Syracuse hasn’t landed a five star recruit since Chris McCullough in 2014. While the Orange generally tends to recruit more for its system with length and athleticism, these type of prospects instill more buzz into the program. But it’s not for a lack of trying. SU perennially makes a run at elite level prospects and frequently lands in the top threes and fives of five star players. Isaiah Stewart is a prime example of that for the Class of 2019. But there are two players the Orange struck out on over the past couple of years that could be hitting the transfer market soon.
Yesterday, rumors swirled that Kentucky guard Quade Green and Villanova guard Jahvon Quinerly both are considering transferring. Today, Green announced his intentions to transfer from the program. He in particular was high on the Orange’s wish list when he initially was being recruited.
Since entering the collegiate ranks, neither Green nor Quinerly have been impressive. Green lost his starting job less than midway through his freshman season. There’s the infamous story that coach John Calipari yelled in a practice that Green was going to go off for 30 points in the next game, but he has only cracked 20 points once in his entire collegiate career.
As for Quinerly, he has barely seen the floor in his first couple of games of his career, including 13 total minutes over the last four games combined. All of this comes on a very underwhelming Villanova team that will likely drop out of the rankings for the second time this season after its latest loss to Penn. That led to a cryptic Instagram story post that seemingly voiced his frustrations with the program.
lmao Jahvon Quinerly wants out pic.twitter.com/fAcKAS8d3a
— ryan bowman (@itsryanbowman) December 12, 2018
Now it’s worth noting that Quinerly was originally committed to Arizona until the program and head coach Sean Miller became a focal point in the NCAA FBI probe.
If Green and Quinerly hit the open market, both surely will draw massive interest. Five star recruits rarely stay in college more than one year, let alone reopen their recruitment with a year or more of college ball under their belt.
This all begs the question as for whether Syracuse would entertain the idea of re-recruiting both guys. It all starts with assessing the current situation at point guard. It’s worth noting that both of these players are true point guards, not combo guards. They both stand at barely 6-feet tall. That being said, Frank Howard is graduating after this season. That leaves Jalen Carey and Howard Washington as the only returning point guards on the roster for next year. But Washington’s status for next season may be up in the air. He has played in just three of the Orange’s nine games this season, despite all indications suggesting he is healthy. The incoming class features only Joe Girard as a player that could play the point. It looks unlikely that Syracuse would add any other point guards to their roster in the Class of 2019.
Both of these players transfer situations would involve different courses of action. Since Green is transferring midseason, he is eligible to return to action at the end of the first semester of next season. It’s also worth noting that Washington and Mike Hopkins have been rumored to be interested in Green, presumably because of a relationship that Hop and Green had while he was still an assistant at SU. Gerry McNamara was the lead recruiter for Green.
As for Quinerly, unless he decides to transfer in the next couple of days, he would have to sit out a full year before returning to the court because of transfer rules. But after decommitting from Arizona, his top choices were aside from Nova were Seton Hall, Georgetown, Oklahoma, Memphis and Maryland.
Now in today’s era of basketball, there is always the looming cloud of whether these players will opt to not go to college and just train in preparation for the NBA Draft. But since both have struggled in their starts to their college careers, it would be tough to see either be any higher than a late second round pick.
Both of these players need to find another team for their NBA aspirations. But Syracuse probably won’t be the destination where they wind up at, even if they could come in and be the best player on the roster right away.
