[goldie92689Participant]

I am clearly an orange visioned Syracuse Fan. They will have issues making it to the final four this year. Since the current Jr Class came in I have thought that 2013-2014 would be the year the put their best team on the floor. Two are already gone, I never expected Dion to hit the radar, although I thought he would develop into an NBA Player. They have done a good job replacing those guys and putting a load of future nba role players on the roster, including the incoming crop.

With that being said the 2013-2014 team may be an all time great college basketball team, they would have to win of course. If MCW comes back, only better.

Here is how the rotation would look;

C – Dejuan Coleman so, Baye Kiete sr
F – CJ Fair sr, Rak Christmas jr, Jerami Grant so, Tyler Roberson fr
G- MCW (not likely) jr, Mike Gbinije so, Trevor Cooney so, Tyler Ennis fr

10 deep, Incredible length, experience, explosiveness, great defense.

….and the dc, fair, xmas, mcw and gbinije will likely go in the first round.

[Moon RiverParticipant]

I am worried about the point guard situation next year. Guard play is so important and especially the PG at tourney time. And that is why I think they may be better off this year with MCW and Triche in the backcourt.

[machu46Participant]

Ennis is gonna be great, but I don’t know, a lot of youth in the backcourt.

[goldie92689Participant]

Yes a lot of youth in the backcourt, but gbinije and cooney will be redshirt sophs. Not happy with Cooney’s lack of development thus far.

[Moon RiverParticipant]

Thank Kobe the Cuse got Ennis in the fold. They really do not have any other PG options available. Fair is more of a PG option than Cooney.

Is the Gbinjie kid the transfer from Duke?

[Moon RiverParticipant]

My bad, that was just plain lazy on my part. Yes, Gbinjie is the 6’7″ transfer from Duke and he is definitely not a point guard.

[redone1Participant]

The 13-14 team will be good but I don’t think they will be better then the past few teams. Cooney is a good shooter with no PG skills and Ennis is a solid incoming freshman PG. Gbinjie will probably be forced to play as a backup 2 guard but is more suited as a wing. Ennis needs to start working on his stamina so he can play as much as possible because when he is out they will not have any type of a PG

[goldie92689Participant]

Who will Cooney be backing up at the 2? Cooney? I doubt it, Dollar to a donut, Gbinije is busting cooney’s ass in practice on a daily basis.

Nothing better than game minute for development. But history shows that a year of practice in this program is very useful. Gbinije is a legit 2 man.

[goldie92689Participant]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLMgrPlJDEw

[SiggyParticipant]

-Gbinije’s more of spot up shooting wing than a guard. Quite frankly, he’s not all that impressive as a player.
-I have trouble seeing DaJuan Coleman as first round pick at any moment unless he completely reshapes his body.
-Christmas’ lack of progress as a player is a major disappointment. I’d be surprised if he ever gets it to the point that he’s a first rounder.
-I think CJ Fair won’t return next yr. He’s having a great season and could play his way into late first.
-Can’t believe you’d list all those guys as possible 1st rounders next yr and not list Jerami Grant. To me he’s the best prospect on the team right now outside of MCW.

In any case, I agree that next yr’s team won’t be as good as this yr’s team because of the guard play.

[goldie92689Participant]

Grant “hopefully” has 2 years left, he will be a star post CJ and Xmas, but yes, he could go after being the 6th man next year.

Xmas has developed substantially offensively.

Coleman is an very good condition, however the idea of him being a poor mans sullinger was false, coleman cannot finish at this point.

[SiggyParticipant]

I think Grant will be a stud as soon as next yr. Unlike Christmas, he’s got a brain and knows how to impact the game in a number of ways, not just in 1 or 2 ways. He’s a jump shot away from being an early 1st rounder IMO.

Christmas has developed substantially? Then why is he still only getting garbage buckets, few touches and averaging ~10.5 pts a game per 40?

