Syracuse Player Improvements

The Orange are now 6-1 after their first seven games.  While all the games have not been pretty, I think overall as fans we are happy with that record.  The team's offense is clearly improved from what we witnessed over the past few seasons, and the defense is struggling.  

Recent history with the basketball program has been frustrating as players we hoped would make that 'leap' forward in their skill development, failed to do so.  Th

Quincy Guerrier

is season we are blessed to have several players who have shown growth or are better than we expected.

Quincy Guerrier, Alan Griffin, Kadary Richmond and Woody Newton are pleasant surprises this season.

Guerrier is leading the way with a new focus on his interior game and it is paying off big dividends for himself and the Orange.  The Buffalo game was his latest and greatest effort with 27 points and 11 rebounds.  He has been doing that all season, and quite efficiently.  Guerrier is currently averaging 18.0 ppg along with 10 rebounds per game, all done with 66% shooting from the floor and 43.8% from three.  He already has four double-doubles this season, exceeding last season's total by one.  Last year he was content on hanging out on the perimeter, and this year he is doing the hard work down low.

We knew Alan Griffin could shoot when he transferred to Syracuse from Illinois, and he had a nose for rebounding.  He has been better than advertised, with athletic availability that his paying big dividends for the Orange.  He has been erratic and inconsistent with his effort on both ends of the court.  The Northeastern game was the low water mark when he was held scoreless and seemed disinterested on both ends of the court, resulting in him not playing down the stretch of the game.  On the other hand, he has had four games where he has scored 20+ points, and three double-doubles.  The Buffalo game showed his top value to the Orange when he had 24 points and 10 rebounds, including a game saving block on a Buffalo layup as time was expiring.  And though Griffin struggled from three for the game, he made seven of eight shots inside the arc, as well as seven of eight free throws

Coach Jim Boeheim raved about Kadary Richmond in the pre-season, and the young man has looked very promising.  He is using his length, speed and ballhandling to contribute in many different ways, and has earned himself as steady part of the guard rotation.  After seven games Richmond is averaging 26 minutes a game.  He has 4.1 assists a game, along with 4.4 rebounds, 1.1 blocks, and 2.6 steals.  He is not a perimeter shooter, but has shown very adept at getting into the paint, and is making 47% of his field goal attempts.

Woody Newton was flying under the radar, and based on some comments from Jim Boeheim, I think he is playing better than even the coaches thought he would at this point.  While Newton isn't playing a lot of minutes, he is part of the 'Boeheim rotation' and gets into every game.  He's made 42% of this three point shots despite not having a reputation as being a perimeter shooter, and he has shown some athleticism on getting to the hoop.

Marek Dolezaj and Buddy Boeheim are delivering what I think we would expect, with some minor improvements.  Dolezaj has had to move over to the center position to replace the injured Bourama Sidibe. While the defense isn't as proficient with him there, the offense is benefiting greatly.  Dolezaj is being used to facilitate the offense with his playmaking, and he is showing off his ability to get to the hoop for short range shots.  Dolezaj is hitting 55% of this field goals, and leads he team with 4.3 assists.  Also importantly, he has avoided foul trouble for the most part. It is clear that when the ball flows through Dolezaj's hands, good things happen.

Buddy Boeheim missed three games and roughly a month of practice due to Covid-19 safety precautions.  It has had an impact on his shooting touch for sure. However, the junior continues to add to his offensive skills and has really made a focus on scoring within the paint.  Good things are happening when he gets inside.  Even when he does not make the shot, the defense does collapse on him, and the SU forwards are able to crash the glass and get the rebounds from the soft touch shots. Boeheim is averaging 15.5 ppg despite hitting only 26% of his three point shots.

