Syracuse 4 Year Outlook

 Hakim Warrick Fab Melo and Johnnie Flyynn r free agents and have made so much money.. Maybe they can back and play for free until the team gets back on its Feets!!! A team of Flynn, gbinijee at guards Warrick and Robertson at forwards and fab at center will win the ACC next year 

 Hakim Warrick Fab Melo and Johnnie Flyynn r free agents and have made so much money.. Maybe they can back and play for free until the team gets back on its Feets!!! A team of Flynn, gbinijee at guards Warrick and Robertson at forwards and fab at center will win the ACC next year 

There’s been a lot of talk all season (amongst Syracuse fans) about some players potentialy transferring due to not getting enough playing time. The most frequently talked about has been Ron Patterson. Despite seeing his playing time increase this season by 8.5 minutes per game, he has seen his field goal percentage drop from 38% to 32%, his three point percentage drop from 32% to 18%, and his free throw percentage "raise" from 0-3 his freshman year to 2-10 this year. Boeheim has been all over him saying things along the lines of "I’m 70 years old and I can shoot 15% from three" and when Patterson missed two crunch time free throws and called them ‘close,’ Boeheim said was not pleased since close doesn’t cut it in college. Maybe in 8th grade, but not college.

Other players who could transfer are Dajuan Coleman, who despite being the #14 player in his class has played 37 games in 3 years, and never played more than 25 minutes in a game; BJ Johnson, who has potential in my opinion, but at 6’7 185 and viewed as a shooter, he needs to shoot better than 26% from three; and Chinoso Obokoh, who saw limited action in 13 games, and was mainly recruited to help bring in his high school teammate, Thomas Bryant. Obokoh has some potential, but at 6’10 215, he’s not ready to contribute and be a force to be reckoned with in the middle of the zone. He’s definitely at least two years away from being a contributor, if not three.

And it is possible that Gbinije or Cooney could jump ship and leave without sitting out because of these sanctions (I think they can at least). Cooney bleeds Orange and I don’t think he’s even considering leaving. Some have suggested Gbinije could leave early this year if he really wanted to (he’s put up 17-5-5 since McCullough went down) but I expect him to be back again.

All four incoming recruits have said they will remain committed despite the sanctions. I believe Syracuse has the option to push the scholarship sanctions back a year, so they can still have 13 if they want to next year (it kind of sucks cause Syracuse only had 8 healthy scholarship players this year. I wish they could count this year as one of those four haha). So if one person transfers, we are still in the running for Bryant this year. I’m fairly certain he wants to come here, it’s just a matter of the spot opening up for him.

Then for 2016, Moyer said he will also remain committed to Syracuse despite the sanctions. Let’s assume Patterson transfers in 2015 and we land Bryant.

The team will have: Joseph jr., Howard so., Richardson so., Johnson sr., Roberson sr., Moyer fr., Bryant so., Lydon so., Diagne so., Obkoh jr., and Coleman sr (assuming he redshirts this season). This is also assuming McCullough is gone after next year which is likely the case anyway. I don’t think we ever had a shot at Harry Giles, but I do think Tyus Battle is 50/50 between us and Duke right now. I think he is also like Bryant, and wants to come to Syracuse so he can be a PG (he’d be a SG at Duke), but it comes down to whether we can get him a scholarship or not. It’s possible we could someone get a scholarship open for him, but it’s so far in the future, I don’t know how it would happen, considering it looks like we’ll be at 11 for 2016 (whether we have Bryant or Patterson, it doesn’t matter. We are on pace for 11 that year). So we really would need to free up two spots to land Battle. This is why I’m thinking we could potentially see three players transfer this offseason. One to open up a spot for Bryant, and two so we can get Battle down the road. Boeheim isn’t going to force a player out obviously, but he’s going to sit down with his players and be realistic with them. How much time can BJ Johnson get at the 2/3 spots with Richardson, Roberson, Moyer, and Lydon also competiting for minutes. How much time is Patterson going to get at the 1/2 spots with Joseph, Howard, Richardson, and maybe Johnson and Battle? How much are Coleman and Obokoh going to get with Diagne and possibly Bryant coming in? I’m not saying I want to see these players leave, but if they want to play, they either really need to improve their games or transfer. There aren’t going to be enough minutes to go around for everyone, so transferring sooner rather than later may be their best choice considering they shouldn’t have to sit out a year with these sanctions now.

