Syracuse enters 2020-21 with plenty of question marks

By Aidan Joly

Entering his 45^th season at the helm in Syracuse, Jim Boeheim enters the 2020-21 season at a crossroads. The team had some significant losses, but returns a good amount, leading to a season that has some questions for a program that has not won more than 10 conference games since the 2013-14 season.

The Orange are coming off an 18-14 season that kicked off with a 48-34 loss to Virginia, the lowest point total in any game in Boeheim’s tenure. They struggled in the nonconference portion of the schedule and then again towards the end of the season after a stretch of eight wins in 10 games in ACC play and had advanced to the ACC quarterfinals by the time the season was cut short due to COVID-19 concerns.

The biggest loss from last year comes in the form of Elijah Hughes, who led the ACC in scoring last season and was All-ACC first team before he left for the NBA this past summer. In addition, the backcourt took some big hits in the transfer market with Jalen Carey leaving for Rhode Island after playing just two games last year due to a thumb injury that required surgery and a medical redshirt, Brycen Goodine to Providence and Howard Washington to South Alabama.

However, as for the returners, there are a good amount of them, including the solid backcourt duo. Buddy Boeheim averaged 15.3 PPG on 37% shooting from three-point range in his sophomore season, looking to build on that. Joe Girard also returns for a sophomore season after a solid freshman season that saw him average 12.4 points and 3.5 assists per game. As for newcomers, Illinois transfer Alan Griffin received a waiver and will be eligible this season, providing an outside shooting touch. Freshman Kadary Richmond, the 84^th ranked recruit in the country according to 247 Sports, will serve as a depth piece off the bench. He can play a little forward as well, standing at 6-5. He may even be in a position to start at some point in the season with a solid jump shot and good defensive play.

In the frontcourt, they are set to return both Marek Dolezaj and Bourama Sidibe. Dolezaj averaged 10.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game last year, while Sidibe had 6.0 points and 7.6 rebounds per contest. As for the depth off the bench, Quincy Gurrier is back after dealing with a nagging groin injury last season, which he played through to the tune of 6.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. It might be a competition between him and Griffin to start at the 3. Jesse Edwards may very well end up as the backup center, and sharp-shooter Robert Braswell returns after playing just seven games last year with a shin injury, which resulted in him getting a medical redshirt.

There are two interesting points to this team that will almost dictate the season. The first one is how much the defense will improve. Syracuse ranked 116^th in the country in defensive efficiency last season and the 2-3 zone can be exposed through outside shooting and offensive rebounds. They did an okay job at limiting fast breaks, but they need to improve in those two areas.

The second is if they can find a playmaker on the roster to replace Hughes. Hughes did everything well last year and they need to find someone this year. There’s lots of candidates for that (Girard, Boeheim, Griffin and Dolezaj come to mind) and it’s a gap they need to fill.

The bottom line for this group is this: they project as an NCAA Tournament bubble team, like they seem to be every year as of late. The answers to those two questions will be the key to if they are an NCAA or NIT team.