Joe Girard and Bobby Braswell are two players who are struggling this year.  Like Boeheim, Girard's shooting touch as been off for most the games this year, and some of the competition has figured out ways of taking Girard out of his game.  He is going to have to learn to make the proper adjustments.  This year when he struggles, Coach Boeheim does have the luxury of a third guard, and he makes the player adjustments accordingly.  Girard has been rebounding well, and twice he has scored 21 points.  Syracuse likely does not beat Northeastern without Girard's six steals, four rebounds and three assists.

Bobby Braswell was thought to be a player that Boeheim was going to have to find playing time for.  Instead he has struggled on the court with rushed shots, and he has fallen behind Woody Newton on the depth chart.  

Bourama Sidibe got injured four minutes into the season opener, and has not played since. He had surgery on this knee and is expected back soon.  A healthy return would provide some big dividends to the defense, though it will be interesting on how the offensive scheme would work once he is available.  He definitely would have been of value against Rutgers and Buffalo, both teams who dominated with big mean inside the paint.

The other disappointment on the team has been the three young centers: Jesse Edwards, John Bol Ajak and Frank Anselem. Despite the need for center help, none of the three have demonstrated enough to  Coach Boeheim to get consistent playing time.  Having said that, Ajak is surprising in that the perception was that he was the biggest project of the three, and yet he is the first one off the bench when Boeheim does bring in a reserve center.  

Overall, the Orange have already provided several entertaining moments for us this season.  Some of the wins haven't been as easy or pretty as we would like, but the team is 6-1.  Hard to dislike that.

Syracuse Basketball - Influx of International Players

The Syracuse Orange will have a school record six international players on the basketball team this season.  This will include four scholarship players with sophomore Oshae Brissett (Canada), senior Paschal Chukwu (Nigeria), sophomore Marek Dolezaj (Slovakia), and sophomore Bourama Sidibe (Mali), plus two walk on players with senior Ky Feldman (Israel) and senior Antonio Balandi (Burkina Faso).

Oshae Brissett

This breaks the previous school record of five, which was only last season 2017-2018, with the aforementioned players minus Balandi.

Previous to the recent history, the school record had been three international players, which occurred six times, starting with 1984-1985 (Joel Katz, George Papadokas, Rony Seikaly), 1995-1996 (Marius Janulis, Elvir Ovcina, David Patrick), 2007-2008 (Devin Brennan-McBride, Donte' Greene, Kristof Onganaet), 2010-2011 (Kris Joseph, Baye Moussa Keita, Fab Melo), 2011-2012 (Joseph, Keita, Melo), and 2015-2016 (Chukwu, Feldman and Chino Obokoh).

The game continues to be more international and so it really should be no surprise to the increased influx of players with international backgrounds. 

Back in 2015, I had named my Syracuse all-international team. With the influx of talent the past couple of seasons, I may revise it as follows, moving Brissett onto my first team:

PG Tyler Ennis
SG Kueth Duany
SF Leo Rautins
PF Oshae Brissett
C  Rony Seikaly

Reserves:
G  Marius Janulis
F  Donte' Greene
C  Fab Melo
C  Baye Moussa Keita
F  Kris Joseph

Dolezaj and Chukwu are knocking on the door.  A solid season from Chuckwu would likely supplant him for Keita.  I don't think Dolezaj could move into the list this year, but as he is only a sophomore, I expect big things down the road could make the difference.

Career and Season Records from 2017-2018

Syracuse fielded a young squad in 2017-2018 with juniors Frank Howard and Paschal Chukwu, sophomore Tyus Battle, and freshmen Matthew Moyer and Oshae Brissett the starters.  Fellow freshman Marek Dolezaj, Bourama Sidibe and Howard Washington completed the bulk of the playing time.

A young squad is unlikely to have many players moving up significantly in the all-time career categories, but there were some things to note.

Tyus Battle

Tyus Battle became the 62^nd player to score 1,000 career points; how now has 1,097 points.  He is 55^th all-time. If he scored 700 points again next year he could move up to 13^th and surpass Rony Seikaly.  Frank Howard entered the top 100, and is now 93^rd all-time with 734 points.  Barring injury he should easily get to 1,000 points next season.