It’s really not even worth looking into 2017 and beyond at the moment since we don’t know who, if anyone, will transfer. The amount of people who transfer this offseason will be huge in terms of which recruits we get in the long run. If no one transfers, which is a good possibility, then Syracue’s hands are tied for 2015-2017. If a few kids decide to transfer, Bryant and Battle could still be in play.

There’s been a lot of talk all season (amongst Syracuse fans) about some players potentialy transferring due to not getting enough playing time. The most frequently talked about has been Ron Patterson. Despite seeing his playing time increase this season by 8.5 minutes per game, he has seen his field goal percentage drop from 38% to 32%, his three point percentage drop from 32% to 18%, and his free throw percentage "raise" from 0-3 his freshman year to 2-10 this year. Boeheim has been all over him saying things along the lines of "I’m 70 years old and I can shoot 15% from three" and when Patterson missed two crunch time free throws and called them ‘close,’ Boeheim said was not pleased since close doesn’t cut it in college. Maybe in 8th grade, but not college.

Other players who could transfer are Dajuan Coleman, who despite being the #14 player in his class has played 37 games in 3 years, and never played more than 25 minutes in a game; BJ Johnson, who has potential in my opinion, but at 6’7 185 and viewed as a shooter, he needs to shoot better than 26% from three; and Chinoso Obokoh, who saw limited action in 13 games, and was mainly recruited to help bring in his high school teammate, Thomas Bryant. Obokoh has some potential, but at 6’10 215, he’s not ready to contribute and be a force to be reckoned with in the middle of the zone. He’s definitely at least two years away from being a contributor, if not three.

And it is possible that Gbinije or Cooney could jump ship and leave without sitting out because of these sanctions (I think they can at least). Cooney bleeds Orange and I don’t think he’s even considering leaving. Some have suggested Gbinije could leave early this year if he really wanted to (he’s put up 17-5-5 since McCullough went down) but I expect him to be back again.

All four incoming recruits have said they will remain committed despite the sanctions. I believe Syracuse has the option to push the scholarship sanctions back a year, so they can still have 13 if they want to next year (it kind of sucks cause Syracuse only had 8 healthy scholarship players this year. I wish they could count this year as one of those four haha). So if one person transfers, we are still in the running for Bryant this year. I’m fairly certain he wants to come here, it’s just a matter of the spot opening up for him.

Then for 2016, Moyer said he will also remain committed to Syracuse despite the sanctions. Let’s assume Patterson transfers in 2015 and we land Bryant.

The team will have: Joseph jr., Howard so., Richardson so., Johnson sr., Roberson sr., Moyer fr., Bryant so., Lydon so., Diagne so., Obkoh jr., and Coleman sr (assuming he redshirts this season). This is also assuming McCullough is gone after next year which is likely the case anyway. I don’t think we ever had a shot at Harry Giles, but I do think Tyus Battle is 50/50 between us and Duke right now. I think he is also like Bryant, and wants to come to Syracuse so he can be a PG (he’d be a SG at Duke), but it comes down to whether we can get him a scholarship or not. It’s possible we could someone get a scholarship open for him, but it’s so far in the future, I don’t know how it would happen, considering it looks like we’ll be at 11 for 2016 (whether we have Bryant or Patterson, it doesn’t matter. We are on pace for 11 that year). So we really would need to free up two spots to land Battle. This is why I’m thinking we could potentially see three players transfer this offseason. One to open up a spot for Bryant, and two so we can get Battle down the road. Boeheim isn’t going to force a player out obviously, but he’s going to sit down with his players and be realistic with them. How much time can BJ Johnson get at the 2/3 spots with Richardson, Roberson, Moyer, and Lydon also competiting for minutes. How much time is Patterson going to get at the 1/2 spots with Joseph, Howard, Richardson, and maybe Johnson and Battle? How much are Coleman and Obokoh going to get with Diagne and possibly Bryant coming in? I’m not saying I want to see these players leave, but if they want to play, they either really need to improve their games or transfer. There aren’t going to be enough minutes to go around for everyone, so transferring sooner rather than later may be their best choice considering they shouldn’t have to sit out a year with these sanctions now.

It’s really not even worth looking into 2017 and beyond at the moment since we don’t know who, if anyone, will transfer. The amount of people who transfer this offseason will be huge in terms of which recruits we get in the long run. If no one transfers, which is a good possibility, then Syracue’s hands are tied for 2015-2017. If a few kids decide to transfer, Bryant and Battle could still be in play.