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esse Edwards was a long, lanky freshman with limited basketball experience when he first suited up for Syracuse. Former SU center Roosevelt Bouie tagged along an August 2019 exhibition tour in Italy, and while watching a team featuring future NBA players Buddy Boeheim and Elijah Hughes, it was Edwards who stood out.

Bouie saw Edwards’ skill set: his sharp moves around the basket, soft touch, strong hands and floor-running abilities. “Holy crap,” Bouie said to himself. The former All-American, who played at SU from 1976-80, didn’t have that floor presence until his junior year. Edwards was an incoming freshman.

Edwards’ abilities were always clear to Bouie. Not so to everyone else. Edwards saw limited minutes in his freshman and sophomore seasons before starting last year. Head coach Jim Boeheim repeatedly said he wasn’t ready. Edwards contemplated transferring.

This season, Edwards will be one of Syracuse’s top scoring weapons, tasked to control the paint on both ends. His skills have always been there — he’s athletic, has a 7-foot-4 wingspan, can block shots, finish around the rim and win one-on-one post matchups. Syracuse hasn’t had a center like Edwards in six years. And now, after fully recovering from February’s season-ending wrist injury and playing against top NBA players over the summer, Edwards is equipped to show everyone why Bouie believed in him from that first game in Italy.

“From the day he came in, you could see the potential was there,” Boeheim said. “He’s gotten better every year… He’s stronger, he sees the game better, understands the game better, and is just improved.”

Recently, Syracuse centers have rarely gotten significant post touches with their back to the basket. Tyler Lydon, the last SU post player to average double-digit points before Edwards, said a center with offensive talent takes pressure off everyone else, and makes it harder on defenses.

“He’s going to have to step up big time,” Lydon said. “I think that his position and him being able to score the basketball is going to be huge.”

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The Netherlands isn’t a basketball hotspot, and Edwards wasn’t introduced to the sport until a 2010 vacation in Florida. Edwards’ older brothers Rens and Kai were bigger than him, forcing him to develop guard-like skills so he could get to the rim. He joined BC Apollo when he was 14, underwent a massive growth spurt and enrolled at IMG Academy.

Syracuse heard about Edwards, and assistant coach Allen Griffin checked him out at IMG. Edwards was a prototypical SU center: tall, long, thin and could anchor the Orange’s zone. But unlike recent centers Paschal Chukwu, Baye Moussa Keita and Bourama Sidibe, Edwards had an offensive game. He just needed some time to develop.

“No one told him when we recruited him that he was going to play as a freshman,” Griffin said. “You might see a little bit of time during your sophomore year. By your junior year, you should be ready to step in and be the guy at that position. And that’s just what happened.”

It is, but those first two years were challenging. Boeheim was honest with Edwards’ family about his timetable, David said, and there were conversations about him redshirting his freshman year. The following season, Edwards averaged fewer points than as a freshman. Edwards thought about transferring.

“It was a tough time, especially freshman and sophomore year when I was that guy that wasn’t playing a lot,” Edwards said. “It was rough.”

Edwards took Boeheim’s criticisms as motivation, David said. He spent extra time working with Griffin, and his IQ, physique and overall game improved. Hearing regularly from former players like Bouie and Etan Thomas helped.

Thomas, a Syracuse center from 1996-2000, first reached out to Edwards his freshman year. Thomas came close to transferring after his freshman season, but talking with Bouie, in addition to on-court work with assistant coaches, helped him develop into an All-American and first-round NBA Draft pick. Bouie gave Thomas simple messages: stay positive, be ready.

Thomas said the same things to Edwards. He saw Edwards struggling his freshman season, but saw the center’s potential. At that point, Boeheim would pull Edwards after mistakes or fouls. Thomas told Edwards what Bouie had said to him: “you can’t play worried.”

The messaging continued into Edwards’ sophomore and junior seasons, with Thomas going into the locker room to talk with him after games or posting his support online. When Boeheim said Edwards was one of the nation’s most offensively gifted centers last year, Thomas sent the center the clip.

“See how you make people change their tune? Good job,” Thomas said.

Bouie sent specific pointers to Edwards after watching his games and practices. He noticed Edwards always kept his hands up during drills, but dropped them when rebounding. “You want to keep your hands up whenever you’re inside the paint. Get into the habit of when you walk into the paint, your hands are never below your shoulders,” Bouie told Edwards.

