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When Syracuse trailed Buffalo by double digits in the second half of its game in December, the Orange couldn’t get stops. Their offense was stagnant, and their defense was allowing easy post entries and getting beat inside. Then, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim inserted Kadary Richmond.

Almost immediately, the Orange went on a 12-4 run to close the margin before pulling out an overtime win to avoid a bad home loss. Richmond finished with 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks in 32 minutes, proving that he had the conditioning to play extended minutes in a game.

Richmond’s high school coach, Shawn Mark, said that game was the best he’s seen Richmond play this year. While Richmond often provides a spark, Mark wants more consistency. Boeheim does, too. While Richmond has seen more minutes as a result of excellent two-way performances against North Carolina State and Buffalo, the freshman point guard’s had games with turnovers and lackluster defensive rotations, Boeheim said after the Orange’s win against Boston College on Saturday in the Carrier Dome. 

“He needs to work on being consistent when he comes in the game at first,” Mark said. “It’s motor-wise. Sometimes, he comes in blazing —  he needs to come in more hard every time he steps in the game, with the same intensity.”

Richmond has appeared in every game as a freshman for Syracuse (12-6, 6-5 Atlantic Coast), the third guard behind Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard III. He’s seen his minutes increase as the season has progressed, and he ranks fifth nationally in steal percentage and has the highest assist rate on Syracuse. Two years ago, when Richmond committed to Syracuse, he wasn’t listed as a point guard by any recruiting websites and played just two games at the position prior to his prep year. Now, he’s emerged as Syracuse’s co-point guard, alongside Girard. 

“He has some things that you can’t teach,” said Jason Smith, Richmond’s coach at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. “He had elite-level skill in ball-handling ability and playmaking ability.”

Richmond arrived at Syracuse in 2020, after the Orange lost out on a commitment from Andre Jackson, a top 50 player from Albany. When Jackson chose Connecticut, Syracuse called Mark and Smith and added Richmond less than a month later. 

“This kid is a point guard,” Smith said. “It’s a matter of him becoming more consistent.”
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Mark met Richmond when he was in sixth grade and was playing for St. Vincent Ferrer on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. He was “a little chubby kid with a bunch of handles,” Mark said, adding that he knew Richmond would be tall when he was older.

Richmond’s dad is 6-foot-4, and the two are built similarly, Mark said. Mark previously worked with Richmond’s older brother, Daquan, and knew the family through working and coaching basketball in their community. 

It wasn’t until eighth grade that Richmond lost some of the baby fat and started to slim down, Mark said. Richmond began running every morning to get into better shape, and he became more involved with organized basketball instead of just local games in his neighborhood. 

He grew into his lanky frame, his 6-foot-9 wingspan that’s created trouble for opposing offenses throughout the last six years. 

During Richmond’s freshman year at Midwood (New York) High School, Richmond asked Mark if he could come play for him at South Shore. Before he arrived as a sophomore, though, Richmond spent the summer after his freshman year playing at dozens of T-shirt tournaments across the city.

“Running from park to park, changing hisT-shirt like a mad man. He would play different tournaments every day,” Mark said.

Richmond played five or six games every other day, and he played in games and tournaments that Mark had never even heard of. He needed more exposure if he wanted to break in on the top AAU circuits, often the focal point of recruiting for Division I college coaches. 

Ella Plowman | asst. sports digital editor

Richmond’s old AAU team had folded, so Mark met up in Maryland with Isaiah Davis from Team New England. Davis had three spots on his roster, and Mark had three players in need of an AAU team: Pittsburgh’s Femi Odukale, Louisiana-Lafayette’s Isaiah Richards and Richmond. 

When Richmond was a sophomore, Mark texted Syracuse assistant coach Allen Griffin, also a Brooklyn native, and said that Richmond was a high-major talent. Griffin told Mark that the Orange had a scholarship available. But Syracuse didn’t offer it to Richmond immediately because of its interest in Jackson.

At that point, he’d never played point guard. 

Mark already had an established and effective point guard at South Shore, so Richmond played two guard or combo guard. Most scouting and recruiting websites listed him as that, too. 

Richmond came to Mark his junior year of high school and asked what it would take for him to become one of the best high school basketball players in the city. Mark set up workouts at I.S. 068 Isaac Bildersee, a school in Brooklyn that had a gym right down the street from South Shore. After games and practices for school basketball ended, Mark held workouts for Odukale and Richmond from 8 to 11 p.m. each night. 

Once they finished, Mark handed Richmond $2 to cover his bus fare, and Odukale walked Richmond to the 6 bus for his trip home. 

By his junior year, Mark knew exactly where Richmond would spend his post-grad prep year. Smith had coached Mark at Notre Dame Prep when Smith first began coaching in the late 90s, and the two maintained a close relationship. Mark hadn’t had a player at the level of Smith’s program until Richmond’s class. 

Richmond’s class lost in the first round of the city playoffs in his sophomore year but won two city championships in his junior and senior year. Odukale, Richards and Richmond lost to Alan Griffin and Stepinac in the state playoffs during Richmond’s junior season, but they’d shown their pedigree across the city. 

Kadary Richmond is one of the only freshman consistently playing almost entire games. Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

Mark recommended both Richmond and Odukale for Smith’s nationally-known program at Brewster. After Smith came to see Richmond play at the Barclays Center and realized he was a high-major talent, Richmond turned down a chance to go to Rhode Island after high school in an attempt to get more exposure and go high-major. 

At Brewster, Richmond was expected to be the lead guard immediately. Despite a drastic culture shock — moving from Brooklyn to a small town in New Hampshire with just over 6,000 people — Richmond arrived for morning workouts at 6 a.m. He attended class during the morning and early afternoon and practiced again for another three-hour window before night study hall. The structure and year of playing point guard at Brewster eased his transition into college, Smith said. 

“Kadary is a very talented player,” Boeheim said. “I think he was underrated because people thought he was a small forward. He’d actually be pretty good as a small forward, but he’s not that good. But he’s really good as a point guard.”

Boeheim said that he only saw Richmond play once in high school, when he played off the ball and was expected to be a small forward. It made it difficult to evaluate Richmond based on him playing a different position, Boeheim said. 

Now at Syracuse, Richmond is playing a relatively new position in the most unusual of years to be a college freshman. Mark sets up group phone calls between himself, Richmond and Richards to talk about their progress and lives. Mark sends Richmond texts after games and they’ll talk about home, about basketball and about life. 

Mark and Boeheim both want to see more consistency off the bench from the freshman. More games like North Carolina State and Buffalo, fewer like Boston College. It starts with practice. 

“People still haven’t really seen him go yet at Syracuse,” Mark said.

Published on February 14, 2021 at 11:43 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo