Ryan Moesch was supposed to be playing this winter at Siena.
After watching what he did on Monday night for Syracuse at Indiana, can you imagine what he’d be doing for the Saints right now? The Metro Conference (formerly MAAC) sure has to be glad Moesch didn’t end up there.
Nope, Moesch followed Gerry McNamara when the former Siena head coach came to take over at his alma mater this season.
The timing just happened to work out that way — Syracuse was going to need more players with a new coach taking over, and Moesch was already planning to play for McNamara.
But think about the question marks. Moesch was going to play at low-major Siena. Now he’s going to fit at high-major Syracuse? It was logical for fans to have some skepticism.
Moesch has answered every single question already. Surely, there will be the ups and downs of a freshman season, but it’s clear Moesch can fit in.
The opening matchups against New Haven and Central Connecticut State may not have been proof of that. Monday night in Indianapolis against the Hoosiers was plenty of proof.
Ryan Moesch Stats vs. Indiana
Moesch played 26 minutes off the bench for Syracuse against Indiana and was part of the Orange’s closing lineup.
He finished with 19 points, six assists, two steals and just one turnover.
Moesch shot 6-for-13 from the floor, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range, and was 4-for-5 from the foul line.
His performance had Sports Illustrated’s national college basketball writer Kevin Sweeney post this on X:
“Moesch was committed to Siena with Gerry McNamara. Followed after the coaching change. Something like $27 million of transfer portal spending on the floor between the two teams, and Moesch has been the best guy out here tonight.”
And after the game, McNamara had high praise, too.
“He’s got to become consistently better at it, but when he makes 3s, he’s almost damn near unguardable,” McNamara said, via The Daily Orange.
Yep, not bad for a kid who a year ago was committed to Siena — a quality program, but not one that generally fishes in the same pond as Syracuse.
Ryan Moesch Hometown
One of the cool subplots of this is that Moesch is from Chittenango, which is less than 20 miles from Syracuse.
He finished his high school career at a prep school, but Moesch is a Central New York kid.
It’ll likely be brought up more as the year goes along, but this whole Moesch story is off to a special start for the Orange. If he performs at this kind of a level throughout the rest of his college career, he could grow into an SU fan favorite in a hurry.
Syracuse’s Ryan Moesch Puts College Basketball On Notice