SU could lose star, but future still bright

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim heads to the offseason ready to recharge for yet another year, and he’s awfully satisfied with what the Orange accomplished in his 42nd year at the helm.

Despite a depleted roster that relied too heavily on three players — guards Tyus Battle and Frank Howard and freshman forward Oshae Brissett accounted for nearly threequarters of the scoring — Syracuse made the NCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus and reached the Sweet 16 with three dominant defensive performances, finishing at 23-14 after losing to Atlantic Coast Conference rival Duke in the round of 16.

Not bad for a roster that featured four freshmen, a redshirt freshman and two upperclassmen starting for the first time, and a bench that consisted mainly of redshirt freshman Matthew Moyer and freshman forward Bourama Sidibe.

“With this group I think that sometimes we forget that we had seven guys and one of them (Sidibe) has got a bad knee,” Boeheim said after the Orange were eliminated last Friday night by the Blue Devils. “For these guys to do what they’ve done, I think it’s an amazing thing. What these guys have ac- complished I don’t think you can give them enough credit. I’m really proud of these guys. They’ve done just about everything you could hope for.

“Everybody that we played this year had a legitimate chance to play with us or beat us. We had to maximize our effort in each one of those games to win.”

And that effort relied mainly on five players — the high-scoring trio along with freshman

AP PHOTO/JOHN MINCHILLO Syracuse’s Paschal Chukwu, center left, blocks a shot by Arizona State’s Mickey Mitchell (3) during the first half of a First Four game of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Dayton, Ohio.