Mike Waters has a solid rundown today on the four big names from the Big East who declared early for the NBA draft and how their leaving (or returning) will impact their teams and the conference. You may be familiar with one of them...Donte Greene.Waters spoke with a few different basketball folks on the matter and their opinions on Greene and his influence on Syracuse in 2008-2009 is rangy at best. Jay Bilas thinks that while the Orange will be good no matter what, having Donte back would make a world of difference:
"If he comes back, Syracuse is one of the upper-echelon teams in the Big East...If he doesn't, they'll still be good. But if he's back, that gives them a premier scorer. I think he'll learn how to impact and dominate a game."Fran Frischella agrees with Bilas. But on the flip side, The Sporting News' college basketball analyst Mike DeCourcy thinks Syracuse may just be better off:
"I thought he was a player who reached a crossroads," DeCourcy said. "Do I want to fake my way through this or do I want to be a player? I think you got that answer from Donte. To me, I think Syracuse will be better off with the roster they'll have."Much like Cuse fans, no one can seem to come to a consensus on whether or not this is good for SU. Guess we'll all just have to wait until November to find out.