The past few years have not been the best for the Syracuse Men’s basketball team and have not reached the tournament since 2021, making a historical drought for the college. Syracuse is rebuilding however, putting their foot in the transfer portal and also having some of the highest recruits in their history. The future looks bright for the men’s basketball team.
To start, Syracuse found themselves a new coach in former player Gerry McNamara who won a championship alongside Carmelo Anthony in 2003 and has his jersey retired with the college. He led the Sienna Saints to a MAAC Championship and a tournament appearance in this past year where they would only lose by six to the number one seeded Duke Blue Devils. After the retirement of Coach Jim Boeheim from the program, the Orange have failed to find another coach to fill in his legendary shoes and had little success with Adrian Autry, their previous coach so fans are hoping for coach McNamara to set the stage.
Many of the core of the young Syracuse players will stay with the program as well. Kiyan Anthony, the son of Syracuse legend Carmelo Anthony just announced that he will be staying with the program for his sophomore year despite coming off the bench for his freshmen year and losing moral with the team which left many questioning if he would leave. “People can’t expect him to come in and be like his dad who did something near impossible,” said Kevin Dautrich, a Syracuse fan. Also, forward Sadiq White Jr. made the decision to also return to Syracuse for his sophomore year despite having offers from many other colleges. White features insane athleticism while standing at 6’9 and being a five-star recruit out of high school. These key pieces are crucial for the next season of Syracuse.
Syracuse only features two player that are entering the transfer portal from their team so far, those being guard Nathian George and former five-star Donnie Freeman. Nathian George was the starting point guard last year and showed sparks of clutch bucket making and court vision. However, this loss is not too bad for the Orange who feature a young Kiyan Anthony who has stepped into the position of point guard in sometime during his high school career and a little bit last year while coming off the bench for Syracuse. Also, the departure of Donnie Freeman will open up NIL money for the Orange in the future since Donnie was a highly sought out player coming into college and was worth a lot. Donnie has been struggling with injures and has barely been on the court, so many find the departure overall good for the NIL freedom of Syracuse and the ability to recruit more players.
Now Syracuse has not had their foot too much in the portal this year, only picking up Siena leading scorer Gavin Doty due to him following his previous coach to Syracuse. But the Orange have looked out for prospects that are highly sought after due to this newfound money. Robert Wright III is a target for them along with David Punch. Both were key contributors for their teams success last year and both made it to the tournament. Wright III would also fill in the point guard the Orange just lost and Punch will fill in Freemans previous spot perfectly.
The only issue this offseason for the Orange is their lack of recruiting, not having a single person recruit in the top 100 of the class. However, many expect a bright couple of years for the Orange due to their new staff and young core.