Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney will redshirt during his freshman year, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim announced following Syracuse’s 92-56 lopsided win over Manhattan.
“We’ve talked about it on-and-off for quite sometime. I think he’s comfortable with it,” Boeheim said to reporters following the game. “He’ll be a tremendous player down the road.”
Cooney will have four years of eligibility left following this season.
The freshman was the odd man out on a team that had plenty of guard depth. Besides returning starters Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche, Cooney would’ve been competing for playing time with Dion Waiters, fellow freshman Michael Carter-Williams and Mookie Jones.
“Usually when we redshirt someone it’s because he’s not good enough to play yet,” Boeheim said to reporters following the game. “That’s not the case, he is good enough. He can play out there and I think he could play well. But I think when you have four guards ahead of him, he’s not going to play a significant amount of time.”
Cooney didn’t appear in either of Syracuse’s regular season games this season, although he did play in SU’s exhibition games against Cal State Los Angeles and St. Rose. Against Cal State, Cooney played just six minutes, but showed flashes of his potential, scoring seven points.
Cooney is part of a freshmen class that includes Rakeem Christmas—who is the team’s starting power forward— and Carter-Williams. The Wilmington, Delaware product was ranked 73rd overall and 19th among shooting guards by Scout.com. He finished as Sanford School’s all-time scoring leader with 1,826 points and also played for USA Basketball Under 18 Team.
