Syracuse women’s basketball: guard Madeline Potts commits to the Orange

The Syracuse Orange women’s basketball continued its productive offseason by adding Australia’s Madeline Potts.

Potts is a six-foot guard from Australia who on Friday became the program’s third commitment for the class of 2024 recruitment cycle.

The addition of Potts to the program down the road continues an early trend by head coach Felisha Legette-Jack to bring in players with international experience, especially from Australia. Potts, who plays for the ATC Academy as well as the NBL’s Nunawading Spectres in Australia, decided to join the Orange over Clemson and Western Kentucky.

Legette-Jack hopes that Potts will be a long-term piece down the road at guard with Orange star guard Dyaisha Fair entering her fifth and final year in collegiate basketball and Georgia Woolley beginning her junior year this upcoming season.

Check out this awesome collection of highlights from the U18 Australian Nationals competition:

The immediate skill that stands out is her movement without the ball. A lot of the highlights involve Potts cutting to the rim, moving off screens and finding different ways to get open. That’s allowed her to showcase her ability to attack the rim in transition or off some sort of action, pull up for a mid-range or let a three fly several steps behind the line.

Because of her height, she resembles a lot of the qualities current Syracuse guard from Australia Georgia Woolley provides for the team: not the greatest athlete, but makes up for it with great on-court awareness and extra confidence on her shot.

With Fair on her way out the door after this upcoming season, the Orange will need to replace one of the NCAA’s most productive scorers. Potts looks to have some potential, at least as a scorer.

The two biggest question marks based on the tape are the playmaking and defense. In the film you saw above, many of Potts’ drives to the rim usually end in a shot of some kind. Can she bring some sort of playmaking to the table when she transitions to the college game?

Potts offers some potential defensively because of her height at the top of the 2-3 zone. Her one-on-one defense, especially against more agile guards, is more unknown.

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Potts’ commitment continues a trend by Legette-Jack on using her connections to Australian hoops to bring in prospects with some upside. Besides Woolley and Potts, Syracuse welcomes Australian forward Sophie Burrows to the roster this season.

Besides Potts, Legette-Jack has commitments from guard Olivia Schmitt and combo wing Keira Scott as part of the 2024 recruitment cycle.