It’s certainly been a rocky start, but there is still plenty of season left to go.
The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team already faces an uphill climb early on this season… and it’s only December.
Three of Syracuse’s four wins came with just single-digit margin of victories. The losses are piling up, with the Orange dropping in four of their last five games all to P4 programs. At the quarter point of the 2024-25 season, there’s a fair amount fans are clearly concerned with as the thick of ACC play looms ahead.
Yet, take a step back and there’s a case to be made there is indeed plenty to be optimistic about. Without sounding too much like a blind idealist, here are just a few of the notable players and trends Syracuse can at least hang its hat on (for now):
Bell’s slow shooting start
Through eight games, starting small forward Chris Bell is at least putting up similar points this year (12.1 PPG) as he did last season (12 PPG). The biggest worry is his overall lack of efficiency.
The key number that stands out: Bell’s outside shooting. In his third year with the Orange, Bell is shooting below 27% on threes through eight games in 2024. For context, he shot a career-high 42% on over six three-point attempts a game last year and 34.5% on nearly four threes shot per game the season prior.
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Bell’s volume (5.1 threes APG) is a tad lower compared to 2023-24, but he is still getting the threes up and remains Syracuse’s most valuable floor-spacer. Can the shooting climb up to that 42% mark from last year? That is still up in the air, but there is a chance he can catch fire and possibly climb back to 36% to 38% range over the course of the next round of games.
Something else on Bell to also be optimistic about is his free throw attempts (career-high 4.5 APG, 3.3 attempts more than last year). If the three can go down at his regular rate and he can stay aggressive getting to the foul line, he won’t be too far off from getting close to at least average 15 to 16 PPG.
Starling’s health
It’s always tough for a program to replace the production from a top offensive hub being absent, especially in the case of Starling where he was averaging career-highs in minutes (36.5), points (19.8), assists (3), field goal attempts (15.7), threes attempted (5.2) and free throws attempted (5.3) through six games.
Starling returning will help to return some sort of offensive hierarchy for the program. It remain to be seen if he can immediately pick up where he left off once he returns from injury, but his absence is regardless really missed by the Orange.
Improvement from Freeman and Moore
Syracuse’s two notable freshman are obviously not totally lighting up the scoreboard, but the duo is at least giving the Orange effort, enough offensive creation and intensity the team is sorely lacking.
Freeman is averaging nearly 13 points and 9 rebounds in 26 minutes a game. While he still needs to work on being more consistent defensively, he’s certainly been a better rebounder compared to initial expectations and taking on a larger scoring role than what was also expected during the preseason. He’s scored double-digits in three straight games and reached at least 20 points in two of the last three.
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Moore’s numbers are a bit lower on paper, but a 19-point effort versus Cornell followed by a team-high 24 points against Tennessee at least offered the promise that he can evolve into a microwave scorer who will still come off the bench, but can close and offer the Orange some sort of creation. Offensive consistency will also be something he needs to work on, but there have been some good early signs.
A solidified frontcourt
The situation is this: Freeman will continue to start next to Eddie Lampkin Jr. (9.3 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 2.8 APG, 55% shooting). When Lampkin is going, he gives Syracuse a much-needed scoring presence around the rim and moves the ball to cutters. If things aren’t going as well, the fallback can at least be Freeman at the five next to Jyáre Davis (10.1 PPG and 5.9 RPG in 21.9 MPG), who for most of the year so far has helped out in the scoring, rebounding and overall effort departments.
Between the backcourt and frontcourt, at least one of those two spots needs to just be concrete and without much change. Considering where the roster is now, consistency from Syracuse’s frontcourt will be a major x-factor the rest of the way.
Take a step back and look at the schedule
The obvious caveat here: all of Syracuse’s wins so far (Le Moyne, Colgate, Youngstown State in double-overtime and Cornell) have not been total blowouts and all of the losses are against P4 schools.
On the flip side, outside of expectedly getting torched by the Vols, Syracuse has lost those other three games (Texas, Texas Tech and Notre Dame) by five points or less. The Orange have UAlbany, Georgetown, Maryland and Bucknell up next before conference play kicks off for good.
The current state of the ACC
The one thing the Orange can’t control that should still be factored in: the ACC is a total mess right now in terms of who actually looks good.
Duke and Clemson are the only two programs ranked in the most recent AP top-25. Stanford, Pitt and SMU are all 8-2 as of Monday. Wake Forest and Florida State are at least four games above-.500 and then… total drop-off from there.
Once you really get past the top-six in the now 18-team conference, it’s as open as it can be. Last year, Syracuse was expected to be middle of the pack and ended up getting into the No. 6 spot in the ACC Tournament. That pathway is likewise still open to happening again this year.
Concern is clearly there for what comes next with the Orange, but for better or worse, a lot can happen very fast in the world of college basketball.