Oshae Brissett's Freshman Year

Oshae Brissett had quite an impact on the Orange his freshman season.  He was the 2017 All-Canadian High School Player of the Year, but even with that distinction, he was not that heralded, nationally, when he came to Syracuse.

Super frosh Oshae Brissett

He showed early on that he had a nose for the ball pulling 10+ rebounds in five of the first eight games.  He would have season high 25 point games in a win over Buffalo and a loss to North Carolina State. In the NCAA tournament he would lead the Orange with 23 point and 10 rebounds in the First Four victory over Arizona State.

Brissett would lead the Orange in rebounds, 3 pt %, and led the ACC conference in free throw attempts. He was second on the team in scoring with 14.9 points per game.

I think some of his accomplishments went unnoticed, at least from a historical context. The Orange players had to be ironmen in 2017-2018 due to a reduced roster. Brissett would play 1,411 minutes, for a 38.1 minutes per game average.  Both are by far records for a Syracuse freshman.  The previous records were 1,274 minutes with a 36.4 mpg average, both set by Carmelo Anthony back in 2002-2003.

Brissett made 174 free throws, the most ever by a Syracuse freshman, again eclipsing the mark of 167 set by Anthony.  His 221 free throw attempts were second only to Anthony’s 238. 

Carmelo /Anthony

Brissett’s 327 rebounds were third most ever by a Syracuse freshman, trailing Anthony’s 349 and Derrick Coleman’s 333.  His 8.8 rpg average was tied for second best, again trailing Anthony, and tying Coleman.

Brissett scored the fourth most points ever by a Syracuse freshman with 553. He trailed Anthony’s  His 14.9 points per game is fifth all-time, trailing Anthony 22.2, Moten 18.2, Greene 17.7 and Jonny Flynn 15.7.    He scored more points per game as a freshman than stellar freshman Pearl Washington (14.4), Gerry McNamara (13.3), Billy Owens (13.0), Derrick Coleman (11.9), and Tyler Ennis (12.9).

778, Donte Greene with 620, and Lawrence Moten with 583.

His 37 games played trailed only Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens' 38 games.

Brissett was not the best freshman ever at Syracuse.  Carmelo Anthony rightfully earns that designation. Some of the other aforementioned freshman also had better seasons than Brissett. But it is notable that Brissett did have an excellent freshman year, and he can be mentioned with some of the greatest freshman to play for the Orange.