Syracuse Basketball Preview: #67

I think you have definitely underrated Syracuse, Wes Johnson could become one of the best scoters in the big east and you are overlooking Brandon triche, he was great in the syracuse summer league and was outstanding in the Jordan high school all star game he will have a major impact on the point this year and will likely see more time than scoop jardine this year. This combined with rautins and the big guys have the vise poised for a better season than most think.

Agree with many of your thoughts, but what makes you believe Johnson will be anything more than the 12ish ppg guy he was at iowa state?

because that was 2 years ago and he was not even playing his natural position at iowa state.

While I am not sure Syracuse will be back in the Sweet 16 like last year this team is much better than #67.

Many who watched Syracuse practices last year have said that Wes Johnson, not Jonny Flynn was the best player on the court. Jim Boeheim has said that he believes Wes is lottery pick. He was runner up for freshman of the year in the Big 12 to Kevin Durant and played his sophomore season with a stress fracture in his foot. He is the type of long explosive athlete that excels in the Syracuse system.

Brandon Triche may be one of the underrated freshman in the country. He wasnt ranked highly out of high school but his ranking was much lower than it should be due to a knee injury and a very limited AAU schedule.

Even Dave Telep National Recruiting Director for Scout.com said "Of all the guys in the class, he's the one guy I have no good read on,'' Telep admitted. "It's not his fault. It's my fault. It's been such a long time since I've seen him. I've just missed him or he's been hurt.

"Brandon Triche could be an All-American and I wouldn't know.''

He did however win 2 NY State Championships and state player of the year and Jim Boeheim has hinted that the PG may be his job to lose.

Scoop Jardine was decent for a freshman, even starting a few games. He has worked hard to get his body in shape for a successful season.

Without any injuries this team is plenty deep for Boeheim who rarely goes more than 8 deep. My prediction for this season would be right about 25 and 6th in the Big East. I dont know how many people this team will surprise this year but Joel Welser certainly will be surprised

I am not sure I could disagree with this "analysis" anymore.

1. It has been made fairly clear by Coach Boeheim that Triche is going to start at the point guard position, not the shooting guard position.

2. Syracuse returns their 2 big men who are at the top of the NCAAs in terms of field goal percentage.

3. Syracuse gets bigger and more dangerous with the addition of Wes Johnson to replace Harris.

4. Rautins is a bigger version of Devendorf at the top of the Zone. Not as good off the bounce, but a far better passer and shooter.

Jardine, Joseph, Jones, Riley off the bench provide depth. Probably not as good a shooting team in years past but a more athletic team.

meanwhile Blue Ribbon has us #15. And Doug Gottlieb lists Wes among the transfers who will contribute the most. Sorry, but this article is WAYYYY off. And if you knew anything or knew how to google, you would have seen that Boeheim has said numerous times that Brandon Triche will be the starting PG.

what they said. Seriously though 'Cuse is going to fly under the radar for a while and thats ok. I think this team finishes no worse than 5th in a somewhat down Big East. By the end of the year Wes and Rick Jackson are household names.

It has long been known by all Cuse fans that we don't get credit before we earn it. And before you say, 'that's what all fans say about their respective schools' check the record. That said, I've read many articles through the years on predictions of the season ahead. This has to be the most uninformed or unresearched piece I've ever read. Brandon Triche was Gatorade player of the year for NY. He dropped 33 in the Jordan Brand Classic regional, with 1 turnover. Boeheim made it clear he was the favorite for the starting nod at the point. No hype due to ACL injury his junior year. Wes Johnson is the #1 transfer in Lindy's college basketball among many other publicatons. Rautins has proven to be one of the best shooters in the Big East LAST year. With his experience on the Canadian team can only add to his skill set. I personally think Rick Jackson will be the most consistent player on the team and the best PF in the league, based upon his growth through out the season last year.
Have fun with 67th, whoever that may be!

