It’s not a usual March for Syracuse Men’s Basketball. There’s not even a sliver of hope for a bubble bid into the NCAA tournament and a decent chunk of fans have been tuned out for a while at this point.
But there’s still games to be played. The Orange have two regular season contests left before the ACC Tournament begins next week (that somehow SU qualified for). So here are three things to look for in this final week or so of SU hoops as a glimpse of SU’s future.
- Does Elijah Moore play?
This may be the biggest question for SU in these last couple of games. While SU’s other star freshman, Donnie Freeman, is out for the year with injury, Elijah Moore does seem to be available after a few games out. The sharpshooter has had an underwhelming season and hasn’t played since the UNC game. Does he stay with the Orange for a sophomore campaign? Who knows. But if he doens’t play at all the rest of the year it seems a lot less likely.
- The attitude of the players
In today’s day and age of college athletics, there’s no guarantee that a player comes back the next season to play. And that is especially the case with Syracuse this year with another sub-par season. We’ll ignore the freshman. But Kyle Cuffe, JJ Starling and Chris Bell are all guys who have the eligibility to return, but also easily could transfer. In this last week, seeing the attitude of these players both on the court and in interviews will be telling to who might come back to Syracuse next year.
- Rotation changes
The biggest questions with this year’s team have often started with the coaching. Adrian Autry is in the hot seat, and while his recruiting class will likely buy him another year, a lot of fans aren’t too happy. While Autry isn’t going to magically win over the fan base in these last few games, he can at least show some risk. Change up some lineups. See what works. And show that you do still have control over this team.
