Boeheim’s Army completes 2023 TBT roster

Following a productive week of announcements, Boeheim’s Army secured the nine-player minimum needed by Saturday to be eligible to compete in the 2023 TBT.

Boeheim’s Army finalized the roster by adding five additional players to complete this summer’s squad. Included in this group were three former Syracuse Orange players: Rakeem Christmas, Andrew White III and BJ Johnson.

Christmas who will anchor the middle for Boeheim’s Army, returns for the 2nd straight season. He last played for the Virgin Islands in the FIBA Americup back in September.

White spent last season in Australia and he’s likely to be used to provide scoring off the bench this summer. He’s a solid 3-pt shooter and someone who can stretch the floor. Johnson played last year in Spain and he has proven he can score in a variety of ways.

The other two additions are prolific scoring guards Matt Morgan and Grant Riller. Morgan played four seasons (2016-2019) at Cornell and averaged 20.5 points per game. He made the All-Ivy League team all four seasons with Cornell, including two first-team nods in 2018 and 2019. By the time his collegiate career wrapped up, Morgan finished second in the Ivy League’s all-time leading scorers behind Bill Bradley.

After not getting selected in the 2019 NBA Draft, Morgan chose to go overseas first in Turkey and later to France, where he ended up winning the award for “Best Point Guard” and finished second in MVP voting in LNB Pro A, only behind the eventual number-one NBA draft selection and French phenom Victor Wembanyama.

Riller is a 6’2” guard who played his college ball at College of Charleston. In his final two seasons in college he averaged 21.9 points a game and last year was just under 20 points per game for the Texas Legends in the G League. Riller, Morgan and Tyus Battle could form a very dangerous perimeter group for Boeheim’s Army.

Here is what head coach Ryan Blackwell will have for a roster this summer. We have to see how this group will mesh, but there appears to be a lot of strong perimeter players among this group.

Guards: Tyus Battle, DeAndre Kane, Dwight Buycks, Grant Riller, Matt Morgan

Forwards: Chris McCullough, Jimmy Boeheim, Andrew White III, BJ Johnson

Centers: Rakeem Christmas, Paschal Chukwu

With the roster for Boeheim’s Army established, the next step will be getting these guys all on the court. Boeheim’s Army will host the Syracuse Regional of this year’s TBT at the Upstate Medical University War Memorial Arena from July 24 to July 28.