Boeheim's Army returns to The Basketball Tournament on Saturday

After sitting out last year’s version of The Basketball Tournament, Boeheim’s Army is returning for 2025 and will open play at SRC Arena in the Syracuse Regional on Saturday. The Army is the region’s top seed and will open against #8-seed Herkimer Originals in a 6:00pm tip-off.

In a change from previous squads, Syracuse Orange assistant coach Allen Griffin will be leading the Army from the sidelines. Former SU and Army player Eric Devendorf will assist, as will former Orange walk-on Ky Feldman.

Some familiar Syracuse faces return to TBT action joined by some unfamilar ones

Half of the Boeheim’s Army roster is comprised of former Syracuse players, as new faces Buddy Boeheim and Elijah Hughes will join returnees Jimmy Boeheim, Rakim Christmas, Chris McCullough, and Malachi Richardson.

The other half of the team is made of Jacob Gilyard (Richmond), Frank Mason (Kansas), Nick Perkins (Buffalo), Charles Pride (Bryant, St. Bonaventure), Noah Starkey (Southern Nazarene), and Jamil Wilson (Marquette).

All told, nine of the players spent this past season playing overseas while the other three were in the NBA G-League. As their previous rosters have often been, this is another tall Boeheim’s Army, featuring nine players listed at 6’6” or taller, capped by Starkey at 7’0”.

Shorter players in line for big roles

The three players shorter than 6’6” have the potential to play outsized roles in the TBT format, as point guards Gilyard and Mason and shooting guard Pride will be looked at to both score and create. As teams are stitched together on relatively short notice with tentative connections for some players and minimal or no relationships for others, guards who can influence the game with the ball in their hands tend to have an outsized effect on the outcome.

The 2021 Boeheim’s Army team that claimed the title behind a slowdown style featured three double-figure scorers, including point guard Tyrese Rice and shooting guard Keifer Sykes, who drilled a championship-winning 3-pointer. Rice and Sykes finished one-two in 3’s on the team that summer, combining for 25 treys on 40.3 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

That duo also finished in the top three in field goal attempts for that squad with Rice, the lead guard, taking 82 shots over six games, 19 more than second-place McCullough, while still leading the team in assists. Sykes finished third on the team in dimes, further illustrating the ball-dominance of the players who bring the ball up the floor.

Gilyard, Mason, and Pride will carry most of the responsibility this time around, as the only other guard on the roster, Buddy Boeheim, has never had lead guard responsibilities.

The Syracuse Regional has some history for the Orange

The Syracuse Regional holds a touch of northeastern flair, as it includes alumni teams representing Connecticut (#2 seed Stars of Storrs) and Vermont (#3 seed Green Mountain Men). The region features a lot of inexperience with the TBT format, as Boeheim’s Army’s 33 all-time games more than doubles the rest of the other seven teams, who have amassed a 3-12 all-time record.

The Army’s opening opponent, the Herkimer Originals, are a minor league basketball team playing in the Northeast Division of the ABA and logged a 10-7 record last season.

SUPPORT THE JUICE ONLINE

For more discussion on Syracuse athletics, visit our free Syracuse Orange discussion forum.