B

rittney Sykes insists she’s ripe for stardom. Her summer was ordinary enough: she assisted on the new director of athletics search committee, hoisted 500 3-pointers a night and pondered her year ahead.

That’s about as normal as her last three summers have been. Two she spent recovering from ACL injuries, which had cut down her career and lengthened her path to a pro career.

This offseason, Sykes stayed in Syracuse for both summer sessions. After dinner every night, one of Sykes’ roommates, Isis Young, said Sykes would go back to the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center for extra shots. She hadn’t had this much time to prep for a season since 2013.

“Now that she has confidence in her knee, she should have an unbelievable breakout year,” Syracuse assistant coach Tammi Reiss said. “I think she’s ready to show people the real Brittney Sykes, not the Brittney that came off two ACLs last year.”

Sure, she started every game, averaged more than 10 points per contest and helped lead Syracuse to its first-ever national championship game. But last season did not represent the kind of player she is, Sykes and those around her said.

She said she could have added more to a national title-contending team. A medical redshirt two years ago gave Sykes a fifth year of eligibility and a second chance to prove that. Sticking with her strengths has put her on an ascent with just one more level to reach: “She wants to be that player she was,” Regina, her mother, said.

Sykes thrived at University (New Jersey) High School. Yet when Sykes’ freshman year basketball coach, Felicia Oliver, told her she’d grow into a Division I prospect, Sykes looked up at her coach, gazing in disbelief.

“I don’t see that,” Oliver recalls her star guard saying.

But coaches did. They inquired about Sykes, a lean guard with a knack for getting to the rim. She drew offers from Rutgers, Duke, Notre Dame, Penn State, Georgetown and Syracuse, among others — so many that Oliver didn’t know what to do with a mailbox full of letters. At times, they’d just pile up in a bin.

Those who know Sykes laud her athleticism. Once she developed that, her former coaches said, her skills developed and she started to flourish. By Syracuse’s opening night in her freshman year, she cracked the starting lineup. She logged 63 starts through her first two seasons.

“She possesses the athleticism that gives you the ability to play in the WNBA,” Reiss said. “She is probably one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen.”

But when the 2014 NCAA tournament came along, Sykes, at the end of her sophomore campaign, tore her right ACL, forcing her to miss the bulk of the year. She re-tore her ACL on Jan. 4, 2015 against Notre Dame, just three games into her return from tearing it the first time.

Faced with yet another ACL tear, Sykes sulked. For most of the ensuing months, pain irked her. The ability she showed early had dimmed. Reiss said Sykes’ first step has regressed because of the injury.

Sykes has shown glimpses of her skillset. Her sophomore year, she averaged a team-high 16.6 points per game on 50.5 percent shooting from the field. Her 24-point game against Albany in the 2016 NCAA tournament, also her first 20-plus point game in more than two years, sent Syracuse to its first-ever Sweet 16. She posted 17 points in both the Sweet 16 and national semifinal games.

In her 41 games since returning from injury, though, she’s averaged just 9.7 points per game. Last year, she shot only 35 percent from the field. Sykes acknowledges the decline.

She felt slighted when she wasn’t named to the All-ACC team. That she wasn’t even mentioned gives her one more thing to prove. She’s fine with qualifying as overlooked but she wants to be special, an All-ACC and All-American selection.

“At first I hated talking about my injury just because it was one of those things you didn’t want to talk about anymore,” she said. “It’s something you want to depart from, detach from, say that’s not you.

“But then you mature up, come to the realization that it did happen and you made it through. My testimony is that those two injuries saved my career, and ultimately my life.”

How Sykes looks at the world, her thought process and her stepping into a leadership role have changed this year. Looking back, she said the injuries taught her not to take anything for granted. Sykes isn’t dwelling on what could have been.

There’s a stark contrast in her tone when she talks about what drives her. She takes on a mellow demeanor and her voice softens, far from her normal, jubilant self. She wants to become a household name, or the “master prototype,” Oliver said.

Her maturation began with a resolution to, hours after a national championship loss, forgo the WNBA Draft and stick for her fifth year at Syracuse. Now, the seasons drained by injury, the decision to come back for a final year, the prospect of another NCAA tournament run have added up.

Before tipoff on opening night against Rhode Island, Sykes said she’ll grab a seat on the Syracuse bench. She’ll look to the crowd, give her signature nod and take it all in.

“It’s finally here,” Sykes said. “This is my last go-around. So why not have a lot of fun with it?”

Banner photo by Jessica Sheldon | Photo Editor