The expectations surrounding Trevor Cooney’s arrival to Syracuse University from outside the basketball program were bordering on the second coming of Gerry McNamara.
The misery continued into the offseason. Both BJ Johnson and Ron Patterson announced plans to transfer. Coveted big man recruit Thomas Bryant selected Indiana over Syracuse.
So the bar has been set in terms of Boeheim’s reaction to what those outside of the Melo Center are saying about a program that’s now a two-time offender in the eyes of the NCAA.
Syracuse’s offense struggled to score last season. Despite finishing second in league play to Virginia, the Orange’s offense ranked tenth out of 15 teams at 68.2 PPG.
Penn State has been monitoring Daiquan Kelly for some time. The Lions’ previous NCAA sanctioned scholarship reduction meant they couldn’t do more than that, though.
Now that CJ Fair, Tyler Ennis and Jerami Grant have all moved on to professional ranks, who do you think will lead Syracuse basketball in scoring next year?
The basic premise of this article is that Cooney would become a more consistent and reliable shooter in his next two seasons based on the past track records of Demetris Nichols, Andy Rautins and James Southerland.
Just a few days removed from an emotionally draining win over Duke, Cooney drained nine 3-pointers, including nine-straight Orange points to push the lead to 54-44 lead with 4:19 left after the Irish had pulled to within three points.
There’s no question that Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney had an up-and-down sophomore season. The shooting guard started the season well, hitting 43 of 86 shots from beyond the arc in non-conference play.
The Syracuse Orange appeared poised to be one of a handful of teams to have a say in deciding millions of brackets across the country. Unfortunately for Orange Nation, that was not the case.