Last week Jalen Carey fell from starting point guard to completely out of the rotation.
How you feel about Jim Boeheiem and how he has handled Carey is one thing. But, we should give the head coach some credit for starting Girard. Not sure many coaches would’ve done that considering he was a freshman who had shot it 25% in his first two career games. But it paid off in a big way. It was Seattle, but that offense looked much better.
That’s kinda besides the point though. The question now becomes: should Carey get another chance this season?
The short answer is yes. Just because Girard might be the better option at starter doesn’t mean Carey can’t be used.
He was really bad in those five minutes against Colgate. He turned it over twice and forced two ill-advised shots. Syracuse didn’t score a field goal while he was out there as point guard. All after how poorly the offense looked against Virginia when he was running the starting point in that game too.
Carey has really struggled. However, he is still super talented. Just go back and watch the MSG games if you don’t believe that. 
Let’s not forget while Girard’s 24 point performance at home against Seattle in his first career start was awesome. Carey had 26 points at Madison Square Garden against UCONN in his first career start, which is even slightly more impressive.
Point being it was one game for Girard and we know Carey has it in him.
Obviously this is decision time for Carey. He came to Syracuse with NBA aspirations. The #38 recruit in the ESPN 100 is now out of the rotation in his sophomore season on a mediocre Syracuse team that lost tons of talent? That’s way lower than the worst case scenario Carey or anyone else imagined for him.
After his cryptic Instagram story Wednesday night, transferring felt kinda inevitable.
And then he didn’t play Saturday. He did tweet something that may lend you to believe he is sticking it out the other day though. 
It’s hard to say if he is transferring. It would make sense for him and it would make sense to do it soon. If Carey transfers now he can play next season by the second semester. Potentially even earlier if he gets an approval like Quade Green at Washington (sorry for bringing up the sore subject). 
NBA or playing professionally is likely still on his mind. It’s a serious uphill battle now and obviously regardless of where he is playing, he would have to show much more consistency and play much better. However, the quicker he plays for a different team and gets minutes the better his chances.
I bet most are expecting this to be the end of the Jalen Carey era. That could very well be the case. However, part of me believes this isn’t. If he was going to transfer wouldn’t he have done it by now?
I don’t know why, but I bet Boeheim gives him another shot and we see a decent amount of Carey in ACC play. Maybe not as the starter after Saturday. This is a team that needs scoring and talent though and Carey could provide both. Not to mention, this rough stretch may get him fired up to play better.
