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Last week’s news about Darius Bazley skipping college to head right into the G League brought back one of the familiar refrains about Syracuse Orange basketball- the lack of success of former players in the NBA.
this part i don't get: if you're concerned enough with your professional future to do a year in the g-league, why did you ever commit to play zone for a year at a school with a poor track record of developing pros? https://t.co/7seCBsv0Fn
— El Flaco (@bomani_jones) March 30, 2018
We’ve heard plenty of similar comments to this one so I decided to do a bit of digging to see if this was just another #lazynarrative around the Syracuse program. Using the 247 rankings I went back to the 2003 class to look at the players that the Orange brought in after the Championship season. Using this metric, Syracuse has only brought in one top 10 recruit in that time period- Donte Greene (Bazley would have been the second). Despite lacking a lot of can’t miss recruits, the Orange have produced nine first round picks and four second round picks in that time. (For sake of the development angle, I’m not including Wes Johnson or Mike Gbinije here).
The debate about the Syracuse development becomes even more muddled when you look at this statistic.
Syracuse can’t recruit! They can’t produce NBA talent! Oh wait... pic.twitter.com/c3QzPvj1Vh
— SUJuice.com (@TheJuiceOnline) April 10, 2018
So in this “One and Done” era, the Orange sits 4th in terms of first-round picks. When I went back to look at how these players, I found that most of the NBA picks were top 30 recruits, but it wasn’t a guarantee for future success. What is clear is that Syracuse has often recruited without concern for rankings and that the program certainly isn’t hindering the development of players.
Take a look for yourself at what we’ve seen the last 15 years
Syracuse BB Recruiting
Year | Player | 24/7 Ranking | NBA Draft | NBA Games Played (as of 4/3) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | 24/7 Ranking | NBA Draft | NBA Games Played (as of 4/3) |
2003 | Daryl Watkins | 24 | 14 | |
Demetris Nichols | 28 | 53 | 18 | |
Terrence Roberts | 42 | 0 | ||
Louie McCroskey | 70 | 0 | ||
2004 | Josh Wright | 43 | 0 | |
Dayshawn Wright | 72 | 0 | ||
2005 | Eric Devendorf | 33 | 0 | |
Arinze Onuaku | 201 | 19 | ||
2006 | Paul Harris | 12 | 0 | |
Mike Jones | 38 | 0 | ||
Devin Brennan-McBride | 157 | 0 | ||
2007 | Donte Greene | 7 | 28 | 253 |
Jonny Flynn | 18 | 6 | 163 | |
Scoop Jardine | 53 | 0 | ||
Rick Jackson | 55 | 0 | ||
Sean Williams | 284 | 0 | ||
***** | Andy Rautins | 5 | ||
2008 | Mookie Jones | 43 | 0 | |
Kris Joseph | 58 | 51 | 10 | |
2009 | Brandon Triche | 122 | 0 | |
**** | James Southerland | 4 | ||
2010 | Fab Melo | 14 | 22 | 6 |
Dion Waiters | 21 | 4 | 365 | |
CJ Fair | 81 | 0 | ||
Baye Keita | 146 | 0 | ||
2011 | Rakeem Christmas | 23 | 36 | 30 |
Michael Carter-Williams | 26 | 11 | 287 | |
Trevor Cooney | 105 | 0 | ||
2012 | Dejaun Coleman | 22 | 0 | |
Jerami Grant | 48 | 39 | 299 | |
2013 | Tyler Ennis | 23 | 18 | 180 |
Tyler Roberson | 41 | 0 | ||
BJ Johnson | 89 | 0 | ||
Ron Patterson | 175 | 0 | ||
Chino Okoboh | 180 | 0 | ||
2014 | Chris McCullough | 21 | 29 | 59 |
Kaleb Joseph | 48 | 0 | ||
2015 | Malachi Richardson | 34 | 22 | 48 |
Tyler Lydon | 72 | 24 | 1 | |
Frank Howard | 79 | 0 | ||
2016 | Tyus Battle | 34 | 0 | |
Matthew Moyer | 66 | 0 | ||
Taurean Thompson | 74 | 0 | ||
2017 | Marek Dolezaj | 111 | 0 | |
Oshae Brissett | 137 | 0 | ||
Bourama Sidibe | 190 | 0 | ||
Howard Washington | 289 | 0 | ||
2018 | Jalen Carey | 56 | 0 | |
Buddy Boeheim | 318 | 0 | ||
Darius Bazley | 8 | 0 |
When you look at the overall recruiting picture for the last 15 years, I can see how some people can critique the lack of former Orange players who have gone on to star in the NBA. Just like I’d be cautious about giving too much credit to John Calipari for the NBA success of his former players, I wouldn’t place blame on Jim Boeheim if the Orange alums haven’t found that same success professionally.
However, shouldn’t the goal of the program be to get players into the league in the first place?