Syracuse Athletics State of the Union

The state of the Orange heading into 2023.

SU fans! With 2023 only nine days old, this is an excellent time to wipe away all the Christmas and New Year’s eye boogers, prepare yourself for the dearth of college football that’ll be happening after tonight (my money is on the Dawgs, but never rule a football team from Texas) and get back into the swing of things at work. I’ve laid out for you not only a (concise) recap of all (notable) 2022 SU athletic happenings, how I feel about them, and a look ahead to 2023.

MEN'S SOCCER: I would be remiss if I didn’t start this article talking about the national championship that the Orangemen brought back to campus. Please put away your Melo and Hakim Warrick throwbacks back; I’m talking about Levonte Johnson, Nathan Opuku, and the SU soccer team. The squad that “Dared to Dream” ended with a 19-2-4 record (19 wins being a school record), and Johnson was named a finalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy, essentially NCAA soccer’s Heisman trophy. Levonte, defenders Abdi Salim and Buster Sjoberg, forward Amferny Sinclair, and GK Russell Shealy were all selected in the 2022 MLS draft, with five draftees being another SU record. The coaching staff didn’t go unnoticed, with Coach McIntyre garnering ACC Coach of the Year honors and his staff collecting being named both USC (United Soccer Coaches, not the Trojans) South Region Staff of the Year and National Staff of the Year. While expecting back-to-back national championships would be unrealistic and replacing five starters. Pro players would be a challenge for any program. With the jovial, youthful energy of Coach McIntyre, and his proven ability to get talent to both transfer in and mesh together quickly, nobody should be expecting a significant drop-off next year.

MEN'S BASKETBALL: Well, Boeheim is still here, so that’s good (right?). Say what you want (trust me, I have eyes, too), but this is still a 10-6 team with a 3-2 ACC record after the UVA loss, one in which a few good things happened, but a lot of bad did too. SU’s play has them smack dab in the middle of the ACC standings as the calendar turns, which many fans may understandably moan and gripe at, about until you realize that you’re sitting directly behind the UVA/Duke/Unc trio in the standings and 1 or 2 wins could shoot you to the top. Judah Mintz has proven to be everything we thought we would be, but outside of him, there have been few consistently bright spots so far. Jesse Edwards is averaging 13 and 10, but he’s still susceptible to inconsistent effort and will pull a disappearing act every so often. Both Benny Williams and Chris Bell have been maddeningly unpredictable, one game looking like NBA wings and the other times barely coming up with two rebounds between the both of them. If there’s going to be any 2023 resurgence for this SU team, it’s going to be squarely on the backs of those two. Much maligned senior guard Joe Girard has given his haters substantial evidence, with his 39 FG% not real easy on the eyes, but he’s still SU’s leading scorer at almost 17 a game, and he and Mintz take (and make) a lot of tough, clutch shots. If you can believe it, there are no ranked teams currently on SU’s schedule through the rest of the year, so it’ll be interesting to see what this squad can do in an ACC that looks much different than it did at the start of the year. Barely beating Louisville, which legitimately may be the worst Division I team in the country at 2-13 right now, doesn’t spell out great things, but CBB is about guard play, and a Mintz-JG backcourt always has the potential to catch fire. If SU wants a legitimate shot to return to the tourney, they’ll need to steal at least one game from the cream of the ACC crop (UNC and Duke always looks good as a resume win, but [insert] sits atop the standings right now).

FOOTBALL: So, yeah, that could’ve gone better. The slide from ACC top dog and potential CFP dark horse to limping out of the year with a Pinstripe pummeling from Minnesota was swifter than any of us would’ve liked. However, you’re starting QB has already announced he’s coming back (a blessing in this portal age), and this is the highest win total SU has finished since that magical 2018 run. Many people seem willing to give Shrader the starting job going into the next year, but Justin Lamson and Carlos Del-Rio Wilson both have staunch supporters at FanNation, and Shrader’s Pinstripe performance doesn’t exactly slam any doors shut in the QB room. If Dino Babers wants to keep his job, he will have to figure out how to win games in November. Maybe 3-3-5 originator Rocky Long replacing Tony White and Beck’s elevation to OC will help that. A LOT left you in the portal and to the draft, but, as Mike McAlister says, attrition is expected in CFB in 2023. You got some good pieces out of the portal, especially positions of need (DT, CB, OT), and LeQuint Allen looks like a future star in the backfield. With Marlowe announcing his return to SU, he and Caleb O will be the backbone and face of The Mob. There’s one thing for sure: Upstate NY is a COLD place, but it would be in Babers’ best interest to turn around his late-season misgivings before his seat gets hot, really quick.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: The arrival of Coach Felisha Legette-Jack was met with tons of fanfare and expectations, and I’d say, half a year into her first stint as the local legend returning to her alma matter to man the sidelines (Not a 100% guaranteed success, ask Georgetown fans what they think of Patrick Ewing right now or how Louisville feels about Kenny Payne and you may get some NFSW replies), we can optimistically say SU made the right hire. That same physicality that the SU men’s team is in dire need of, the women have in abundance. Dariauna Lewis, Coach Jack’s most significant portal addition from Alabama A&M, is second in the ACC, averaging just under ten boards a game, and her energy and physicality are a nightly problem for SU opponents. Throw in Asia Strong, another portal post addition from Wichita State, and those two have been bullying teams on the glass and out-hustling them. The perimeter defense has been stout, as SU has three women on the team (Georgia Wooley, Fair, and Teesha Hyman) averaging over two steals a contest. When you have that combination of perimeter defense and physicality, this has the makings of a stellar defensive unit, not unlike The Mob. Of course, when Dyasha Fair starts to do her dance, a là Jamal Crawford, at the top of the key, there are few players, men or women, more unstoppable than the senior guard from Rochester. She’s averaging almost twenty a night (19.7, good for second in the ACC), and she’s that consistent offensive engine that can carry a team by herself. You would like to see her be a bit more efficient (36.9 FG% on over 18 attempts a game), but shot-makers are coveted at all levels of basketball, and she’s one of the best. Currently sitting at 12-4 with an identical 3-2 ACC record to the men, Coach Jack has this group in a position to secure an NCAA tournament bid if they can handle their business in 2023. The following two matchups will be huge, a tilt on Thursday night with a BC team directly above you in the ACC standings and a Sunday matinee affair with sixth-ranked Notre Dame. The ND win would feel especially sweet after a narrow loss to sixth-ranked NC State on the first day of the year in the Dome, and Notre Dame is another one of those teams barely ahead of you in the ACC standings, so this would be an excellent place to make up ground in-conference. Also, what a statement win it would be for Coach Jack: her first-ranked win against a top-10 team, knocking off a nationally recognizable brand in the Dome. Couldn’t imagine a better scenario myself.