The portal is buzzing again. Players are going in and out, committing to schools, taking visits, narrowing their lists, and all the fun stuff. So, let’s take a look at the Syracuse angle of which players that left after this season are showing up in portal rankings, along with where SU commits Eddie Lampkin and Jyare Davis fall as well compared to those guys.
ESPN
Lampkin is the first Syracuse player to appear on this list at 79th, with Jeff Borzello writing: “After spending three seasons at TCU, Lampkin left for Colorado and enjoyed his best season yet. He averaged 10.6 points and 7.0 rebounds, and he put up 15.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in three NCAA tournament games.”
Davis is a few spots down the board at 93rd: “Broke out on the national scene with 17 points and six rebounds against Villanova in the 2022 NCAA tournament. Davis averaged 17.1 points and 7.5 boards, earning second-team All-CAA honors.”
The other player to make a name on the list is Maliq Brown (who has been rumored to Duke) at 96th, 17 spots behind the new Orange center: “Brown certainly put impressive performances on tape during the final stretch of the season, notching three double-doubles and averaging 11.8 points, 9.6 boards and 3.0 assists in the final five games. Put up 9.5 points and 7.2 boards on the season.”
The Athletic
Lampkin appears first again here at 75th, with a substantial writeup from Sam Vecenie, one of the best basketball analysts out there:
“I haven’t been one of Lampkin’s biggest fans for many of the reasons we saw in Colorado’s Round of 32 loss to Marquette, when the Golden Eagles repeatedly attacked him in ball screens. Lampkin’s not a good rim protector in drop coverage and he’s not mobile enough to switch.
One way to mitigate his defensive issues is to deploy him in a zone, where he could take up space inside and use his size and length at the basket. The Orange used much less zone in Red Autry’s first season than they did under Jim Boeheim — just 20 percent of their defensive possessions, per Synergy. Syracuse was quite poor on defense last season, finishing 13th in the ACC in defensive rating while giving up 111 points per 100 possessions, per KenPom. So perhaps Lampkin’s recruitment signals a desire to go back to more zone next season.
If the Orange plan to use a similar amount of man-to-man again next season, I do not think Lampkin will be a particularly successful addition. But Lampkin is undeniably skilled on offense and will give the team a real post presence, something it lacked this season following the departure of Jesse Edwards.”
The only other Syracuse player to appear is Quadir Copeland, and Vecenie has plenty to say about the swingman as well:
“Not many players can realistically call themselves the best athlete in the portal, but Copeland is one of them. He’s lightning in a bottle on a basketball court, averaging 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals in just 22 minutes per game last season while playing some point guard and some off the ball for the Orange. He does things on the court that few can, from long hang-time finger rolls to spinning, whirling layups. His jump stops seem to cover eight feet, which is absurd.
Copeland pairs those athletic gifts with tremendous passing ability. He reads ball screens well and throws some of the most impressive live-dribble passes you’ll ever see on a court. I’m taking 20-foot wrap-arounds into tight windows, hook passes to rollers with ease, touch lobs, sharp dump-offs and more.
There is a wildness to his game that can be both intoxicating and frustrating for his team. He’ll turn the ball trying to do the spectacular. On top of that, he can’t really shoot. He made just 25 percent of his 3s and did not look particularly comfortable taking them in any circumstance.
But sometimes, the lightbulb comes on in a hurry with guys this athletic and with such a natural feel for the game. If it does, he might be truly special. Maybe he merely ends up as an impact backup like he was at Syracuse. But if he hits, he’s really going to hit.”
So, the takeaways here are that Syracuse is not star hunting, and its departures are not stars either. It’s about filling in the missing pieces to the puzzle and hoping the pieces for together a lot better in Autry’s second season compared to his first season. Of the departures so far, Benny Williams (UCF), Justin Taylor (James Madison), and Peter Carey (Siena) have found a new home, and the Orange have added Davis from Delaware along with Lampkin from Colorado, while still waiting on Dakota Leffew, who also visited this past weekend. Regardless, there are still a couple more weeks for the Orange to make portal moves, and we’ll see how they fill in the rest of this roster.