If Coleman is in very good condition then that just further supports my notion that he’ll never be a 1st round pick.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

G- MCW (not likely) jr

Carter-Williams got off to a phenomenal start, but since the start of the Big East season, he has been lousy. He is shooting 32 percent from the field, and his assists dropped from 10.2 per game in the non-conference to only 6.2 in conference. At some point, a player has to come to the realization that if he is lousy in the Big East he probably shouldn’t make the leap to the NBA.

[goldie92689Participant]

I agree(maybe not lousy), since early in the season I thought his hype has been unwarranted. I do not trust him with the ball and wish they went back to the dual point offense that they have been running with all their combo guards for the past few years. But you have to trust Jimmy B. I do believe mcw is a much better shooter than he has shown. I understand his nba potential, but I dont think he is ready to be the lead guard on a final 4 team. Maybe by march?

[cuseflynn10Participant]

– Dajuan Coleman pulls a Fab Melo and gets in playing shape. I would expect Coleman to be more of an offensive threat than Melo, but less of a shot blocker.

– Rakeem puts it all together and can play consistent basketball. He went off for 12-5-4 yesterday, but doesn’t put up consistent numbers. He only takes 8% of our shots, and has shown glimpses of post moves, and already is good on defense. He just needs to add more hustle and desire on both ends of the court.

– I’ve never been a huge fan of Keita. He’s 6’10 or so and only 220. Brandon Triche is basically the same weight as Keita, except Triche is six inches shorter. I’m hoping Keita gets better, but I don’t see too high of a ceiling for him in his senior season unless he adds a lot of weight.

– If CJ Fair is back, this will be his team. He’ll be one of the two seniors, but as mentioned above Keita has a lot of work to do. CJ already puts up a bunch of dub-dubs and I’d expect him to average close to 15-9 in his senior season if he came back. He needs more of a killer instinct though. He affects the game in a bunch of different ways, but can go stretches at a time without scoring.

– Grant is looking like the real deal. I would not be surprised to see him starting next season the way he’s been playing. He put up 14-6-2-1 last night against his brother and ND. He needs to work on his instincts in the 2-3 zone. He has been out of position a few times giving up easy buckets.

– From what I hear, Cooney is destined to get into the PHOF someday… the Practice Hall of Fame. If he can translate his shot to game situations, he’ll be a go to guy on offense. He has shown good defense at the top of the 2-3, but he still needs work on his speed, especially when closing out on shooters.

– MCW is about as good as gone. He’s a 21 y/o sophomore so he likely won’t stick around another year. It is possible, but not likely.

– As for Gbinjie, I haven’t seen him play much, but word is that he’s been running the PG spot in practice a bit. He is definitely better suited off the ball, but assuming that MCW is gone, we will only have Ennis as a PG, and I don’t think Boeheim would have Patterson or Cooney bring it up. Hopefully Gbinjie can develop a PG game.

– We have a strong recruiting class with Roberson, Ennis, Patterson, Johnson, and Obokoh. Roberson may not get a lot of playing time next season, but I think he may develop into the best player in this class. Ennis will get the most playing time his freshmen year, and I’m hoping develops a better PG guard this summer, as he has been used more as a scorer in HS. Patterson’s play style reminds me of Dion Waiters. He has that drive to want to score, the ‘score by any means necessary’ kind of attitude. He seems like he can drive to the basket well, but I haven’t seen him shoot enough to see if he has 3-ball range. Johnson needs to bulk up if he wants to see the court next season as he is only listed at 6’7 165. As for Obokoh, I think he’ll redshirt as he is only 6’10 220 (same size as Keita), but would be stuck behind Christmas/Coleman/Keita. Coleman only gets like 2 minutes a game anyway, so I don’t see why Obokoh would waste a year of eligibility when he can use it to bulk up and improve his game.

[goldie92689Participant]

Need to keep Obokoh on the roster in case one of the other bigs goes down or continues the tradition of academic ineligibility.

