On Monday, Francis Folefac became the third Siena player to follow Gerry McNamara from the Saints to Syracuse. Unlike Tasman Goodrick and Gavin Doty, Folefac coming to Syracuse didn’t happen immediately. He reportedly took a visit to Georgia Tech in addition to SU, but he eventually followed that same path.
As a freshman, Folefac appeared in every game for Siena, becoming an increasingly important piece of the rotation as the year went on. He immediately scored 11 points in 13 minutes in his first
collegiate game, an 82-66 opening night win over Bryant, and scored in double figures five more times before November ended.
He entered the starting lineup permanently on December 22 in a loss to Indiana, where he scored 19 points. From that point forward, he played 30.8 minutes per game, up from the 22.8 that he played in the first 12 contests of the season.
Goodrick didn’t play after early December, and Antonio Chandler was ruled ineligible heading into the final stretch of the season, so Folefac’s role grew heading into the MAAC Tournament in Atlantic City. He played 36 minutes in a win over Fairfield in the semifinal, putting up 10 points and nine rebounds with five assists. After that game, I asked Folefac about the expansion of his role over the course of the year.
“Just doing whatever I can to help the team win,” Folefac said. “Coach puts a lot of faith in me to be able to do a lot of things on the court, and our staff trusts me, my teammates trust me. I just wanted to come in and do whatever I can to fill that void for us.”
That trust was best exemplified two nights later, when Folefac was given the assignment to guard MAAC Player of the Year Kevair Kennedy, a speedy point guard now committed to Wake Forest, in the championship game against Merrimack.
In the previous matchup with the Warriors, senior guard Justice Shoats drew the Kennedy assignment, and uncharacteristically fouled out in just 11 minutes. It was the only foul out of his Saints career. The coaching staff knew that in order to beat Merrimack, Shoats had to stay on the floor, and they needed a different answer for Kennedy, who finished with 32 points on 16-16 from the line in that February matchup.
So that answer was Folefac, putting length and strength on him, and daring him to take outside shots by sagging off and going under screens. It allowed Folefac to physically dominate the matchup, holding Kennedy to just four free throw attempts and 5-18 from the field.
“I trust Francis Folefac guarding anyone at any position,” then-Siena assistant, now Syracuse assistant coach Ben Lee told me after the championship game. “(Kennedy) is a handful 15 feet and in. Francis is an elite, elite defender. So just his length and physicality, I thought it was the best look for us.”
“We challenged him yesterday,” McNamara said after the championship game. “And just like he has all year, he comes in ready. Francis Folefac helped change the trajectory from last year to this year.”
“Francis is a dawg, he’s a different beast,” Doty said after the championship game. “His length and physicallity, and he can guard a guard, he can really guard a big. GMac challenged him Monday and said ‘Hey, you’re starting on Kennedy,‘ and I didn’t think that was going to be the case, but the more I thought about it, I was like ‘wow, this is a really good scout and I think Francis will do an amazing job on him,’ and he did.”
McNamara had high praise when asked about why Folefac was the choice to guard Kennedy.
“In those (game scouting) conversations, (our staff has) a great deal of confidence in Francis Folefac,” he said. “There’s not a thing I don’t think he could do. He’s long, he’s athletic, he’s strong. He can score in the post, he can handle the ball, he can do everything. He can defend anybody. So the more we discussed it, the more everything fell into place.”
And Folefac accepted the challenge.
“When coach told me I would be guarding the player of the year, rookie of the year, there wasn’t anything I wanted more,” Folefac told me after the game. “I couldn’t wait for the opportunity. I feel like I’m a high-level defender and I can guard any position.”
His versatility continued to show in the next game that the Saints played, facing Duke in the NCAA Tournament. Folefac handled the Cam Boozer assignment for much of the night. He’ll be asked to be Syracuse’s swiss-army knife next season, but it’s not just on the defensive end.
Folefac showed offensive development over the course of the season, emerging as a great passer for the Saints as the year went on. From February 1 until the end of the season, Folefac was seventh among all freshmen listed 6 foot 6 or taller nationally in assists per game with 3.2. Among mid-major freshmen, only Connor Igoe (Columbia) and Leif Moeller (Evansville) at that height averaged more during that stretch.
After finishing with seven assists in a loss to Saint Peter’s in early February, McNamara discussed Folefac’s growth.
“If you go single coverage, he’s gonna get a good shot,” McNamara said. “If you send a secondary defender, he’s good enough and talented enough to make plays.”
Folefac certainly has his weaknesses. He’s not much of a three-point shooter at the moment, and his body makes him a little bit of a positional tweener as well, but that can change in time.
I’ll have a more detailed film breakdown on Folefac and all of Syracuse’s additions over the course of the offseason.
