Boeheim’s Army: two high-profile, non-SU alums are officially joining the team

Say hello to the NCAA’s all-time leader in steals and a big man from the G-League.

This week, Boeheim’s Army picked up its eighth and ninth players that will be joining the roster for the 2025 TBT. Neither is a former Syracuse Orange player, but both are certainly some notable names in the basketball world and quality additions to the army.

Boeheim’s Army is bringing in NBA G League center Noah Starkey and Jacob Gilyard, who played his whole collegiate tenure at Richmond and went on to become the NCAA’s all-time career leader in steals.

Of the nine players who are now on Boeheim’s Army, Starkey and Gilyard are the second and third players with non-Syracuse ties who will be competing with the team. Each will certainly be bringing some defensive prowess and skill to the roster, in addition to some fringe NBA experience.

Gilyard played five years for the Richmond Spiders. He most notably became a force in picking off opponent passes, never averaging less than 2.8 steals per game in a season. He peaked at 3.6 steals per game in 2020-21.

Gilyard would go on to average 13.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 3.0 steals in his collegiate career. He led the NCAA in steals twice, won the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year and made the A10 All-Defensive Team four times. Gilyard also won the Conference Tournament MVP in 2022 and earned All-A10 team honors four times (first-team in 2020, second-team in 2019 and 2021, and third-team in 2022).

The roughly five-foot-nine guard went undrafted in the 2022 NBA Draft, but managed to sign with the Memphis Grizzlies. He was waived weeks later and spent the next few years in the G League, most recently with the Cleveland Charge. Gilyard in the spring signed with a team in Germany.

Starkey spent his entire collegiate career with the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm, a Division II school in the Great American Conference. He had career averages of 10.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in 119 total game at Southern Nazarene University.

Starkey would go on to be named GAC Defender of the Year twice. He would also receive GAC All-Second Team honors in 2018 and a spot on the GAC All-First Team in 2019. Starkey also ended his tenure as the program’s all-time leader in blocked shots and ranked 10th in career rebounds.

After going undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft, the seven-foot center went on to play overseas in Portugal, Montenegro and Germany. After spending some time in the NBA G League, he went up north to play for the Winnipeg Sea Bears in Canada.

He most recently played in the spring for the Oklahoma City Blue, the G League affiliate of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Including Starkey and Gilyard, the current Boeheim’s Army roster includes nine players. Starkey, Gilyard and Nick Perkins make up all the non-Syracuse men’s basketball alumni. There are six confirmed former Orange players on the team — Rakeem Christmas, Chris McCullough, Buddy Boeheim, Jimmy Boeheim, Elijah Hughes and Malachi Richardson.

With Starkey and Gilyard on the team, this also means Boeheim’s Army officially has the required number of players needed for the TBT.

Syracuse will be one of the eight host regions for the 2025 TBT, which starts just weeks from now. The Syracuse Regional portion of the TBT runs from July 19 to July 23 at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.

As always, we’ll keep you updated on if there are ay more additions to the 2025 Boeheim’s Army team.