Syracuse basketball may be seeing more script in the near future

Syracuse Orange basketball fans have long been clamoring for a return to some of the program’s more traditional looks.

The last 10-plus years have largely consisted of Nike templates and block lettering. The uniforms haven’t been bad, but they’ve lacked the character and personality that some of Syracuse’s previous jerseys (National Title uniforms, script) had.

We’ve seen the script, particularly, return in fits and starts. After starting 25-0 in 2013-14, SU and Nike rolled out two-color uniforms to take on lowly Boston College. Syracuse lost that game and we haven’t seen those orange script jerseys (or the accompanying blue short) since.

Last year, the team wore script “Pearl” warm-up shirts to honor (and raise money for) the late great Pearl Washington. Various parties sold quite a few tees, which made the sight of the script (even if it was a “Pearl” shirt and not strictly a “Syracuse”-branded one) far more prevalent around the Dome and elsewhere.

Syracuse continued the script-Pearl tie-in this season, donning home white script uniforms against Georgetown for Pearl Washington Day. The SU women’s team also wore a modernized script back in December, which got us thinking about the potential reintroduction of the beloved uniform scheme.

Today’s latest happening might be the strongest indication yet that we’ll be seeing more script — even if it’s not the team’s primary uniforms.

Two new hoodies/warm-up gear options are available for purchase on the official ‘Cuse shop and Nike, respectively. And both prominently feature the script.

Products like this are typically rolled out between now and early March, so they’re available for the postseason (for fans and the players). Nike Elite schools (like Syracuse) get jersey refreshes at that time, so we won’t know how much the script will be incorporated into the uniform scheme until then.

BUT, this does tell us that Nike puts stock and value in the script for Orange branding, and that SU okayed the use of the mark for wider distribution.

As we’ve mentioned before, Syracuse’s uniforms have largely remained unchanged since the end of 2006-07. A shift now would probably make sense for a variety of reasons (roster turnover, Boeheim’s career coming to a close, coming Dome renovations, etc.).

So what do we think? Are we getting hyped up over nothing, or is there more to the timing of all of these script-related happenings? These hoodies are pretty awesome in any case, right? Might need to grab one ASAP...