Jim Boeheim and his Syracuse Orange got off to a fast start during their first season in the ACC. They rolled off 25 straight wins to begin the year, including a 12-0 start in ACC play. They would then lose back-to-back games to lowly Boston College and to powerhouse Duke.
The Duke game featured an epic Boeheim temper tantrum, during which he ran onto the court shouting expletives to protest a charge call. The Orange would lose two more games to end the season, costing them the conference championship they seemed destined to win.
To make matters worse, they would lose in the third round of the NCAA tournament to Dayton. A season with so much promise would end with no hardware. After the season leading scorer C.J. Fair would graduate, star freshman point guard Tyler Ennis would declare for the NBA draft, as would freshman big man Jerami Grant.
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Instead of continuing to build a team that learns and grows together, Boeheim will have to start over without his three best players.
Syracuse still returns some talented players, but are any of them up to the level of Fair, Ennis, or Grant? Perhaps the most important player on the roster is the player replacing Ennis. Freshmen point guard Kaleb Joseph has big shoes to fill.
Can Joseph adjust to the starting point guard role as well as Ennis did last year? Ennis scored 12.9 points and dished out 5.5 assists per game last season. He never seemed like a freshman. His calm demeanor and careful play were a huge part of his team’s early success.
He only turned the ball over 1.7 times per game and boasted a 3.2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio for the season. His careful and effective play will be tough to replace.
As it turns out, Ennis and Joseph are very different players. Joseph is more explosive athletically than Ennis, but may not have the same careful nature or exceptional basketball IQ. He is a good ball-handler and is good at getting to the rim and finishing.
He is not the 3-point shooter Ennis was and Ennis only shot 35.3 percent, but he is an impressive player that will find ways to help his team. If Syracuse fans come in with reasonable expectations about Joseph they will like what he brings to the table.
Fellow freshman Chris McCullough is also expected to make an impact early. He was ranked as a five-star recruit by Rivals.com, and is a very talented prospect. McCullough is a 6-foot-9 inch power forward who is very physically impressive.
He is very athletic and his various mix tapes show off many a high-flying dunk, and emphatic blocks. He is also a highly skilled big-man that can run the floor, handle the ball, and score with finesse in the paint. He also has a good jump shot and can even stretch his game out to 3-point range.
If he reaches his full potential during his freshmen season, he could even be a one-and-done.
The returning leading scorer from last season is sharpshooter Trevor Cooney. Cooney averaged 12.1 points per game last year, which was tied with Jerami Grant for third on the team. Do not expect Cooney to become the leading scorer this season. That is not his game. Cooney is best when he is the second or third option.
Cooney is a 3-point gunner and despite a midseason slump, shot 37.5 percent from long range last season. If Joseph’s dribble penetration is as good as advertised, Cooney could take advantage of open looks from outside. He can score in the paint if necessary, but his best asset is his shooting.
Rakeem Christmas will enter his senior season in perhaps his biggest role yet. He is by far the most experienced post player on the roster, he will need to score more than he ever has in his career, and continue to grab rebounds. Christmas is a beast on the offensive glass and he was also a good rim protector last season.
He led the conference in block percentage at 11.3 percent, and finished 10th in offensive rebounding percentage. It will be interesting to see if this keeps up with his expected increase in minutes.
Role players DaJuan Coleman, Michael Gbinije, Ron Patterson, and Tyler Roberson fill out the rest of the roster. One, or all, of these players will see their playing time increase this season.
This is a team with more questions than answers. That means there will be an opportunity for players earn a larger role within the team than they had in the past. It remains to be seen who will take advantage of that opportunity.
Syracuse has some nice pieces, but they are not the same caliber of team they were a season ago. This is a team I view as a tier below the title contenders in the ACC. Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, and Virginia seem like true contenders, while the Orange may be on the outside looking in.