSITIONAL PREVIEWS
• Guards
• Forwards
• Centers
Starters Chris Bell and J.J. Starling were among those remaining on the roster, joined by Naheem McLeod, who had started at center prior to suffering a season-ending injury. Reserve Kyle Cuffe Jr. is also back and the Orange are looking forward to their first live look at Chance Westry, who transferred in as a redshirt freshman, then missed last season with another injury.
Those five are joined by an experienced quartet coming through the portal to SU. Jaquan Carlos, Jyare Davis, Eddie Lampkin Jr., and Lucas Taylor all transferred to Syracuse to play out their respective final year of eligibility.
The Orange also brought in Donnie Freeman, Elijah Moore, and late addition Petar Majstorovic to comprise a three-person freshman class. Freeman is ranked as the #11 recruit in the nation by Rivals and Moore at #68 overall. Majstorovic has played in France for the last three years.
MORE IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS
Autry will face a tough task of blending these dozen players into a coherent team that improves on both ends of the floor. While the Orange were better at defense in their first year playing man-to-man after playing 2-3 zone the previous season, they were still barely in the top 100 nationally in defensive efficiency. Dropping the zone also helped their defensive rebounding a smidge, but they were still out the top 300 in defensive rebounding rate.
SU’s offensive efficiency was improved last year, but a portion of that was owed to Mintz’s high level of success at getting to the free throw line and a team-wide uptick in 3-point shooting over the back half of the season. Their perimeter shooting overall was a step back from the previous season and, despite the late-season surge, they still did not crack the top 200 in the nation in three-point percentage on the year.
While last season’s performance was not great, they had youth to point to as a reason. The top six players were in their second season of college action, as was Cuffe, who was eighth on the team in minutes played.
This year is a different story, as Bell, Cuffe, and Starling are all back for their third collegiate seasons of play and McLeod is entering his fourth. All four transfers are entering their last season of eligibility, as well, creating an environment that is more experienced and hopefully less emotionally volatile.
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