Ohae Brissett’s outstanding rebounding effort his freshman year put him well into the top 100 career rebounders at Syracuse. He is tied for 70^th all-time with Andy Rautins with 327 rebounds.  Paschal Chukwu is also in the top 100, with 281 career rebounds, placing him 85^th all-time.

Frank Howard has moved himself up the charts, and is now 18thall-time in assists with 351.  He needs only 88 assists to move all the way up to 8^th all-time.  Battle is also in the top 100, at 71^st on the list with 134 assists.

Battle is 17^th all-time in three point shots made with 137 made shots.  He should move up to around 5^th all-time next year.  Howard is 29^th with 87 shots made, and Brissett is 37^th with 55.  Considering any player who has ever made a three point shot makes the top 100 list, Geno Thorpe comes in 75^th (with 4), Adrian Autry Jr, Marek Dolezaj and Howard Washington are tied at 83^rd (with 2), and Matthew Moyer is tied at 92^nd (with 1).

Paschal Chukwu is 21^st all-time in blocked shots with 105.  Brissett is 56^th with 29, Dolezaj 58^th with 28, Bourama Sidibe 74^th with 20, Howard 76^th with 19, and Battle 81^st with 15.

Frank Howard is 38^th all-time in steals with 123.  Battle is 51^st with 98, Brissett 87^th with 43, Dolezaj 95^th with 30, and Chukwu 96^th with 29.

Battle is currently the 6th best career freethrow shooter with 82.6%.  Brissett is 18^th at 78.7%. 

The Orange also had several notable individual season accomplishments.

Battle’s 712 points and 19.2 ppg were the most since Hakim Warrick scored 726 with 21.4 ppg in 2004-2005. 

Brissett’s 327 rebounds were the most since Rick Jackson had 360 in 2010-2011. Brissett’s 8.8 rpg was topped by Rakem Christmas in 2014-2015 with 9.1

Chukwu’s 91 blocked shots were the most since Darryl Watkins had 112 in 2006-2007.  His 2.5 blocks per game was equaled by Rakem Christmas in 2014-2015.

Brissett’s 174 made free throws were a freshman record, and the most by any Orangeman since Jonny Flynn made 180 in 2008-2009.

Tyus Battle set a school record for minutes played with 1,443;  Howard has the 2^nd most all-time with 1,422 and Brissett is 4^th all-time with 1,411.  Jonny held the previous record with 1,418 in 2008-2009.

On the downside, Oshae Brissett led the Orange with a 33.1% three point shooting percentage. That was the lowest percentage ever for a team leader, breaking the mark set by Lawrence Moten back in 1992-1993 with 33.6%.  Brisstt's effort was the 60th best 3 point shooting season for Syracuse out of 74 players who qualified.  Howard was 63rd and Battle 64th.  

Tyus Battle is only the third Syracuse player to be named All-ACC First Team. The other two were Rakeem Christmas in 2015 and C.J. Fair in 2014.

A few oddities too about the 2017-2018 Orangemen. They were widely reported throughout the season to have the tallest team in the NCAA. The starting five:  Howard 6’4”, Battle 6’5”, Moyer 6’8”, Brissett 6’8”, and Chukwu 7’2”.  Reserves Dolezaj 6’9” and Sidibe 6’10” definitely helped that average.  The shortest regular player on the squad was Washington at 6’3”.

Coach Jim Boeheim won his 1,027 game as a head coach for Syracuse, and was involved in 1,218 wins for Syracuse basketball as a player, assistant coach and head coach.  He won his 50th ACC game.  He coached in his 33rd NCAA tournament.

Orange Scoring Troubles Historic for 2017-2018

The Syracuse Orange basketball team struggled mightily to score the past season, especially from the supporting positions.  I had written about the struggles earlier in the season, focusing on the fact that the team was centered around only three scorers.  I had expected the team to expand beyond those three as the season progressed, and while there was some development, there was not much.  Injuries played a part of that, as did departures from the team.

