With the opening of the transfer portal, it feels like a good time to remind Syracuse fans that despite the obvious disappointment of Quadir Copeland leaving SU along with Justin Taylor, history tells us that players who depart Central New York are most often not as successful with their new teams. So, let’s go back to the last few years of rosters and guys who left the Orange program and how they have fared elsewhere.
2019-20 Season: Brycen Goodine, Jalen Carey
These guys fell out of favor with Jim Boeheim rather quickly, despite getting a handful of opportunities in the one or two seasons they played at Syracuse. Goodine initially transferred to his hometown school of Providence, where he never averaged more than 2 points per game. Now, he has spent the last two seasons at Fairfield, where this year he has averaged nearly 14 points a game while shooting almost 47% from 3.
Carey finished up his career by playing three years at Rhode Island and as a redshirt senior in the 2022-23 season played nearly 30 minutes a game while scoring 10 points a game. He was fine, nothing special on an Atlantic 10 team by the time he was in his 5th season of college basketball.
2020-21 Season: Kadary Richmond, Quincy Guerrier, Woody Newton, Robert Braswell
The big name here is Richmond, who fans wanted to stay but as Boeheim said the other week, he offered him every chance to play but was concerned about his conditioning. Now, here he is as a senior as one of the best players in the Big East as he averaged 16 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5 assists a game on a team that just missed the tournament. He would have been a great Syracuse player, but circumstances took that away with where the roster was at.
Guerrier has not put up close to the same numbers he did as a sophomore at Syracuse as a fifth-year senior at Illinois (after a stop at Oregon). He left to prove to professional scouts he could shoot the ball from outside, and is finally doing that this season as he shoots it just under 39% from 3 on three attempts per game. He hasn’t played nearly as many minutes as he did with the Orange, but he’s back in the NCAA Tournament with the Illini this year as a 3 seed.
Newton left Syracuse for Oklahoma State, and never really found his footing with the Cowboys as he transferred to George Mason this season after two years in Stillwater. He’s averaged under 6 points per game in under 20 minutes this season, never fulfilling his initial potential when he came as a raw talent to Syracuse as part of the 2020 class.
Finally, Bobby Braswell is in his 6th season in college (!!) but has still never played more than 20 minutes per game in a season. In 2021-22 at Charlotte, he played just under 20 minutes a night and averaged 8 points a contest. That’s about his ceiling.
2021-22 Season: Frank Anselem
The only member of this team to depart was Anselem, who was stuck behind Jesse Edwards for the majority of the year, and in his two years at Georgia has never exceeded his outputs with the Orange, playing just over 7 minutes per game this season as a senior and scoring 2 points a night.
2022-23 Season: Joe Girard III, Jesse Edwards, Symir Torrence
Girard and Edwards are interesting, as they both transferred after playing four seasons, so you knew what you were getting. There was not much more development to be done at their new schools. Girard is playing about the same minutes he did at SU, but at Clemson is shooting much better from the field. He’s still scoring around 15-16 points a night but is doing it on 42.5% three-point shooting and 96% at the line. He’s headed back to the tournament with the Tigers as a 6 seed.
Edwards’ departure was highlighted by money, and the fact that SU could not figure out how to make his NIL deals work because he is an international student-athlete. On a 9-23 West Virginia team, Edwards averaged similar numbers to his senior season at Syracuse, and we are all thinking what a difference he could have made to this year’s team.
Finally, Torrence moved down to Binghamton and played over 30 minutes a game, while averaging 8 points and 7 assists a night, career highs. It’s good for him, but he moved down a significant level in competition to succeed, which is what a lot of players on this list have done.
2023-24 Season: Justin Taylor, Quadir Copeland, potentially more to come
It’s unclear where these guys are going, but Adrian Autry has some work to do to keep turning over the culture of this Syracuse roster and how he wants to shape it moving forward. JJ Starling and Maliq Brown seem like rotation locks to return, but other than that everything is up in the air.
Regardless of what else happens, it’s clear the trend, underclassmen who leave do not usually have much success elsewhere, maybe more now than 10 years ago, but even still in the portal era, guys who leave Syracuse are not always better off. The grass isn’t always greener.
