It took only a week into exhibition season for Syracuse’s heavily-lauded depth to take a hit. The program announced Tuesday afternoon that freshman forward Matthew Moyer will redshirt this year due to “preseason time missed with an injury,” according to head coach Jim Boeheim.

Over the summer, Moyer sustained turf toe in his right big toe, sidelining him for several weeks. Just before the injury, Moyer said, he felt he was at the peak of his basketball career. “Everything was coming together,” he said, until it officially fell apart for the 2016-17 season on Tuesday.

“He would be the ninth, 10th man, and that guy doesn’t play much anyway,” Boeheim said after SU’s 97-64 win over Le Moyne on Tuesday night. “He’s not in shape. It’d be foolish for him to play this year when he can play at the other end (and) have a senior year like Trevor Cooney did last year.”

Moyer played only nine minutes and didn’t score in SU’s 83-65 exhibition win last Tuesday against Indiana University of Pennsylvania. There was speculation Moyer might redshirt this season anyway, purely because of the team’s depth. Going into Friday’s season-opener against Colgate, there isn’t any guesswork left. Syracuse will lean on a nine-man rotation of Frank Howard, Andrew White, Tyler Roberson, Tyler Lydon, Dajuan Coleman, Paschal Chukwu, John Gillon, Taurean Thompson and Tyus Battle.

The late addition of White, a fifth-year transfer from Nebraska, really set Moyer back on the depth chart. Boeheim alluded to the stacked deck against his freshman, pointing out that Moyer would be fourth to play behind Roberson, Lydon and White.

“Playing three to four minutes a game isn’t any benefit at all,” Boeheim said. “That’s what it would end up being. There’s no question if he hasn’t lost all that time it might’ve been a little different.

“But still, it’s not his ability, it’s the three guys that are in front of him.”

The veteran head coach has seen this script play out before, and highlighted Cooney, Michael Gbinije and Wesley Johnson as key success stories after redshirting. Moyer has Coleman and Chukwu as teammates with redshirt experience to lean on.

The bubbly freshman was asked at SU’s media day on Oct. 21 if he expected to start. Moyer laughed and quickly retorted the idea.

“No. We have very good players,” he said at the time. “… I know Coach has a plan for me, whether that’s getting a lot of minutes this year or not.”

This season, it’s going to be the latter.

Published on November 9, 2016 at 2:33 pm

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