Women's Basketball

Freshman backup Desiree Elmore offers glimpses of promising career

Jacob Greenfeld | Asst. Photo Editor

Desiree Elmore hasn't gotten too much playing time this year, but her talent and success shows glimpses toward her future.

Desiree Elmore doesn’t stand out as an interior force on the basketball court. She never has. Yet packed into her 5-foot-9 frame is a court vision beyond her freshman status, a knack for finding space inside and rebounding instincts that don’t often come from a fledgling backup.

The former five-star recruit averages only 2.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 10.2 minutes per game for Syracuse — so it’s a small-scale start. But the process of Elmore’s development offers a look at what next year’s frontcourt for No. 24 SU (15-7, 6-3 Atlantic Coast) might look like. Teammates said she brings an extra lift to team rebounding, and they believe the freshman can blossom into a regular starter once she gets a full season under her belt.

“She’s making smart plays,” redshirt senior guard Brittney Sykes said. “She’s just got to keep at it.”

With the Day sisters and Isabella Slim gone after the season, Elmore will likely head a frontcourt makeover in 2017-18. The blueprint for Syracuse’s frontcourt has for three years centered around Briana Day. In her freshman year, Day watched on as then-redshirt senior Shakeya Leary scored 8.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Next year, Elmore could step in the same way Day once did.

It doesn’t help Elmore’s playing time that senior forward Slim is seeing more minutes than she has at any point in her career. Elmore has shown her ability only in spurts, part of why SU head coach Quentin Hillsman has kept her on a shorter leash. This year, he said, is an anchor for her next three.



Tammy Millsats, Elmore’s high school coach, remembered hearing about the budding Division I prospect when she reached eighth grade. When Millsats ran into Elmore in the hallway one day at Capital Preparatory (Connecticut) Magnet School, the coach looked at her future star warily.

“I was like, ‘This kid gets talked about?Millsats recalls. “She didn’t look like an exceptional athlete that I heard so much about.”

Elmore grew to be a four-year starter and the go-to player, even though she started alongside a McDonalds All-American Kiah Gillespie, now a Maryland forward. Elmore began receiving recruiting letters in the seventh grade and sat with about 20 Division I coaches in her last few years of high school.

One night during Elmore’s sophomore year of high school, she matched up against a pair of 6-foot-4 seniors. She hadn’t practiced all week because of an injury, yet she scored about 20 points en route to a Hartford Prep win. Her senior year, Elmore averaged nearly 30 points and 16 rebounds per game. When Hartford Prep needed a basket, Millsats often designed a play around Elmore.

“She’s 5-9, but she plays more like she’s 6-2,” Millsats said. “Our play was get the ball to Des every time we could.”

Millsats said Elmore developed into a rugged, physical player that didn’t fit the mold of a prototypical five-star body type. It didn’t matter. Her dominant left hand, finesse and rebounding skills make up for it. Elmore selected SU, becoming its first five-star recruit since Brianna Butler in 2012.

In limited action at Syracuse this season, Elmore’s often bodied up with players three, four and five inches taller. She plays the 5 position during practice even when Day is on the floor. She works on low post drills with the Day sisters, Slim and Julia Chandler, all of whom stand 6 feet or taller.

On defense, Elmore spins an outlet pass as clean as anyone, Sykes said, who hardly remembers a time when Elmore didn’t box out an opponent and snatch a board in her direction. She can chin the basketball and go up for a put back, too.

“She hones in on the technique of rebounding,” said Sykes, who averages 7.9 rebounds per game. “She just does the dirty work. She boxes you out, gets you pinned under or gets you so far behind that it will be an over the back.”

Syracuse thrives when Sykes attacks the basket and either scores or lays a dump-off pass to a big in the short corner, Elmore included. The freshman can extend the floor with a shooting range of 15 to 17 feet. Though her next steps are to be more aggressive on offense, strengthen her right hand and continue to learn the offense, she’s looking more and more like a consistent force for SU.

“You wait for your time and your opportunity,” Sykes said. “Desiree has had more opportunities and she’s seized them.”





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