For Syracuse basketball, recruiting has always carried a little bit of gamble. A coach can study the tape, watch the rankings, project the fit and still wind up with a player whose college run never matches the hype.
That’s especially true in the current era, with the transfer portal booming and money now part of the equation. Keeping a roster steady from one season to the next is a massive job, and even the best-looking additions can go sideways because of injuries, fit issues or plain bad luck.
At Syracuse, that reality has shown up plenty over the past decade or so. The Orange have had their share of highly touted commits and transfers who arrived with big expectations and left without delivering the kind of impact everyone imagined.
Donnie Freeman is a prime example. The 2024 five-star power forward spent two seasons with Syracuse before transferring to St.
John’s this past offseason. Injuries were the story there.
He missed time in both years on the Hill, and word recently broke that he will miss the entire 2026-27 stanza with the Red Storm. Freeman came in as the program’s highest-ranked signee since Carmelo Anthony, flashed real talent in an Orange uniform, and still never quite became the player Syracuse hoped it was getting.
Chance Westry’s story has a similar feel, only with even more injury frustration. A top-40 national prospect in the 2022 class, he was heavily pursued by Syracuse in high school.
His freshman year at Auburn was cut short by injury, and after transferring to Syracuse he appeared in just three games across two seasons. The good news came in 2025-26, when he finally stayed healthy at UAB and produced 15.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game over 32 contests.
He’s now headed to Xavier for the upcoming season.
Benny Williams arrived with serious buzz too. Rivals had him as a five-star, top-25 national prospect in the 2021 class, which made him one of Syracuse’s most highly rated commits in recent memory.
His freshman year left fans wanting more minutes. His sophomore season offered glimpses of what he could become.
But things unraveled in his junior year under Adrian Autry: Williams was suspended in November for a violation of team rules and then dismissed in February 2024. He later spent 2024-25 at UCF, where he averaged 13.0 minutes and 3.6 points per game.
Chris McCullough fits the list for a different reason. The power forward came to Syracuse as a high-four-star, top-20 national prospect in the 2014 class, and his freshman season ended early with a knee injury after 16 games in 2014-15.
He still put up 9.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, then entered the 2015 NBA Draft and went No. 29 overall to the Brooklyn Nets. He did get NBA time, but most of his pro career has taken place with international clubs.
Naithan George rounds out the group. The point guard arrived for the 2025-26 season after leading the Atlantic Coast Conference in assists per game the previous year at Georgia Tech.
He came in as a four-star transfer and one of the top point guards in the portal. Syracuse’s season as a whole was rough, finishing 15-17, and George’s numbers reflected that: 5.4 assists and 3.1 turnovers per game.
That wasn’t disastrous, but it also wasn’t the level anyone expected. As a senior, he has since moved on to Pittsburgh.
In Other News...
Boeheims Army Just Added A Name Syracuse Fans Definitely Remember
Boeheims Army has its group set for the Basketball Tournament, and the roster has a familiar Syracuse feel to it with six former Orange players mixed in with four additions from outside the program. The team will open a best-of-three series against Hall In on July 21, with Games 2 and 3 set for July 23 and 24 if needed, giving this summer run the kind of short-window urgency that has long defined the event.
The backcourt got a boost with the additions of Ty Nichols and Tyson Walker, while JaCorey Williams and Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu round out the frontcourt. For Syracuse fans, the appeal is obvious: a roster built around names they know, plus a few new pieces meant to help Boeheims Army navigate a bracket where one off night can end everything. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Has A Receiver Fans Need To Reconsider Right Now
Elijah Moore arrived at Syracuse in January after starting his college career at Florida State, and the redshirt sophomore wide receiver is now in position to matter more than he did in his first season with the Orange. After a quiet 2025 in which he appeared in 10 games and finished with three catches for 52 yards, Moore is one of the names worth keeping in mind as Syracuse reshapes its passing game.
The timing matters because the Orange have moved on from their top receivers, opening the door for someone like Moore to climb the depth chart quickly. With a bigger role possible in the passing attack, he could become a much more visible piece of the offense and, in the right setup, a real third option in a spread look. [Read more 🡒]