Judah Mintz waited until the very last minute, but he’s made his decision — he’s returning to the Syracuse Orange.
The 6-foot-3 point guard announced his intention to withdraw from the 2023 NBA Draft late Wednesday, only a few hours before the midnight deadline for players to withdraw from the draft to retain their college eligibility.
Mintz announced his decision with a video posted to Syracuse Basketball’s Twitter account.
This is obviously good news for the Orange and their fans, who had only seen Mintz play for one season but know he’s a player to build a team around. He averaged 16.3 points and 4.6 assists per game, and led the ACC with 1.8 steals per contest. He earned ACC All-Rookie team honors.
The news thrilled Orange fans, stunning some of them so badly they forgot how to click off the “Caps Lock” key on their keyboards.
“THIS IS SUCH A WEIGHT OFF OUR SHOULDERS KNOWING HE IS BACK HAS ME SO PUMPED AND EXCITED!!!!” posted Syracuse Superfan.
LFG
THIS IS SUCH A WEIGHT OFF OUR SHOULDERS KNOWING HE IS BACK HAS ME SO PUMPED AND EXCITED!!!! — Syracuse Superfan 0-0 Football 0-0 Basketball (@number1cusefan) June 1, 2023
LETS GOOOOO @Jmintz10 win a chip then go first round sounds good to me
— Biz (@Stambreezy) June 1, 2023
This backcourt is gonna be a problem for the ACC look out!
— Andy R (@LargeKatt) June 1, 2023
I can’t like this enough. Thank you Judah!!! We are BACK. Can’t wait for November.
— Jonathan Jacobs (@bbquse) June 1, 2023
The Orange finished 17-15 last year in legendary head coach Jim Boeheim’s final season. Former Syracuse star Adrian Autry is the new head coach.