Syracuse basketball was set to enter hibernation, but all of a sudden back it vaulted to the front of the news for all the wrong reasons, as reports surfaced that Dion Waiters may not return to the Orange.
Oddly enough, it was Jim Boeheim himself who put his program under yet another unkind spotlight. You’d think The Per’fesser would be sick of this after the migraine of a season he just endured.
- Listen to a Fresh FizzCast on Dion leaving, Spring Game & SU lax
The coach told Jon Rothstein Saturday that Dion’s status for next season is “up in the air.” The Fizz’s Steve Neikam caught up with Rothstein after the CBS Sports writer broke the story, and you can hear their conversation on this week’s Fresh FizzCast. Rothstein tells Neikam that based on his conversation with Boeheim, he believes the chances of the Philly guard leaving SU are “in-between 80 and 85 percent.”
With Dion having done nothing specifically wrong (that we know of), Steve thinks that Boeheim may simply prefer incoming freshman guard Michael Carter-Williams.
“It seemed as though Carter-Williams might just be pushing Dion out. Because you know Jim Boeheim doesn’t like to play that many guys. So to see him using four guys in the backcourt would be unlikely. It almost seems as though Dion ends up being the odd man out.”
D.A. made a rare in-studio FizzCast appearance after spending the weekend in Syracuse. The King Fizzster wondered why The Per’fesser opened the can of worms in the first place.
“I was surprised just by the timing of it. What does Boeheim have to gain by discussing openly a guy like Dion Waiters not coming back, when it’s April? We’re so far ahead of the basketball season that the timing of it seemed odd.”
I also discussed the Dion situation on the FizzCast, as well as an up close look at SU’s lax weekend in New England. I break down an adjustment Coach Desko made at halftime that led to a second half Orange offensive explosion, and a 13-3 victory over Big East bottom-feeder Providence. Desko called for his team to move more without the ball.
“Although they have a couple pretty dynamic dodgers, they’re a team that’s not really built off of one player this year. They need off-the-ball movement to succeed.”
Check out the FizzCast for analysis of Saturday’s Spring Game. Team Fizz gives you the good, bad, and ugly of the program‚Äôs first split-squad Spring game in almost 20 years.
Posted: Andrew Kanell
6 responses to “FizzCast: Is Dion Really Leaving? Spring Game Analysis, SU Lax Strikes Back”
None of you think that this isn’t somthing like what ricky p. did to sosa a couple yrs ago to get him to focus in the offseason? He went out publicly and told sosa to transfer before the yr started.
Now if thats not the case I feel like its time for change at HC. Isn’t it the coaches job to make things work? He recruited the kid didnt he know what he was getting? It almost seems like he doesnt care and instead of publicly coming out about everything y hasnt he tryed to sit down and talk to dion? Bettween the flame outs in the NCAA tourney and JB inability to get along with the modern student athlete things are starting to ponit to a need for a change. You dont hear about these problems at KU UK UNC and Duke. Dont get me wrong JB being a local guy is the reason i became a `cuse fan but sometimes things gotta change.
There is NO WAY JB is pushing him out because he likes MCW’s game better. There is another reason or reason’s that we don’t know about, but Dion is head and shoulders above MCW at this stage. Headcase yes, but sub par from an incoming freshman, NO WAY!
should be scoop being forced out if it’s a problem having 4 in the backcourt.
I can’t see how you force out a guy without whom the loss to Marquette would’ve been ugly. Not under any illusions Dion would stay four years, my thought was he leaves next year if he scores 10+ ppg, but there is no way JB will convince anyone a freshman beanpole is already better than the most explosive player on the team. As if this team has so many guys with blow by ability. I can see grades being a problem; I can see booting him for some disciplinary issues (which nobody has heard of); but I don’t understand why you’d want to push Dion out the door because you don’t like the fact he wants to be a star (how’d you miss that over his HS career?) and you think an incoming freshman might, might play better. MCW could stink his freshman year (as the Fizzcast guys pointed out, JB gushed over Melo last year), then you’d still be lacking a quick guard teams would have to think about driving to the hoop. Scoop and Brandon are big solid guards but quickness is not their game.
Kev
Good points by everyone here. Sounds like from what we’re hearing either JB is trying to take a hard stand with DW, or that he just wants to push DW away for fear he could poison next year’s team.
ENOUGH OF THIS FRIGGIN BASKETBALL STUFF!!! Lets talk football.