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The long wait for Syracuse basketball is over. The Orange take on Le Moyne on Monday in their regular season opener. SU is coming off a 20-win season in its first season under head coach Adrian Autry. Le Moyne enters its second year as a Division I program. The Dolphins won 15 games but fell in the Northeast Conference Tournament semifinal.

Le Moyne lost its two top scorers, Luke Sutherland and Kaiyem Cleary, both of whom were the only two players to average double figures. Syracuse lost its top scorer in Judah Mintz but added depth through the transfer portal this offseason.

SU boasts a versatile squad, spearheaded by veteran leaders like J.J. Starling, Chris Bell and Jaquan Carlos, along with talented freshmen like Donnie Freeman and Elijah Moore. The Orange have dominated their two exhibition games against Clarion and Slippery Rock, but Monday will be their first real action.

Here’s how our beat writers feel Syracuse (0-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) will fare against Le Moyne (0-0, 0-0 NEC):

Zak Wolf (0-0)
Smooth sailing
Syracuse 80, LeMoyne 55

Unlike SU men’s soccer’s meeting with Le Moyne, the basketball team won’t have trouble getting by the Dolphins. The Orange suffered a shocking 1-0 defeat on Aug. 29 in the first-ever meeting between the two. A different sport will garner a different result.

This game boils down to the Orange simply having too much firepower for Le Moyne. SU displayed in its exhibition games that it has several players who can put points on the board. Seven different players finished in double figures across the two contests. Monday I expect Syracuse’s frontcourt to dominate.

Eddie Lampkin provides a presence in the paint and can generate easy looks down low. If Syracuse can get the big man going early, it will be a long night for Le Moyne. Naheem McLeod also poses problems with his size. Even though he doesn’t generate much offense himself, he can cause havoc on the offensive glass.

As long as the Orange don’t sleepwalk through this one, they’ll cruise to an easy victory, much like the rest of their early nonconference games.

Aiden Stepansky (0-0)
Starling stars
Syracuse 84, LeMoyne 62

Syracuse’s season opener versus Le Moyne is the perfect matchup to start the season. While the contest is sure to garner major attention from central New York locals, it’s also an easy opponent for the Orange to get their feet wet.

I see SU pulling away early in this one, and much of its production coming from CNY native JJ Starling. Following Syracuse’s exhibition win over Slippery Rock on Wednesday, Starling mentioned that he knows many people within the Dolphins program since he grew up in Baldwinsville. But, he said the preparation and mindset are the same.

Starling will lead the Orange on the scoresheet Monday, knocking down multiple 3-pointers and scoring over 20 points in his first game as the go-to guy. Meanwhile, as Zak alluded, Syracuse’s big-men tandem of Lampkin and McLeod will dominate. The tallest player on the Dolphins roster is freshman Isaac Nyakundi, listed at 6-foot-9. Lampkin is two inches taller, while McLeod possesses a seven-inch advantage.

It’s fairly simple for SU in this one. Don’t let Le Moyne hang around and put it away early. Syracuse will do just that, rarely trailing and pulling away easily with its first win.

Justin Girshon (0-0)
Ball up top
Syracuse 90, Le Moyne 63

Syracuse couldn’t have a much easier game to begin its second season under Autry. KenPom ranks Le Moyne as the 335th-ranked team among the 364 D-I teams, giving the Orange’s new-look roster a picture-perfect opponent to start the year 1-0.

I’d expect to see SU use a balanced attack throughout the contest, giving Freeman, Lampkin, Starling, Carlos and Bell opportunities early and often. So long as Syracuse doesn’t shoot under 30-35% from the field in the early going, I see it getting out to an early lead and never looking back.

What will be most interesting to see is how Autry utilizes the rest of his rotation. McLeod and Jyáre Davis seem to be locks to receive significant playing time off the bench, but it remains to be seen what roles Moore, Chance Westry, Lucas Taylor, Petar Majstorovic and Kyle Cuffe Jr. will play.

This game gives the Orange an easy opportunity to take a step toward figuring this all out while easily getting them in the win column.

Published on November 3, 2024 at 11:59 pm