DCOrange

Eh. I think he likely gets to the first round whether he's at Syracuse or (insert lowly D1 school here). Seems like the decision here was coming off the bench for a top 40ish team vs. starting for a top 40ish team. Seems like he made a good choice to me; hopefully he beats up on UConn before he leaves. The tricky part is that it seems like pretty much all of our minutes next year are likely spoken for at this point between Girard, Buddy, Benny, Swider, Jesse, Symir, and Jimmy (and especially so if Guerrier or Griffin return as well). I'm not sure we're likely to land other good transfers with little playing time to offer and if we land any late-deciding freshmen, there's a pretty good chance they just ride the bench and look for their next transfer destination next year like we're experiencing with last year's freshmen class now. We're in a tough position right now with little playing time to offer but a lot of available scholarships.

Woody Newton officially transferring. And Kadary Richmond has officially chosen Seton Hall.

Of the options that seem realistic (i.e. we’re not taking a QB), I would be most upset by a RB or TE at 30; particularly Travis Etienne.

Yes, that's a lock at this point. And it would be the first time since 1999 when Couch, McNabb, and Akili Smith were the top 3. Could potentially be the first time ever that the top 4 picks are QBs as well.

Wonder if this means anything for Anselem. Big for us if Sidibe can finally stay healthy though.

Not really a traditional cover of it, as he only sings for like 30 seconds, but this one has stuck with me for the past 5 years or so since I first saw it. Also, not sure it's better as I love the original, but I love this version too:

So if I'm doing the math right and my assumptions are correct, we should have 4-6 more scholarships available to play around with for the rest of the roster. This is based on the following roster (which is what I would assume we're likely to end up with, but things could change): PG: Girard SG: Buddy SF: Benny PF: Swider C : Jesse Symir Torrence (both guard spots) Jimmy Boeheim (both forward spots) One of Anselem/Sidibe (center) Chaz Owens (probably won't play) Sidibe won't require a scholarship either way, so we might be able to keep him as a player while also having that scholarship free. I definitely do not think we will use all 13 scholarships this year (or at least not on real scholarship players; maybe we'll do a walkon or two a solid for a year), but we should be able to add a couple more recruits be it through transfers or late HS commitments. The trouble is that assuming Jimmy does transfer in and that one of the C's stay, that'll pretty much be all of our playing time spoken for so it'll be tougher to pitch to transfers.

Moore is the best athlete. Probably the better football player of the 3 as well but the injury history is troubling and I think that generally pushes Toney ahead of him on draft boards.

He really didn't. He went from 97 yards per game on 11 yards per catch as a freshman to 93 yards per game on 10.3 yards per catch the last two years. He's been one of the best WRs in college football whenever he's been on the field; he just hasn't been on the field nearly enough the past two years to put him up there with the other top WRs in this class. I agree that WR isn't a need in the short-term, but there's a pretty good chance that (if he doesn't get hurt again), he could replace McKenzie as a rookie and Beasley/Sanders are likely only here in the short-term. We're lucky to be a team that doesn't need to reach for any particular need/can look more long term. I'm not going to bang on the table for us to take a WR like I would have in years past with DK for example, but I'd be much happier to take a WR like Bateman, Toney, or the Moores than taking a RB at 30. I'm probably hoping for an edge, corner, OLine, or one of those first two WRs though if I had my choice.

I’m not saying we should just shrug off the injuries...The injury history is very concerning. But he’s clearly a very productive player if you can physically get him on the field. Very much a high risk high reward prospect.

It’s not that he’s produced little. He’s just been hurt. Still putting up almost 100 yards a game when healthy.

I would be on board with Rondale (or a few other WRs) at 30. Certainly a risk with his injury history but he’s very talented.

Cole is definitely a shooter. I have no doubt about that. I definitely have doubts about him creating shots himself, but if we get him, we can use him in that Lydon role offensively with pick and pops or my favorite: screening the screener to free him up. I think he’ll definitely add a dimension to the team we were lacking with Dolezaj/Quincy as our big men (though other aspects of their game will be sorely missed) Jimmy has generally been a pretty poor shooter. No doubt Benny should theoretically be able to replace some of the shot creation, but barring internal developments (which I’m optimistic about with Buddy but not so much the rest), it’s probably going to be worse than it was this past year. Also, the optimistic part of this is our offense was quietly very very good this past season; Jim did a much better job than past years of having a real offensive system to generate ball movement and open looks for players that would otherwise struggle creating shots. If we can maintain the offense or come close, that would be great. The defense was our weakness the majority of the year.

I’d happily take any and all of them back. I’m a bit worried about our shot creation if Griffin is gone. Kadary, Griffin, and Buddy were our best in that regard last year and I don’t have much faith in the rest of the team being better there.

I haven’t heard anything regarding Griffin since all the initial movement we’ve had. I think I mentioned it in here before but I was told to expect: Guerrier to test the draft waters (and I think he likely moves on) Dolezaj to go pro overseas Sidibe to leave Newton and Griffin to leave Frank and Kadary were toss ups I think the school is still expecting Woody to ultimately leave but I think Braswell leaving improved our odds a little bit. Nothing new re: Griffin but Adam Zagoria reported a day or two ago that Griffin is expected to leave.

He had been around Daniel Jeremiah's top 30-35 prospects on his big board up until recently. Sounds like he had a relatively disappointing Pro Day with "just" a 4.42 40 while weighing 155 lbs.

This would be an exciting flier to take. Certainly not an Allen Griffin level transfer here, but as far as taking a gamble on a guy that didn't showcase much with his previous team, Swider is the kind that excites me. In the very least, I'm confident he can be a knockdown shooter which is huge for a PF.

Sure, we've had some fluky runs. That doesn't make us a top 25 program. The last time we were considered a top 25 team in the country was 2014; we used to be there nearly every single season from the 80s through 2014. Be it the sanctions, people just not wanting to deal with Jim anymore, or something else, the program has undeniably fallen off from where it used to be. Those schools are better than us more often than not now.

I don't mean for that to come off as depressing. Those are all good schools. We certainly used to be ahead of them in the early 2000s-2010s, but we fell off when we joined the ACC (and received the sanctions) and have never fully recovered. We aren't a top 25 kind of program right now; more like a top 30-50.

I don't think he's expected to run and he shouldn't feel the need to do so. Everyone knows he's likely a 4.55ish guy.

Hopefully he proves his high school scouting report right. Needless to say he was a disappointment at Marquette but you never know what a change of scenery can do. Certainly our most athletic guard now. He's young for his class too so he might just not have been ready for college ball at the time. That's my optimistic take.

West Virginia, UConn, Creighton, Maryland, and arguably Seton Hall would all likely be upgrades just talent wise, not to mention likely giving him the opportunity to start and be a key cog rather than sitting behind a worse player here. I would guess he ends up at UConn or Maryland when it's all said and done and they'll give him a good shot at going to the NBA next year. Would be great if Braswell backed out and came back to Syracuse but that kind of situation is extremely rare if it's ever happened.

A lot of smart people would say Najee makes the most sense for our offense of any of the RBs in this class (not to say those that prefer Etienne are not smart, just saying a lot of people think Najee is precisely the type of RB we need). Having said that, I remain vehemently against taking a RB in Round 1. I'm not going to lose my mind if that's the direction they ultimately go, but it would be very disappointing.

Anselem was our 3rd freshman commit this past year and was expected to fight for the starting job next season with Jesse Edwards.

I'm nowhere near finishing grading my QBs for this year's class, but I would guess Fields will have a higher grade than Wilson and I think building around Darnold would be a smart decision so I would vote for Wilson here.