John Bol Ajak Returning to Syracuse

The sophomore center will be back with the Orange next season.

Mike McAllister | May 26, 2021

John Bol Ajak Returning to Syracuse /

Center John Bol Ajak has elected to return to Syracuse basketball next season, Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post Standard reports. Ajak is a 6-10 center who will be a redshirt sophomore next season. He provides depth to the front court and can even play forward if needed.

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Ajak originally entered the transfer portal in March, shortly after the end of the 2020-21 season. He averaged 0.2 points, 0.4 rebounds, 0.2 assists, 0.2 blocks and 0.1 steals in 5.1 minutes per game this past season. Ajak appeared in 10 games. He redshirted the year before.

The 6-10 sophomore came to Syracuse as a top 500 recruit who picked the Orange over offers from Pittsburgh, VCU, Connecticut, George Washington, Georgetown, Rutgers, Saint Louis, Seton Hall, Villanova and Wake Forest. He was recruited as a forward, but transitioned to center this past season due to Bourama Sidibe’s injury in order to provide added depth to the position. While Marek Dolezaj manned the center spot most of the time, Ajak got his shot to prove he could provide valuable minutes for the Orange.

While he was certainly a presence with great length and some size, he was unable to earn a consistent role. Now he will look to carve that out next season.

Syracuse finished the 2020-21 season with a loss in the Sweet-16. Most considered the Orange’s NCAA Tournament hopes to have ended after a loss at Georgia Tech. But Syracuse won against North Carolina and Clemson to end the regular season, then had two impressive performances in the ACC Tournament to earn a bid.

Published May 26, 2021

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.