Nothing Grant can do to jump xmas or fair, coleman maybe

[SiggyParticipant]

Grant’s already better than Christmas. I think the only thing that would stop Grant from taking Christmas’ spot is seniority or if Coleman is moved to the bench so that Rakeem can play the middle of the 2-3.

[BasketballJunkie224Participant]

the only guys i see going in the first round from this years squad are mcw and xmas.. maybeeee fair and maybe grant but to be honest i feel as though grant is getting a lot of hype very quickly out of nowhere. to his credit he has been playing well but lets be serious here he had a career high last night of 14 pts. its really too early to talk about him in the nba

[SiggyParticipant]

Grant has great tools: Length, athleticism, quick leaping ability. He’s also well-schooled, smart, active and has good form on his shot unlike Christmas. He has all the intangibles that Christmas lacks.

[DUNKnFUNKParticipant]

Ok first of all there is no point in talking about next year’s Syracuse team as if MCW *might* be back. Dude is 110% gone. He’s a 21 y/o sophomore who’s a very likely lottery pick and an absolute lock first-rounder. Honestly, he would be foolish to come back (in my opinion).

So MCW is leaving. Obviously Triche and Southerland will also be gone next year. I assume everybody else is coming back, barring some type of off-court situation (i.e. I can’t see anyone else leaving early for the draft).

I think next year’s Syracuse team could potentially have a very high ceiling, but there are a lot of unknowns. Here is my take on their roster:

CJ Fair: Already a stud. Will surely continue to be great next year (I think circumstances will dictate his offensive volume, i.e. how much is the team going to depend on him, but he is the one sure thing for next year).

Jerami Grant: I think he takes a BIG leap next year. When I saw him in limited minutes early this season I was super impressed and thought he would be a 2015 lottery pick. The more I see of him I feel like there’s a good chance he absolutely blows up next year and goes top 10 in the 2014 draft. I know people seem to be rushing to hype this kid but I think it is totally deserved. I really think Grant and CJ will be the best forward tandem in the country next year.

Rakeem Christmas: I feel very conflicted about his future prospects. He’s obviously very talented. Does he put it all together next year? Very possible he does and he emerges as one of the best big men in the country. Also very possible he plays at a similar level to this year, which I think is still pretty good, although I can see why people expect more from him.

Dajuan Coleman: Ehhh, I really don’t know with this kid. Hopefully he gets his weight down and becomes a solid contributor next year, but I really don’t see him making a Fab Melo type leap where he becomes a dominant player and goes first round in the draft. I could be wrong (I mean Fab Melo was garbage as a freshman, then a total beast as a sophomore) but he just doesn’t seem THAT talented to me.

I think Christmas and Coleman are the big question marks. One or both could blow up, and suddenly the team is stacked. One or both could fail to improve at all, and the team is still good, but probably not a National Championship contender. Assuming Christmas and/or Coleman improve at least a little bit, I think that front line (w/ CJ and Grant) will be absolutely devastating. CJ, Grant, and Christmas at the back of the zone is a nightmare of athleticism and shotblocking. Keita is what he is. Great player to have as a back-up big, but not someone you want to rely on too much.

Guard play will be a HUGE question mark for this team. Gbinje sounds like he is legit, so let’s say you pencil him in as a solid contributor. That still shines an enormous light on Trevor Cooney and Tyler Ennis, both totally unproven. I know Cooney looks horrible at times but I see him eventually being very good (whether it’s next year or 2-3 years from now). Ennis, well who knows, he will probably be the guy who ultimately determines how good this team can be. I don’t really know much at all about their other incoming freshman so I won’t speculate.

I think Syracuse will have a very talented team next yea but if I had to bet on it, I would say that their guard play will hold them back from being more than a fringe top-10 type team. Of course I could be wrong, especially since Ennis and Gbinje are basically total unknowns. So if those two end up being studs, and Cooney regains his stroke, then the sky is the limit for them.

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