Edwards wasn’t going to have a great game immediately, Bouie said. While reviewing a game, Bouie wouldn’t look at Edwards’ stats, rather his physical presence on the floor. When Bouie played he was convinced opponents were undermanned when they had a two-on-one fast break against him. He wanted Edwards to have this mentality, too.

“He’s like a sponge,” Bouie said. “When I would say something to Jesse, he would go out, and he would see it and he would do it.”

Edwards used the messages to push through the two years of limited playing time, eventually starting last year. His minutes per game tripled, his points sextupled. He showed flashes of what Bouie saw in Italy a few years prior, tying the ACC lead for blocks per game and becoming a semi-reliable inside scoring threat.

Syracuse was playing its best basketball of the season when Edwards injured his left wrist against Boston College. He had recorded double-digit points in seven of his last eight games. The timing made the injury — a clean break — that much worse.

Within 24 hours, Edwards had a cast on the wrist. It took six weeks before he could return to the court, but he continued going to the gym, finding creative ways to complete squats and use kettlebells without his hands — and a screw in his wrist. Edwards knew that if he kept working during the offseason, he could have an even better senior year, Kai said.

Edwards said it didn’t take long to find his groove again. His finishing ability returned by the time he was home in July working with Kai, and he was at full strength by the time Syracuse’s summer workouts started.

“I totally forgot he got injured, like you wouldn’t even know, (it) doesn’t affect him at all,” freshman center Peter Carey said. “Definitely made a full recovery, even back to the beginning of the summer he seemed like he was 100%.”

Edwards spent the offseason trying to strengthen his core and hips, in addition to focusing on gaining weight. Griffin said Edwards is bigger and stronger, but his 230-pound frame is still slender for an ACC center. There’s still an emphasis on maintaining mobility and quickness since Edwards has to be in shape to play 30 minutes a game, David said.

Bouie, who used to run camps with the EuroLeague, says he can display the difference between centers and forwards with one, 12-second drill. He’d send three players under the basket, and throw a ball into the paint. The player that moved toward the ball is a forward, and the one that turned around and knocked the other guy before running to the ball is the center. Bouie wanted Edwards to understand centers seek contact.

Kai said he’s noticed Edwards using his body better, especially when it comes to sealing off defenders inside. It’s something he needed to do playing for the Netherlands in Eurobasket, which featured NBA centers Nikola Jokić and Jonas Valančiūnas. Edwards said almost every team in the tournament had several current or former NBA players. He notched 12 points and nine rebounds against the Czech Republic, and scored over Jokić when playing Serbia.

“It shows you what is top of the top,” Edwards said. “There’s nobody better than that. So it gives a lot of confidence knowing that if you can do it there, you can do it anywhere.”

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Opponents in Eurobasket didn’t expect Edwards to have a quality midrange shot, Kai said. They gave him space, but he knocked down the open jumpers. It’s a dimension of Edwards’ game that hasn’t been featured much in his first three years at SU, but could become a larger piece. This summer was “the biggest jump” Edwards has ever made, Kai said.

Griffin said to Edwards that he needs to shoot in the high 50% range around the basket while also rebounding and protecting the rim. Having a scoring center gives other players more freedom, creating defensive challenges, Griffin noted. Opposing centers have to choose between stepping up and stopping the driver — giving Edwards an easy dunk — or staying back and allowing the jump shot.

“That’s what we dreamed of all those years coming in,” Kai said. “When he wasn’t playing, they were always saying, ‘your time will come where you will be this guy in a couple of years, just keep working.’ But it always seemed kind of far away. For it to be that time, that’s just what he’s been working for all those years.”

Over the summer, Kai flew into Toronto to visit Edwards. After picking up Kai, Edwards called Bouie, who was on his way to Syracuse. They met for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. Bouie looked at Kai, who had added 15 pounds of muscle.

In his head, he thought, “that’s going to be Jesse in a couple years.” Having that size plus the existing skill set will make Edwards a “beast,” Bouie said.

Bouie has believed in Edwards since first watching him in Italy. But he tells Edwards not to be satisfied with where he is. There’s always that next step. Edwards has gone from being that raw, skinny prospect to a critical piece of Syracuse’s team. He’s been waiting three seasons to be the guy. It’s finally here.

“This provides an invaluable weapon,” Thomas said. “I just want to see it utilized.”

Published on November 6, 2022 at 11:06 pm

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