SYRACUSE 2007-2008 SNAPSHOT

May 8, 2007



Head Coach: Jim Boeheim
2006-2007 Record: 24-11 (10-6 Big East) NIT Quarterfinals

Returning Players:
Josh Wright, Senior (Point Guard)
Eric devendorf, Junior (Guard)
Andy Rautins, Junior (Guard)
Arinze Onuaku, Sophomore (Center)
Paul Harris, Sophomore (Guard/Forward)
Devin Brennan-McBride, Sophomore (Forward/Center)

Incoming Players:
Johnny Flynn (Guard)
Donte Green (Forward)
Rick Jackson (Center/Forward)
Antonio Jardine (Guard)
Sean Williams (Center)
Kristof Ongenaet (Big Forward)

Grduated Players:
Demetris Nichols
Terrence Roberts
Darryl Watkins
Matt Gorman


Open Items/Issues:
Syracuse just added a 6th member to their 2007 recruiting class when they picked up a commitment from JUCO PF Kristof Ongenaet, a 6'8 junior-to-be originally from Belgium. With Ongenaet the Orange hope to add some physical presence in the paint with a little maturity as the Orange frontcourt is scheduled to be young and inexperienced next season.

Otherwise it has been a quiet offseason for the Orange. No open issues regarding transfers as Syracuse looks to get back to the NCAA Tournament next season.

Summary:
No team was hit more by graduation than the Orange last year as 51% of their scoring and 56% of their rebounding leaves after four seasons in the form of Terrence Roberts, Demetris Nichols, Darryl Watkins and Matt Gorman. To hopefully offset the losses due to graduation, Jim Boeheim is going to have to hope his top-ranked recruiting class is ready to go early. Last year, top recruit Paul Harris struggled to acclimate himself in the Big East and find consistent minutes with an experienced team. Next year, the Orange will look for him to take on a bigger role and open up the competition for playing time to the newcomers. Donte Green and Johnny Flynn were McDonald's All-Americans and Rick Jackson and Antonio Jardine have a winning pedigree out of Philadelphia.

Also returning to the court for the Orange is Arinze Onuaku. The redshirt sophomore missed last season due to a knee injury and the Orange missed his bulk and underrated skills in the post last year as they had nobody capable of picking up the slack when Roberts and Watkins were out of the game. This year, Onuaku could be called on to start with their inexperience upfront, so he could be a player under the microscope early on.

The Orange also struggled last year at point guard as Josh Wright failed to capitalize on his chance to take the job as his. Next year Flynn enters the picture. Flynn has many of the same traits as Wright, but seems to have a better grasp at the finer points of being a distributor at this stage than Wright did. Eric Devendorf also began to play pretty well as a point guard down the stretch, but the junior is obviously more comfortable looking to score the ball. Paul Harris, who played in high school with Flynn, is also a player to be aware of heading into his sophomore season. Harris struggled finding his niche last season and got pinched for time behind Devendorf and Nichols at his natural positions. Harris should find a comfort zone this year and show why he was so highly regarded coming up through the prep ranks.

The Orange have now gone three seasons without a win in the NCAA Tournament. To change that slide next season, Syracuse will have to first make the tournament, which is not a guarantee after finding themselves in the NIT last year and graduating their entire starting frontcourt. However, Jim Boeheim always seems to get his teams to come together when they are being counted out, so next year will be another test for the hall of fame coach. He will have to blend a talented incoming class with some exciting holdovers. The talent is there and this should be a team that makes the NCAA Tournament, however they will have to avoid losing home games they should win and steal an important game or two away from home.

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BIG EAST RECRUITING UPDATE: SYRACUSE

May 8, 2007


Commitment Alert: Kristof Ongenaet (PF), Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Projected 2007-2008 Roster:

Senior: Josh Wright (PG)
Juniors: Eric Devenderf (G), Andy Rautins (G), Kristof Ongenaet (PF)
Sophomores: Paul Harris (G), Arinze Onuaku (BF/C), Devin Brennan-McBride (BF/C)
Freshmen: Johnny Flynn (PG), Antonio Jardine (G), Donte Green (F), Richard Jackson (BF), Sean Williams (C)
2008 Commitment: Kris Joseph (WF), James Southerland (F)



Late in the recruiting period for 2007 the Syracuse Orange Add to Hoops Roster (Syracuse Post-Standard) with the addition of Kristof Ongenaet from Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, Calif., a native of Ghent, Belgium.


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After visiting Syracuse Thursday and Friday of last week, 6-foot-8 Kristof Ongenaet picked Syracuse University, spurning offers from Northwestern, Colorado, Kansas State and Cal-Irvine. Ongenaet is a physical power forward who averaged 12.0 points and 11.7 rebounds for Cuesta College (CA) last season and Syracuse will add him to the roster to compliment Rick Jackson (C/BF) and Donte Green (SF/BF) as a true power forward. Unlike most European players, Ongenaet has a reputation of liking the physical inside play, something the Orange need for the battles in the Big East. The junior college route is not one taken often by Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse staff. Ongenaet is Syracuse's first junior-college recruit since Michael Lloyd (San Jacinto) and Jason Cipolla (Tallahassee Community College) came in 1994.

Ongenaet joins an incoming class headlined by a pair of McDonald's All-Americans in Donte Green and Johnny Flynn. Green was the talk of the NIKE camp last summer in Indianapolis and starred with Team Melo (see a connection?) on the AAU circuit. The long, lean and athletic forward looks to be a high-end recruit that is beginning to generate top-10 status nationally. The Orange were in early and their past success with Carmelo Anthony, who attended the same high school in the DC-area, had the Orange in front from the beginning.

The player whose stock might have exploded the most among Big East recruits last summer was that of Johnny Flynn. The Niagara Falls HS PG was impressive on the AAU circuit from the beginning of the spring and continued his high-level of play at the ABCD camp in New Jersey. Flynn is pushing for top-25 status and has shown a myriad of skills as a lead guard and has always been a high-character kid. He is former HS and AAU teammate of SU frosh Paul Harris, again, a strong connection to the program.

The other pair of early commits that the Orange received came from a pair of Philadelphia HS teammates, Rick Jackson and Antonio Jardine. Playing for the high-profile Neumann-Goretti program and the Playaz AAU club, these two have been on the national radar for a long time. Jackson gives SU more of a low-block threat offensively and on the boards than what they are used to and Jardine is a combo guard that can score and is working on improving his court savvy, but with Flynn in the backcourt with him, he won't have to play the point guard too often and be free to do what he does best, create offense.

The fifth member of the SU class is the incredibly long Sean Williams out of California. Williams is an extremely raw prospect, but with a wingspan of greater than 7'8, this is a high-upside prospect that has all the potential to be a great one, but needs a lot of fine-tuning. Williams attended Notre Dame Prep last season.

Syracuse has also gotten out of the gates with the 2008 class rather quickly with the verbal commitments of Canadian Kris Joseph, currently playing basketball in DC (and another who has idolized Carmelo Anthony) and James Southerland of NYC. With those commitments and their current roster set-up, the Orange would appear to be out of scholarships for the 2008 class. However, there is strong belief that Southerland would eventually end up in the 2009 class. I am not too sure if recent NCAA changes to how prep school core credits are handled will influence his status. The Orange continue to be linked to a pair of New York forwards, Mookie Jones of Peekskill and Kevin Jones of Mount Vernon.

We will continue to follow the Orange on the recruiting trail this summer, but expect to see them actively pursuing some local 2009 products, one with a familiar name (Triche) and one from down the throuway (Dane Miller).

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