DaShonte Riley highlights the incoming freshmen?? What? He was thrown in as an after thought.....not bad for a big warm body, but he's definitely not the highlight. Triche is gonna really surprise a lot of people. And we've finally got away from Devendorf's reckless passes (leading to turnovers) and Harris' disappearing for stretches and sulking. If Arinze's knees hold up, I really think this group will be better than last year. Flying under the radar is a wonderful thing.

#67 is laughable. This might be the most uninformed preview I have read. You can tell this guy simply googled Syracuse Basketball and made assumptions off that. I still wonder why SU gets such little respect. Other teams (Duke, UNC, etc.) can lose their entire team and still be listed in the top 5 on name alone. Little does he know that Devo and Harris held this team back at times. I won't miss the horrible turnovers and low basketball IQ mistakes of Harris one bit. Devo is a question mark off the court and can be a big distraction. Flynn is the huge loss, but SU has some major talent coming back. Also, the Big East will be a bit down so finishing 10th would be a horrible season. If SU is below 5th or 6th I'll be very surprised. I'm interested to see where this guy lists Pitt, who lost every stud from their team last season.

I would love to see 66 teams better than syraucse. Even if you counted all the teams in the nba you still couldn't find 67 better teams. You are incredibly underestimating Wes Johnson who will be syracuse's best player by far and probaly a first team all big east player. The frontcourt is the best in the bigeast and the trio of Andy Rautins, Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche are not that shabby either.
Do a little research before you come out with these joke predictions. I'm curious if you ever seen Wes Johnson, Scoop Jardine or Brandon Triche play...I'm guessing no.

Though I don't agree with the disrespectful tone of some of these comments, I fully agree that Syracuse is way underrated. (Which is probably a good thing - keep expectations low while SU works some new people into the system.) There's a couple points I'd like to make. You asked why some people think Johnson will be anything better than a 12 ppg player. I think some earlier comments addressed that pretty well - I'd just like to refer you to two current articles which are on the ESPN college basketball homepage today, by Gottlieb and Fran Fraschilla.

I'd also like to add about Brandon Triche something Boeheim has said - that he's never recruited a player as hard as he recruited Triche. And I don't need to remind everyone that Boeheim has recruited some pretty good players. And regarding the fact that Boeheim expects Triche to be his starting point guard, well Boeheim has a pretty good track record of judging when a freshman is capable to handling the starting point their freshman year, Jonny Flynn and Gerry McNamara being two good recent examples. The key here is realizing that Triche doesn't have to be great. He just needs to be a solid ball handler. He has a ton of talent surrounding him. Outside of Kansas, Texas and UNC, there's not many frontcourts in the country that will be better than AO, Jackson, Johnson, and Kris Joseph. Which reminds me, I'm not sure you're giving Joseph enough credit. A few months ago Dickie V listed the five players in the country that he expects to be most improved this year. Joseph was one of them.

One last point. I think it's clear that replacing Harris with Johnson will be a big upgrade. The point that most people pass over is that you should expect Rautins to be an upgrade over Devendof. You lose the off court distractions, and pick up a lot on defense. The long armed Andy Rautins fits perfectly into Boeheim's zone and has already generated a lot of steals.

eom

Shawn, you let this article get posted? 66 teams ahead of Syracuse? You realize, that really the only loss that matters is Flynn. They have a TON of experience returning, including upgrades at two positions. Did no other team ahead of them lose starters? For instance, a team like Oklahoma is going to be better? Really? Griffin WAS their whole team? Uconn without Thabeet and Adrien? UNC lost just about everyone, UCLA would be .500 if the Pac 10 would be any good this year, which they won't (and these were just some ELITE teams) and the list goes on and on...
This article doesn't give this site much credibility...as you'll find out during the season.

