Previewing Boeheim’s Army and their 2022 TBT Roster (Part 1 of 3)

4 min readJul 18, 2022

While the roster for this edition of Boeheim’s Army is half-Syracuse and half-grad transfer, the highest caliber players (at least based on international play as of late) seem to be the non-Syracuse players.

Andrew White III put up decent numbers in Turkey last season, Marek Dolezaj was a solid backup in Greece, and Rakeem Christmas had a decent season in Puerto Rico.

The most internationally successful Syracuse player on this roster, however, is Tyler Ennis.

Also of note (based on what I’ve found), it appears that Tyler Ennis is the only Syracuse player on this roster who starts for their respective international team.

Let’s take a quick look:

Syracuse Players

Andrew White III (Turkey)

7.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, .7 assists, .5 steals, 1.1 turnovers in 25.5 minutes per game

Marek Dolezaj (Greece)

4.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, .9 assists, .5 steals per game

Rakeem Christmas (Puerto Rico)

5.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, .3 assists, .3 steals, 1.3 blocks per game

Tyler Ennis

12.7 points, 4.4 assists, 3.4 rebounds, 1.5 turnovers in 26.8 minutes per game

C.J. Fair (not playing professionally — someone correct if they find something about CJ playing somewhere)

Syracuse “Grad-Transfers:

When we take a look at the “grad transfer” players on the roster, you see a little more international/TBT success pop out from the page.

DJ Kennedy and Deandre Kane are flat out winners. They’ve won multiple TBT championships and helped guide Boeheim’s Army to their first title last year.

Dee Bost, Kyle Whitjer, and Matt Morgan all had very productive seasons last year for their respective international teams.

DJ Kennedy (Israel)

11.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, .8 steals per game

Deandre Kane

It doesn’t look Kane is playing professionally right now, but he has been a winner everywhere he goes (3 championships in Israel, key member of Overseas Elite, won it with BA last year). It appears his last season playing professionally was 2020 in Greece.

Dee Bost (Turkey)

14.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.5 steals in 33.7 minutes per game

Kyle Wiltjer (Spain)

11 points, 2.8 rebounds, .7 assists, .4 steals in 21.2 minutes per game

Matt Morgan (Turkey)

20.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 1.2 steals per game

Syracuse Players on Other Teams

The only other former Syracuse players I found in TBT were Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson. They are both playing for the NG Saints.

Boeheim’s Army can only match up with them if both teams win their first two games of the tournament.

Roster Strengths

There are a lot of “winners” on this team — whether from their college days or TBT experience. Kennedy and Kane are TBT legends. Witijer played almost 12 minutes a game and won a national title at Kentucky before transferring to Gonzaga (who also wins). Fair and Christmas have played in Final Four games. Morgan is coming fresh off a championship internationally. Marek has Final Four experience.
The team has a lot of shooters — there are a number of guys on the team who are shooting above 37% from 3.
The team should take care of the ball — with guys like Ennis, Morgan, Kane, Kennedy, and Bost having the ball in their hands…Boeheim’s Army should be able to get great shots, take care of the ball, and score plenty.

Roster Concerns

There are a lot of “point guards” on the roster who are good scorers and distributors. This might not be a problem, but the ball can only be in one guy’s hands at a time. Sometimes when guys who are so used to dominating the ball have to be moved to a wing or coming off the ball…things can get a little wonky.
Matt Morgan being added so late. I think Morgan brings a lot of obvious positives to this team…but how does he fit in after being added so late to the ball game?
Can this team score inside/rebound?? Rakeem is only averaging 5–6 points in Puerto Rico right now. Witijer was never a banger inside. This area, in a physical tournament, concerns me.

In Part 2 of this preview, we’ll take a look at the bracket more closely.

In Part 3 of this preview, we’ll dive into India Rising — the first opponent for Boeheim’s Army in this year’s TBT.

To see this preview with video clips for each player on the roster, check out Syracuse Hoops Central — a Substack blog focused on following the Syracuse Men’s Basketball team.