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Walker Kessler caught a pass from a North Carolina guard and started to back Jesse Edwards in. He took one step down, switched hands, then took another. Syracuse’s sophomore center tracked him, ensuring Kessler didn’t create enough space to open up a shot opportunity, until the third step came — when Kessler spun and lofted one in.

As Syracuse inbounded the ball, Edwards pivoted and jogged down the floor, hovering by the right block behind Kessler while Quincy Guerrier squared up his defender on the opposite side. Guerrier swung a pass to Edwards, who muscled his way past Kessler and banked in a layup, essentially mitigating the basket he’d just allowed at the other end.

That sequence, a sign of growth and a sign of the need for more, reflected the impact of Edwards this season for Syracuse. He’s gotten to the point where he can contribute consistent minutes off the bench, but he has “definitely got some work to do,” Buddy Boeheim said postgame. Prior to the game against Georgia Tech, Edwards played more than seven minutes just once.

Sometimes in his occasional appearances, Edwards will get caught with the ball away from the basket and can’t create with the space in front of him when defenders tightly guard the other four SU players. Or he’ll attempt to grab a rebound with one hand instead of two — the little things preventing him from becoming a true backup center, or even an eventual starter, for the Orange.

But before fouling out in Syracuse’s (14-8, 8-7 Atlantic Coast) 72-70 win over North Carolina (15-9, 9-6) on Monday, Edwards played a career-high 24 minutes and contributed six points, eight rebounds and four steals — raising the latter three categories up from the zeros he logged in seven minutes in the first meeting between the teams earlier this season. His back-to-back games with 20-plus minutes have become a solution for SU at center, albeit a spotty one, heading into the ACC tournament next week in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“He’s still not ready,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “But he hung in there and battled.”

And that’s what Syracuse needed, really, for the entire season. It needed a backup center to do more than just be the fifth player on the court, a presence in the center of the 2-3 zone to disrupt and defend — while scoring and helping the offense facilitate only when needed.

Edwards wasn’t part of that initial plan, as Boeheim said on Saturday that his original goal was to redshirt Edwards and give him an extra year of development. But then Bourama Sidibe limped off the Carrier Dome court five minutes into the season-opener against Bryant, and that plan changed.

“It was clear (at the beginning of the season) I was going to be in the game when Marek (Dolezaj) ran into foul trouble or it was better for the team,” Edwards said Feb. 27.

It didn’t immediately translate to a substantial role, but one of the first signs that Edwards was inching toward that point came on Saturday against Georgia Tech, when he played 23 minutes after Dolezaj got into foul trouble and spent most of the second half on the bench. 

When putting together North Carolina’s scouting report on Syracuse, assistant coach Hubert Davis said he noticed the increased impact of Edwards in the five weeks since the teams last met. The career-high minutes. The career-high points. The flashes that emerged despite Boeheim reiterating, again, that he still wasn’t ready.

Jim Boeheim said Edwards is “still not ready” to play full time. Courtesy of Mark Konezny | USA Today Sports

So this time, UNC expected Edwards to play more than the seven minutes he did on Jan. 12 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, when the Tar Heels consistently crashed the boards stronger than the Orange and grabbed 48 rebounds. They took advantage of his inexperience at times — like when Kessler scored a right-handed hook shot when he spun right and Edwards went left — but Edwards also disrupted and deflected entry passes around the paint, forcing the Tar Heels to find other avenues.

“He did a lot better job than Dolezaj boxing us out and kind of slowing us down from getting on the offensive boards,” Armando Bacot said.

UNC still outrebounded the Orange by 20, but Edwards helped create chances off-ball for the Orange — screening twice on one possession in the second half to help Kadary Richmond elevate and hit a long jumper. He checked in for Alan Griffin, who had what Boeheim called his worst game, and allowed for Dolezaj to slide over to power forward, where he played before Sidibe’s injury.

His interior defense early in the second half forced Kessler to throw an errant pass out of bounds, and he blocked the North Carolina center by the rim with Guerrier soon after. Then, as Syracuse attempted to extend its lead into double-digits, he grabbed an offensive rebound to help keep the possession alive.

But with Syracuse leading 61-48, Edwards fouled out after swatting Bacot when the UNC forward grabbed an offensive rebound. He strolled over to the bench, where his SU teammates had left their seats — waiting to greet him after he arrived. John Bol Ajak reached over and tapped him on the shoulder, and Edwards hovered over his chair, hands on his knees, while Bacot hit his first free throws.

“He gave us a lot tonight,” Boeheim said. “He’s got tremendous potential to be able to really help us inside.” 

Buddy said postgame that they knew there was a good chance Edwards would foul out against a frontcourt like UNC’s. The Tar Heels’ forwards were all 6-foot-10 or 6-foot-11, all dozens of pounds bigger than Dolezaj, Ajak and Frank Anselem — the post players Edwards goes against in practice. 

But it still presented the “perfect game,” the perfect recipe, for Edwards to sub in and use his 6-foot-11 frame to create disruptions, Buddy said. For him to use length in the zone. For him to once again spark SU when it needed one and provide glimpses that it could happen again, and again, if needed.

Published on March 2, 2021 at 12:40 am

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew