Syracuse men’s basketball 22-23 roster preview: Maliq Brown

We’re going to spend some time looking ahead to the 2022-23 Syracuse Orange men’s basketball roster. We’ll look at the players that we anticipate will be returning as well as the incoming recruits. Next up is incoming forward Maliq Brown.

Season Recap

Maliq Brown is a 6’9 power forward from Virginia. The 3-star recruit chose Syracuse over Georgetown, Murray State, and NC State which certainly speaks to his intelligence. On the court, Brown helped lead his team to a fourth-straight Virginia state title as he was named Division II Player of the Year. He averaged 15.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 1.5 blocks per game in his senior year at Blue Ridge High School.

Brown was ranked the 9th-best player in Virginia and 50th-best power forward in the country by 247 sports.

Next Steps

Depending on what happens between now and September, Brown would seem likely to be part of Syracuse’s bench rotation in his first year. A strong rebounder who could earn minutes with activity on the glass and solid defense, I think Brown will take time to adjust offensively and that will keep him from starting right away. Next year’s Orange squad will need to generate offense through their defense so a player with Brown’s skill set is going to be valuable.

Depending on how you classify Jon Bol Ajak and Justin Taylor, Syracuse has 4 or 5 forwards projected on next year’s roster. Brown, Benny Williams and Chris Bunch seem to fit the prototypical Orange long, athletic wing. If Jim Boeheim is committed to playing more man-to-man defense next season then we should see plenty of that trio at the forward spots. Brown’s the type of energy player that this year’s Syracuse team could have used so while his overall numbers don’t project to be high as a freshman he’s likely to be a key contributor if the Orange get back to the NCAA Tournament next season.