Syracuse
Last season: 19-15, lost in second round of NIT
Nickname: Orange
Coach: Jim Boeheim, 42nd season
Conference: Atlantic Coast
Who’s gone: G Andrew White (18.5 points per game), F Tyler Lydon (13.2 points, 8.6 rebounds per game), G John Gillon (10.5 points, 5.4 assists per game), F Taurean Thompson (9.2 points), F Tyler Roberson (4.9 rebounds), F Dajuan Coleman (4.8 rebounds).
Who’s back: G Tyus Battle is the lone returning starter and was third on the team in scoring as a freshman (11.3 points per game) and second in 3-pointers with 60. Junior G Frank Howard averaged 4.5 points and 3.6 assists with 38 steals as a sophomore and played in all but one game last season. F Matthew Moyer redshirted, and C Paschal Chukwu suffered an eye injury in December and did not play again.
Who’s new: G Howard Washington, F Oshae Brissett, F Bourama Sidibe, F Marek Dolezaj, G Geno Thorpe, and G Elijah Hughes, who has to sit one year after transferring from from East Carolina.
The Skinny: Syracuse’s 15 losses last season were the most in Boeheim’s career, and with the departure of assistant coach Mike Hopkins and such a big turnover on the roster the Orange are an afterthought at best, picked in the preseason to finish 10th in the ACC. Syracuse was the top seed in the NIT last spring, which likely meant it was close to a berth in the NCAA Tournament. This team is younger but has more size, and with a veteran like Thorpe, a fifth-year senior who led South Florida in scoring (15.1 points) and assists (4.6), and the added experience of Battle and Frank Howard to help fill the void left by last year’s fifth-year seniors (White and Gillon), an NCAA Tournament bid is not out of the question.
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