There’s good news when it comes to Thomas Bryant, and it comes from an unlikely source. His mom.¬†Next year’s basketball class is already one of the best in the nation. And the only piece missing from a “Fab Five” is¬†Thomas Bryant, a 6-foot-10 center out of Rochester. The #16¬†recruit in the class of 2015 has narrowed his choices down to Syracuse and Indiana.¬†According to his mother, Bryant is leaning toward the Orange. She told Syracuse.com on Wednesday:
“Really it’s down to two, Syracuse and Indiana. And it might be down to one soon. Thomas has always told me that Syracuse was the leader.”
One reason Bryant may choose Orange is Indiana‚Äôs turmoil.¬†Head coach Tom Crean and many of the players have made the news for the wrong reasons in the past few months. It doesn‚Äôt help that Indiana seems to be on a decline. The Hoosier faithful have been calling for the firing of Crean for what feels like forever, and the shine has come off that once-storied program. It certainly helps the Orange that of all the college basketball blue-bloods, it’s Indiana he’s been attracted to. North Carolina, Duke and Kansas just keep humming along. In Indiana’s conference, Michigan State is always in the Final Four conversation. In Bloomington, it’s a historic program in the middle of one of its darkest periods. The Crean Watch is always on, a daily clock ticking in Hoosier Land.
Bryant would join a recruiting class that could go down as the best in Syracuse history. Malachi Richardson, a skilled guard/forward combo out of New Jersey, headlines the class. In addition, Moustapha Diagne and Tyler Lydon are a pair of 6-foot-8 forwards that recently signed with the Orange. Franklin Howard is the fourth member of the class, and despite being the lowest rated player, will provide some much-needed relief in the backcourt.
Bryant would become the highest rated prospect in the class and would ultimately become the headliner for the freshmen. With the departure of Rakeem Christmas at the end of this season, the Orange will desperately need some depth at the middle of the zone. If current freshman Chris McCullough leaves for the NBA, Syracuse will need as much depth and scoring as it can get. The two big men currently lead the team in scoring by a wide margin.
The biggest problem for the Orange right now is the lack of available scholarships. SU has the maximum number of scholarships allotted for next season, so the only way that Bryant could join the team is if a player left early or transferred. The leading candidate is McCullough, who is having a great start to his collegiate career.
With the Orange being unranked for the first time since 2009, Boeheim could use a dynamite class to launch his program back into title considerations. Bryant is the piece that could push it over the top.
Posted: Jason Weingold
4 responses to “Will Indiana Hoops Turmoil Steer Thomas Bryant to Syracuse?”
Earlier in the year all of the so called pundits/guru’s had Syracuse with the #1 class for 2015 and as the summer wore on Syracuse,depending on what website you were reading, dropped to the 3rd or 4th best team in the land. With Duke having the #1 class and North Carolina having the 3rd best class for 2014 would elevate Syracuse back to the #1 rated class for 2015 if Thomas Bryant were to join the likes of the 3rd best SF Malachi Richardson, the 9th best C Moustapha Diagne, the 10th best PF Tyler Lydon,and the 20th best SG Franklin Howard in the class of 2015.
With Louisville joining the ACC this year is only going to make the league stronger and probably the best in America. I believe the competition is going to as good if not better than the glory days of the OLD BIG EAST CONFERENCE.
With so many of the old BE teams in the ACC now,it leads people to ask the question if they thought it was time that maybe they change their name to something that represents the past and future of the league? Wouldn’t that be something the ACC changing it’s name?
No matter what happens,I want to welcome the physical 5* 6’10” C Thomas Bryat from Rochester NY to the ORANGENATION. Your going to love playing in front of 35/36,000 fans here at the dome.
We all know that Syracuse had the fix in for this kid all along, he has not considered any other school due to pressure from his Mom and her associates. But that happens a lot so we wish the kid well as he heads to Syracuse to let Jim Boeheim destroy any NBA ability he may have with his zone defense and consistent record of never developing front court players. Look at the next level and tell me that is a wise decision for Thomas Bryant. Louisville or Florida would have been better for him.
Jacob Graves,you’ve made a couple of statements here that needs to be addressed.. 1st)We all know that Syracuse had the fix in for this kid all along, he has not considered any other school due to pressure from his Mom and her associates. Thomas Bryant is from Rochester NY,I repeat ROCHESTER,NY. So the fix was on by Syracuse!!!!!! Thomas Bryant just completed one of his official visits to Kentucky last week and is still considering Indiana as one of his favorites to play ball at. I guess when you find out that Syracuse has been following Thomas Bryant since his freshman year in high school is the reason that he’s really considering Syracuse as his school of choice. 2nd) so we wish the kid well as he heads to Syracuse to let Jim Boeheim destroy any NBA ability he may have with his zone defense and consistent record of never developing front court players. Response—-weather you like him or not Jim Boeheim is one of the best that’s ever coached the game. Syracuse has never had a true center to play here. I would guess the closest that we ever came to having one was in Roosivelt Bouie who after graduation made his fortune over in Europe and Derrick Colman in his senior year won ‚ÄòPLAYER OF THE YEAR‚Äùand went on after graduation to play 18 years in the NBA. Danny Schayes won followed his father to the NBA and played 18 years after he graduated. What about Orinze Onuaku that recovered from a serious knee injury and is still playing in the ‚ÄúD NBA Division‚Äô hoping to get a shot at playing full time in the NBA? What about Rakeem Christmas? Here‚Äôs a 6‚Äô10‚Äù kid playing center,graduated early and will leave Syracuse with two degrees and will be probably be a mid to late 1st round draft pick. Not bad for a guy(Jim Boeheim)who you think destroys NBA talent. I could go on and on but you see no matter what I say I feel it‚Äôs guy‚Äôs like you that doesn‚Äôt give a hoot about Syracuse Athletics and follows the talking points that the sports writers put in the papers.
Look I got the just of your post,you don’t like the program or it’s head coach. Before you make another post on Syracuse Basketball,do some research and please leave all of the media’s talking points out of it and try real hard to do your own thinking.
If Thomas Bryant does pick Syracuse he will be the closest thing to being a true center that Syracuse has ever had,I’m hoping he commits to the orange and after he graduates then we both can follow his NBA career.
Enjoy the season.
You left off a couple of other big men from SU that had healthy NBA careers. Ronny Seikely made a fortune in the NBA before he started his disc jockey ‘Career” and Etan Thomas played some healthy minutes for a significant number of years. And don’t forget, Wes Johnson playing quite a bit in LA right now (although he is no center).