Syracuse Basketball: Trevor Cooney Will Redshirt

Just about every player on the Syracuse Orange roster has played in the team's first two games this season. That includes freshmen Rakeem Christmas and Michael Carter-Williams, both of whom have logged serious minutes.

The same can't be said of Trevor Cooney, was has been noticeably absent so far this year, leading to speculation that the sharpshooter would be redshirted for the season. And so he shall. However, Jim Boeheim doesn't want you to think this is a bad thing.

"Sometimes when we redshirt a guy, he couldn’t help us,’’ Boeheim said after Syracuse’s 92-56 win over Manhattan on Monday night at the Carrier Dome. "Meaning he’s not good enough sometimes to help us. This is different. He is good enough. He could play out there. I think he could play well, but when you have four guards ahead of him, he’s not going to play a significant amount of time.’’

"I made the decision to redshirt him this year,’’ said Boeheim, "because I think he’s really going to be good down the road.’’

Fair enough. Cooney will do well to sit out the season and put another year of practice under his belt. With Scoop Jardine graduating, that'll open up some room for him and his three-point shot next season.

Cooney is taking it about as well as one might expect:

"I’m definitely a little disappointed. Everybody wants to come out here and play,’’ Cooney said. "But for him to say that he could use me this year, but he knows that it’s going to be best for me to sit out a year, it shows how much trust he has in me.’’

Here's Cooney talking about the decision for him to be redshirted for the 2011-2012 season (Posted by Lauren Long)