A day after Tyus Battle was named to a preseason watch list, Oshae Brissett was named to the small forward’s equivalent. Brissett was one of 20 candidates named for the Julius Erving Award, given to the nation’s top small forward at the end of the season.

Syracuse is one of five teams with players on the Jerry West Award and Erving preseason lists, along with Duke, Virginia, Kentucky and Washington.

Brissett returns to his sophomore year at Syracuse after a freshman season in which he finished second on SU with 14.9 points per game. He also led the Orange with 8.8 rebounds per contest. At SU media day, Jim Boeheim spoke to Brissett’s improvements.

“His shooting from the 3-point line is definitely better at this stage,” Boeheim said. “I think those are the two areas that he can improve on. I think he’s stronger. He was a very good rebounder last year. He’s improved from last year.”

Four other ACC teams are represented among the 20 nominees: Duke’s Cam Reddish, North Carolina’s Nassir Little, Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter and Wake Forest’s Jaylen Hoard.

The past winners of the award in its four seasons of existence are Arizona’s Stanley Johnson (2015), Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine (2016), Villanova’s Josh Hart (2017) and Villanova’s Mikal Bridges (2018).

The award winner will be announced at The College Basketball Awards in Los Angeles on April 12, 2019.

Syracuse opens its regular season on Nov. 6 against Eastern Washington, after exhibitions on Oct. 25 against the College of St. Rose and Oct. 31 against Le Moyne.

Published on October 17, 2018 at 2:41 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3