Syracuse men’s basketball: Orange lands UCLA transfer William Kyle

Moving to the Best Coast

Syracuse Orange men’s basketball is on the board in the transfer portal.

SU has landed UCLA transfer William Kyle III, a 6 foot 9, 230 pound big man with a 7 foot 3 wingspan, per his Twitter.

Kyle played just 9.6 minutes per game for the Bruins, averaging 2.9 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. He shot 70.4% from the field. He’s known as an athletic big man that can play in different ways, but uses his strength at the rim, and draws a ton of fouls. However, he shot just 39% from the stripe in 2024-25. Kyle scored most of his points this past season with dunks. 28 of his 38 field goals were slams, many coming from the dunker spot or from pick-and-rolls.

By the middle of the year, he started to fade out of the rotation in favor of 7 foot 3 Spainard Aday Mara, but he played 21 minutes in the Bruins’ Big Ten Tournament loss to Wisconsin.

Defensively, Kyle provides a different, more athletic element to the post than what Syracuse had this past year. He has had a block rate over 5.6 in each of his three seasons in college basketball, peaking at 9% this past season with the Bruins. However, opposing teams shot 68% at the rim when he was on the floor, as teams frequently pulled him away from the basket in UCLA’s small lineups to space the floor.

Kyle played his first two seasons of college for South Dakota State, where he was one of the most athletic players in the Summit League. He averaged 13.1 points and 6.6 rebounds, shooting 62% from the field in his sophomore season with the Jackrabbits.

He was named the Summit League Defensive Player of the Year in 2023-24, First Team All-Summit League, and the Summit League Tournament MVP.

Kyle is originally from Bellevue, Nebraska, where he attended Bellevue West High School, winning back-to-back State Championships.

He has one year of eligibility left. Depending on Petar Majstorovic’s decision, Syracuse has either seven or eight remaining scholarships.