 

Marek Dolezaj

We did see Marek Dolezaj improve during the tail end of the season and into the NCAA tournament. This is a hopeful stepping stone for him in 2018-2019. Dolezaj scored a career high 20 points in a home win against Wake Forest. In the NCAA tournament, he scored 17 against TCU and 13 against Duke. 

Dolezaj was the fourth best scorer for the Orange in the 2018-2019 season, but he averaged only 5.8 points per game.  He was accurate in his shooting, making 54% of his shots.  The fifth leading scorer was Paschal Chukwu, and he scored 5.4 ppg on 66% shooting. The problem was not their accuracy, but the ability to put them into positions where they could or would take shots.

As I indicated back in December, it has been quite a long time since the fourth leading scorer on the Orange scored that few points per game. 

“I have to go back to 2004-05 to find a team where the fourth leading scorer was even remotely close to that low, and that was Terrence Roberts with 7.2 ppg.  Fourth leading scorer on the 2001-02 team was Hakim Warrick with 6.1 ppg.  Fourth leading scored on the 1989-90 team was Dave Johnson with 6.5 ppg.  You would have to go all the way back to 1948-1949 to find a Syracuse team where the fourth leading scorer averaged 5.4 ppg or less.”

Of note, the 1963-1964 squad’s fourth leading scorer averaged 6.6 ppg, and it’s fifth leading scorer was a sophomore named Jim Boeheim, who averaged 5.2 ppg.  That team was lead by Dave Bing with 22.2 ppg and Chuck Richards with 22.0 ppg, so while there was not depth in scoring, the top one-two punch of Bing and Richards was quite potent.

The 1961-1962 team was probably the worst team in Syracuse basketball history, taking part in 27 consecutive losses and completing the season 2-22.  The fourth leading scorer on that team was Bob Murray, and he managed 6.3 ppg, better than Dolezaj’s 5.8 ppg.

No, we still have to go back to the 1948-1949 team to find a case where the fourth leading scorer put up less than Syracuse had in 2017-2018.

The return of the entire starting lineup from last season will almost certainly rectify that by itself. Natural improvement of each player will make a difference. Add in the incoming freshman class, and we should definitely see more scoring from the fourth and fifth players on offense. 

The odds of the Orange getting historically low production from that position on offense is highly unlikely to occur again.

Early Evaluation for 2017-2018

The Orange have played six games, and are sitting at 6-0.  It is still early in the season, but we do have a bod of work we can evaluate.

So what do I think of the Orange so far?

I think we will be a competitive team this year, which is all I really can ask for. We may get to our 20+ wins, and to the NCAA tournament, which would be a welcome return.

This team is unlikely to ever be proficient at making 3’s. There aren’t any pure shooters on the squad. But it is a team with a lot of athleticism, a lot of hustle, and a strong ability to drive to the hoop.

You can win a lot of games playing solid defense, crashing the boards and diving for loose balls. Jamie Dixon made a career at Pitt by coaching teams to do just that. Dixon never had an offense you would care for.

The exciting thing is that a few of our weaknesses and concerns from the summer currently are not being displayed. Our point guard play from Frank Howard has been solid through seven games; so much so, that Howard Washington has barely played, and Geno Thorpe hasn’t even backed up the point position.

We thought we had a black hole at center, and instead we have not one, but two centers playing the position well.  

We thought we wouldn’t have a solid #2 scorer, but Howard is providing that element right now. Oshae Brissett is showing that he will be #3. People thought that we would need Thorpe to be #2, and he has been a non factor.

We thought Marek Dolezaj would be a project for future years, and possibly even redshirt. Instead the kid is a key/vital element on the team.

We thought we would be playing a lot of three guard offense; that has barely been displayed.

Bottom line… there’s a lot we didn’t know about this team. It’s young, its inexperienced. We are looking at a small sample size. Yet, they keep checking the boxes off as the proceed game to game.

Go Orange!