This preview is laughable. You do realize Boeheim was quoted as saying Wes Johnson was the best player in practice last year. Practices that included an NBA lottery pick. I think he will do more than just contribute. Obvioulsy they won't replace Flynn but they will be better at the wings with Rautins and Wes and have AO and Rick with another year under their belt. Some inexperience at the PG is the only major concern. 67 ? Cmon.

I'd love to see him justify a 10th place finish in the Big East. That's absurd. Even in down years, Cuse has struggled to finish that badly. I just saw Akron and Duquesne were ranked right after the Orange at 68 and 69, respectively. If you don't do drugs, Joel Welser, why would you write such an article to make people believe that you're under the influence?

So, the ESPN Coaches poll came out. They have Syracuse ranked 25. Do you continue to stand by your prediction that there will be 66 better teams in the country this year?

I have commented on this earlier stating what I personally thought about ranking the Orange #67. While preseason rankings are meaningless I thought Id state what some others around the country think.

Coaches Poll #25
AP Poll #31
Athlon Sports #15
Dick Vitale #20
Gary Parish NR (rankings only go to 25)

You also put Syracuse #10 in the Big East while the poll of Big East coaches placed them 6th. A poll among the Big East beat writers also placed the Orange 6th in the conference.

These are all very credible sources with very different opinions from you on how good Syracuse is. My question is do you know something they dont or do you need to do a little more research?

Not only should you fire Joel Wesler but you should do some more research before you rank the Big East 5th. 45-0
That doesn't look like the 5th best conference in the nation to me. Especially since no Big East team has played one another yet.

How's 67th lookin? We tried to explain in detail and with the due diligence you were lacking, that we were above this non-sense 67th. I can't stress enough how a site with what 20 employees would let this get through proof reading? You just joined Gottleib territory congrats!
GO CUSE!

Damn they're making us look bad right now :)

Growing up in western NY, I always have a place in my heart for 'Cuse basketball. John Wallace even went to my HS- with that being said... indefense of the good people at CHN, I'm not sure when the actual rankings were done, but didn't they lose to a division II school in an exhibition game? YES, I know... EXHIBITION being the key word, but as a big name school in a big name conference, you do NOT lose those games and it potentially reflects where your program is at. Your walkons at a DI school should at least be even with a DII level athlete.

So take a step back, breath in and enjoy it because you won two big games. Luckily there is time in NCAA Basketball to right the wrongs of preseason polls, but there is also time for a letdown too, so hang on to the good stuff while its going good!

Jeff you might want to know what your talking about. Let's not forget 2 or 3 years ago Michigan State lost to a D2 school, and made it extremly deep into the tournament. This has happened a few times over the past few years. You also should (and not just you but everyone) outta have some respect for D2 basketball. There are plenty of teams that Findlay could beat that are D1. If you lose one game it doesn't mean your season is over.

It's an exhibition for a reason. Ranking Syracuse 67th is ridiculous. I don't think a team ranked that low would have manhandled the Tar Heels the way the Cuse did.

Wow, deleted my comment huh? So no one can write a response when they feel your boy Jeff Wright is wrong? My comments were factual and warranted. Sorry to hit a soft spot!

