The last time Kaleb Joseph played for Syracuse, the game wasn’t even close. There was one minute and seven seconds left and SU led Notre Dame by 18. It was the first time in 119 minutes that he had played. There have been 80 minutes of game time since. Joseph has spent all of them waiting for a legitimate shot that is likely never coming.

The last time Joseph played, there wasn’t a score to change. Only a moment of apparent pity to be had. He entered the game flanked by walk-ons Mike Sutton and Doyin Akintobi-Adeyeye. The crowd of 22,861 that watched Syracuse blow out its then-No. 25-ranked opponent had whittled down to a fraction of the size. Joseph touched the ball only once, and didn’t record a stat.

He’s played one minute in the Orange’s past 200, and it meant nothing more than all the rest.

Joseph entered the season having made, per SU head coach Jim Boeheim, the “biggest offseason improvements physically of anybody that I can remember.” He raved about his shooting improvement. Last year, he wasn’t ready, Boeheim said. This year, he was.

“I have no problem having him in the game a lot,” Boeheim said on Oct. 16. “He’ll be in the game a lot.”

But Joseph hasn’t been in any game a lot. He hasn’t played more than 17 minutes in any contest all season. He’s entered just five of the 11 conference games and has played a total of 18 conference minutes. He’s taken 28 shots this season and made only five. Just a year ago he averaged more than 27 minutes per game. So far, Syracuse’s “biggest offseason improvement” hasn’t shown any, or been given a chance to do so as of late.

The reason behind his trajectory this season remains virtually untold. He declined to talk for this story. His friend and high school coach didn’t respond to an interview request. His AAU coach said, “I have no comment.” His mother said, “I have to decline.” When Boeheim was asked about what had changed from then to now, he avoided any sort of explanation.

“He has not performed well in game situations,” Boeheim said. “He has not been able to get it done on the court. Frank Howard has moved ahead of him and that’s where it stands right now.”

It leaves one to wonder what the emotional toll is on Joseph, a player who started in 30 of SU’s 31 games last year. A player that was the No. 9 point guard recruit in the country according to ESPN the year before that. After games, when every other scholarship player gets hounded with television cameras and tape recorders, Joseph sits by his locker and waits to leave.

His statistics aren’t representative of the expectations that were placed on him. When he has played, Joseph has made head-scratching mistakes. He dribbled into no-man’s land and made errant passes or attempted impossible shots. It’s hard to say whether he deserves another chance. It’s hard to say if he got one to begin with.

But it’s impossible to know if it’s over. It’s impossible to know if he’ll play next season, or if he’ll even want to come back. Michael Gbinije and Trevor Cooney are both graduating, but Howard will likely be coming back. The last time Joseph played more minutes than Howard was more than a month ago, when the latter sat out the game because of sickness. Joseph only played five minutes.

“My confidence stays the same whether I get in the game for 30 minutes or five minutes,” Joseph said after he played 14 minutes on Dec. 2, the last time he played that much. “I feel just the same in my ability.”

But he hasn’t played 30 minutes. He hasn’t played five. Since Jan. 16, he’s played just one minute. And there’s no way to know when his next minute will come.

Sam Blum is a Senior Staff Writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at sblum@syr.edu or @SamBlum3.

Published on February 8, 2016 at 10:34 pm