Smart move by the staff.
The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball coaching staff put all of its eggs in one basket once already in the 2017 recruiting cycle, and they’re showing they won’t be making that same mistake twice.
Geno Thorpe, a graduate transfer from South Florida, will visit Syracuse later this week.
What does that tell the average SU fan? They’re not waiting around for Eric Ayala.
When the coaching staff told four-star point guard Matt Coleman, who has now signed with Texas, that they’re going to stop recruiting him in favor of Quade Green, most took that as a good sign for the Orange.
“Well, they wouldn’t do this unless they were sure,” was the thought process.
Green signed with Kentucky, and told reporters that he knew he broke Gerry McNamara’s heart, but he had to do it.
Nothing Gerry could do, but Green-to-Syracuse just wasn’t in the cards.
Now the situation with next year’s roster is interesting. The Orange have one scholarship remaining and clearly want to add one more point guard for comfort.
Eric Ayala or Geno Thorpe?
By the recent news, it looks like its a first-come, first-serve type situation.
Thorpe will visit SU this week, and if he commits — Syracuse is done with its 2017 class. That’s not a prediction, it’s a fact — they won’t have anymore scholarships to give out unless something unforeseen happens (someone leaves the program, etc.).
This also should tell you that deep down no one really knows what Ayala is going to do. His coach, Tom Espinosa, jokes about his star guard changing his mind as often as he changes his clothes.
One day he’s going to college, and the next he’s 100 percent coming back.
And if you’re Syracuse, why risk it (again)? Thorpe is a tall guard that averaged over 15 per game last year at USF, and would theoretically fit in well with the Orange on the court.
He’s reportedly down to SU and Pittsburgh, and he’s from the Pitt area. He had an offer from the Panthers out of high school and highly considered them before committing to Penn State.
He played two years at PSU before transferring to USF for his junior year.
He now has one year of college ball remaining and will be eligible immediately.
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This is by all means the right move for the program. Don’t wait around for a kid who doesn’t know what he wants to do when you could have a proven scorer, which is something you need to go along with Tyus, on next year’s team.
Right now, it’s an extra scholarship and it’ll be cleared up for the 2018 class — which is an important one moving forward for the program.
Syracuse is doing the right thing by making a move on Thorpe, let’s just hope the interest is mutual and the roster will be finalized sooner rather than later.
