Syracuse Recruits Already Getting to Play Together

Syracuse University Coach Jim Boeheim is looking forward to next basketball season, when his team will include some of the best high school recruits in the country.

“Ten years ago, we couldn’t even talk to these kids. It’s not easy to talk a kid from California into coming to Syracuse. I am looking forward to the team we’re going to have next year,” Boeheim told a banquet in Fulton earlier this week.

Forward Derrick Coleman from Detroit scored 19 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in the recent McDonald’s All-American high school game. Coleman was playing with another Orange recruit, guard Steven Thompson of Los Angeles’ Crenshaw High.

“Both our kids played real well there and we did have a good recruiting class,” said Boeheim. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had two McDonald’s All Americans at Syracuse.”

The Syracuse recruits have been getting a lot of playing time together in post-season all-star games. In addition to Thompson and Coleman teaming up in the McDonald’s game, Thompson, Coleman and guard Earl Duncan, from St. Monica High in Santa Monica, all played together for the South team in the Dapper Dan Classic in Pittsburgh.

Thompson recently made the NCAA’s new athletically-eligible-to-play list for his freshman season. So has forward Keith Hughes of Carteret, N.J., and swingman Matt Roe of Syracuse. But Coleman and Duncan have more work ahead of them to qualify academically for NCAA play next season.

Coleman has the necessary grade point average, but had to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test a second time to qualify. He is waiting for the test results.

Duncan said he figures to graduate from Catholic High School with a 2.1 grade point, but must raise his SAT score 60 points when he takes the test a second time next month, or score a 14 on an upcoming American College Test, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported this week.

“I’m not worried about my score,” said Duncan, who averaged 25.4 points his senior season. “I’ve been studying hard. If I don’t make it, I’ll take the test as many times as I have to.”

Coleman is also expecting to qualify.

“Derrick’s not worried about the SAT,” said his high school coach, Harry Hairston. “He thinks he did pretty well. He wants to play next year, so he’ll do what he has to.”

Coleman, who stands 6-foot-10 and weighs 215-pounds,averaged 23 points and 15 rebounds his senior season at Detroit Northern High School.

Coleman is “the best player in the country, or at least No. 2 behind J.R. Reid,” Hairston told the Syracuse Post-Standard. Reid is from Virginia Beach, Va., and heading for North Carolina.