Syracuse men’s basketball: John Bol Ajak & Robert Braswell enter transfer portal, per report

If you haven’t been keeping an eye on the collegiate basketball offseason, you might have missed the sudden influx of players that have entered their name into the transfer portal. Now that the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball season is over after a surprising run to the Sweet 16, Orange players are doing the same. The first to officially enter the transfer portal was John Bol Ajak, per reports.

A redshirt freshman, Bol Ajak only played in 10 games for the Orange, tallying two career points and four career rebounds at Syracuse. Initially recruited as a forward, the SU coaching staff moved him to center during his second year in Central New York. However, the South Sudan native didn’t see more than 10 minutes of playing time during a game.

Syracuse will need to find another depth player to play the center of the zone with the transfer of Bol Ajak and the uncertainty around the availability of Marek Dolezaj and Bourama Sidibe. Both veterans do have an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, neither player has confirmed if he’ll use that year.

Of course, Bol Ajak wasn’t the only Orange player to enter his name on Monday, either...

Robert Braswell has also entered his name into the portal, and this becomes a major gut-punch for the Syracuse frontcourt. Fan fave “Big Bobby Braswell” had a nice finish to the season and had become a key reserve during the surprising NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet 16. He averaged 3.8 points and 1.9 boards per game this year. Though since the start of the ACC Tournament, those numbers were more like 7.4 points and 2.2 boards per game while playing around 23 minutes per.

Though Braswell and Bol Ajak could both still opt to stay at Syracuse this offseason, we’ll currently assume that won’t be the case, since it rarely is. With more news left to come — Jim Boeheim mentioned to Brent Axe today that between four and six players could opt to go — Syracuse is going to be pretty busy trying to add players this offseason to counteract the departures.

We’ll add more to this article if more players enter their names on Monday. Otherwise, expect new pieces throughout the week if Syracuse sees others join them.

Update (5:44 pm): Quincy Guerrier will reportedly test his NBA prospects, per a report from Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota.

Ditota talked with Guerrier’s prep coach in Canada and it sounds like that Guerrier will enter his name in the draft but not sign an agent. College players are allowed to enter their names into the NBA draft process, but if they don’t sign an agent, there is a deadline for them to return to college if they feel like it. Guerrier had a strong start to the season but slowly lost some efficiency at the rim as teams started to focus him.