Rapid Reaction: Kyle Cuffe Jr. completes revamp of Syracuse's backcourt

Kansas transfer guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. committed to Syracuse on Thursday, he announced on social media. Cuffe appeared in two games in his Kansas career. He redshirted in the 2021-22 season and appeared in only two games in the 2022-23 season after suffering a knee injury.

Thursday's social media announcement from former Kansas combo guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. that he's joining the Syracuse program not only seemingly puts a lid on the off-season roster makeover for Adrian Autry's first season, but also signals how adept Autry and his staff are at acquiring talent through the transfer portal.

Three takeaways:

1) Goodbye, Judah Mintz, we enjoyed your one season wearing orange.

Although he has until May 31 to announce his intention to stay in the NBA Draft or not, the arrival of Cuffe likely means the coaching staff is hedging their bet that Mintz returns for his sophomore season. The backcourt has been totally transformed with newcomers Cuffe, JJ Starling, and Chance Westry joining returnees Quadir Copeland and possibly Justin Taylor with mix and match lineups. If Mintz does return to SU, the backcourt depth will be among the best in the country.

2) Autry is likely to go up to 10 deep with his playing rotation.

Players do not enter the transfer portal for reduced playing time. From all indications Autry is going to turn up the tempo at both ends of the court and have his team play intense four minute stretches (between media timeouts), allowing for a more liberal substitution pattern than we were used to seeing from Jim Boeheim in each half. 10 of the 12 current scholarship players (not including Mintz) are likely to see significant minutes in the upcoming season.

3) In the transfer portal and NIL era, it's never too late to keep recruiting players who initially turned down an offer.

All four players transferring into the Syracuse program; Cuffe, Starling, Westry, and big man Naheem McLeod, have had longtime connections with the 'Cuse coaching staff, and those relationships stayed strong even when the players chose other locations to begin their collegiate careers. Once the players decided on a new start, the ability of the coaches to convey their on-court vision of how each player's individual game would be developed, improved, and woven into a winning team effort made their decisions easier. Off the court, promoting the likelihood of endorsement deals to increase NIL worthiness likely didn't hurt either.

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