Hey Joel, don't let them get you down for yoor ranking of syracuse so low. Any time you predict something in the preseason you never know what's going to happen. I agree that they shouldn't be 67th whether they were better or worse, but when you lose key players like Flynn, Devendorf and Harris its hard not to think they'll be worse. Living in Syracuse and being a huge orange fan like these other guys that have written in, i thought when those players entered the NBA Draft that this season would no longer be worth watching. I knew Jardine was only okay and Triche was a freshman who was only considered mediocre, so i thought we would only do well when Arize Onuaku, Jackson, and Rautins light it up scoring-wise. Boy, was I wrong! being 7/8 right now in the polls, I am astounded at how well we are doing, and how the 2-3 zone is the best it has been since the championship game year with Carmelo and Anthony and company. I can understand where you're comin from, because I would have placed tem back a little bit too in the preseason polls to if i was doing them. Maybe not 67th, no offense, but more like 30-45ish. They still had the talent better than mose teams in America, that was what i was guessin. But don't feel bad about premature predictions. After that Lemoyne game, which i listened to on the radio and was astonished and stunned afterward, i could onlt tell myself, the season's over, oh no, a bad syracuse for the first time since i started following su basketball. You probably agree now that they are a great team now, just look at the first half of the Maine game which i went and saw at te Dome. 60 ponts, and a highlight reel. enough said. You just messed up and it happens, just like in su football. ESPN analysts said the SU football team under Paulus coould win the Big East possibly, after the close but great game in the first game aginst Minnesota. They were really wrong. We finished last or second-to-last in the Big East again, with 4-8 record. Even I thought Paulus and the football team would be good, but I was wrong. Anytime you guess anything, there will always be a margin of error, and you just ended up on the wrong end. Despite the mishap, maybe you'll beecome an Orange fan in the process. they are a great team this year. join the badwagon while its full of pulp! Go Orange! -Juicy Josh

nice prediction by the way. like the blind leading the blind. stick to jeopardy trivia. LOL

wow, cuse gets the respect that they always get. Just like lacrosse and picking duke to be number one over the BACK TO BACK national champions, bunch of BS, the basketball team definatly looks like the number 67 team in the country, what a bunch of idiots who have no clue about any sport, go find a computer office job Joel Wiener that does not include anything sports, try dear Abbey dumbass

I think at this point its pretty evident that you were just a little off...Joel, I'd love to see a revision on your thoughts about this "far less talented" Syracuse team.

This article is HILARIOUS. It's pure comedy gold reading it. Post season projection: NIT? Yes, that DOES seem about right for a team that has an overall record of 23-1 and plays in the toughest conference in the nation. I know no one really expected Cuse to make up (and get better) after last year's losses, but even the Coaches' Poll had them 25 in preseason rankings -- Seriously, this completely undermines any credibility this site has.

Riley "highlights the incoming freshmen"? Didn't you have Syracuse ending TENTH in the Big East as well? TENTH? Good God. My five year old daughter could have done better preseason research.

Seriously, I don't know how you got this far off in your prediction of Syracuse would perform this season. Jim Boeheim has 32 20-win seasons, and this year alone the boys are off to a 24-1 start. They should definitely miss landing in the NIT by a solid margin. Yes, they lost some key starters, but you have to factor in Wes Johnson, clearly one of the top players in the nation. Throw in Brandon Triche, and you've got a solid team with the players that returned from last season. This is probably my first and last time at this site. What a joke this preseason ranking was, and honestly, an insult to SU hoops fans.

ALL I CAN SAY IS.....BWAAA HAAA HAAA HAAAA !!!! Seriously, doe's this reporter still have a job?

... If you want to try and feign ANY credibility whatsoever.

3/1/2010... Final week of the regular NCAA season...

Syracuse #1 Team in the nation...

I have never failed so poorly at anything in my life as this prediction has failed.

hahahahahaa

Serious question: When you take a dump, does your head implode?

Hah.

Joel Baby - nice fivehead! And nice preseason prediction. Your pic makes you look all of 12 years old. However, I'd expect a more accurate analysis from a 12 year old.

Have fun handicapping the NCAA's!

I am no expert, but this is a little off. Isn't Syracuse like 27-2?

pretty close!

Well this guy graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in TV Film. This was actually a script for a horror movie, not a reality series!!! No wonder he was so far off from reality. It was all fiction after all. LOL

Does the author still have a job? What's Joel Welser up to these days?

So now that Syracuse is #1 in the polls, how do you feel about your prediction. I mean you were only 66 off at this point. Im pretty sure a 10 year old girl could make a better prediction than that. Please, next time for all of us, actually do some research and write a somewhat intelligent piece. I HOPE that this guy does not have a job with this company anymore