Syracuse, N.Y. -- Jim Boeheim wants to make something clear. His son, Buddy, will be on scholarship this season. And he is not sitting out the year as a redshirt.

"They still speculate about it all the time that it's a possibility. He's not redshirting," Boeheim said. "Right now, there's no plans to redshirt anybody."

Buddy Boeheim will be a freshman in 2018-19, when Syracuse returns every one of its starters from its Sweet 16 team of a season ago. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard has been working out with his new Orange teammates all summer since graduating from Brewster Academy, where he spent his senior high school season.

With Buddy at SU, Jim Boeheim will coach one of his four children for the first time. He and Buddy are close and the Syracuse coach expects to enjoy the experience.

"He's a good player," Boeheim said, "and I like coaching good players."

He will also address his team about the subject.

"I won't be harder on him, I won't be easier on him. And he'll play if he can help us and if he can't he won't. Simple as that," he said. "There's no question about that. There's no doubt in my mind. And I'll tell the players that, too."

Practice starts Sept. 25. Boeheim will have 11 scholarship players this season, to varying degrees early in the practice schedule. He insists he will play "at least nine guys" this year. Last season, injuries and defections (Geno Thorpe) so decimated the Orange roster that at times Syracuse had no truly healthy centers and just two healthy recruited guards.

"You're going to play seven or eight, but the ninth guy can get in there and play a little bit," he said. "The 10th could in some situations play, too."

Asked whether it would be more difficult to manage a larger pool of potential contributors, Boeheim said it would not:

"It's not harder to make a couple extra substitutions. That's not hard. You get different things when you make changes, you gain things and you lose things. But overall, if you gain things, that's why you play extra guys. You don't play extra guys just to play them. You play 'em because they can help you in some way."

Health update

Syracuse forward Oshae Brissett (11) during a Sweet 16 game against Duke on Friday, March 23, 2018, at CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com SYR

Boeheim said Oshae Brissett underwent a minor surgical procedure recently and will be out 2-3 weeks. "It's really nothing," he said. "I think Oshae will be light practice until right around the week of practice. He should be able to go pretty full right around the start of practice."

As for Howard Washington, he continues to rehab from an ACL tear and subsequent surgery last winter. Washington has said he's ahead of schedule to fully participate and play, but Boeheim said the staff does not want to make any bold proclamations about when he'll return. Boeheim acknowledged Howard was "on a good schedule" in his rehab. But until he actually gets on the floor and fully competes, his timetable is somewhat unknown.

"He's the one guy who could redshirt if he's not healthy enough," he said.

Bourama Sidibe, too, underwent surgery in the offseason to address the nagging tendinitis that plagued him all of last season. Boeheim expects Sidibe to start practicing within the next week and be "a full go" by Sept. 25.

Style of play

Syracuse ranked 345 of 351 teams last season in terms of adjusted tempo, according to Kenpom.com. The Orange's 2-3 zone habitually causes opposing teams to probe for gaps in that defense, which affects SU's overall tempo.

The difference last year was the Orange was slower on offense than it was on defense. SU ranked 341 in possession length on offense (19.6 seconds) and 255 on defense (17.8). Both Boeheim and SU point guard Frank Howard said Syracuse's shrinking lineup of healthy players -- particularly at the guard spots -- made it difficult to push pace on offense.

This year, Boeheim expects his team to run more.

"We need to push the ball, try to be better on offense," he said. "We need to shoot better on offense, shoot better percentages."

Darius Bazley

Much has been written and said about Bazley, the McDonald's All-American who committed to Syracuse, then stunningly elected to skip college and play instead in the G League.

The G League is no longer in Bazley's plans. He will spend the year working out and getting his body and his game ready for the NBA Draft next June. His slender body needs augmenting and would have been tested against more mature, brawnier G Leaguers. And others had privately wondered whether the G League team that owned his rights for a few months before the NBA Draft would have truly invested in his development.

Reporters have asked Boeheim about Bazley. The SU coach maintains Bazley should have gone to college.

"I mean, he made a mistake. It doesn't do any good to talk about it," he said. "Everybody thinks I'm criticizing him. I'm not. I'm just telling it like it is. He made a mistake. He should own it. He's just not ready. He's just not physical. They're not letting him play in the G League because he'd get killed."

With or without Bazley, Syracuse has plenty of talented options at the forward spots.

Elijah Hughes on the Syracuse bench cheers on the team during a game against Clemson on Saturday, March 3, 2018, at the Carrier Dome. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com SYR

Brissett and Marek Dolezaj return. Both were influential as freshmen. Brissett was a workhorse who averaged 14.9 points and 8.8 rebounds in 38 minutes. Dolezaj's emergence toward the end of the season (20 points vs. Wake; averaged 12 ppg in his final three games) helped the Orange in its push to the Sweet 16. Syracuse adds Robert Braswell, a 6-foot-8 forward from South Carolina whom Boeheim praised for his shooting stroke (he has range and touch from the 3-point line) and described as an "underrated" recruit.

And then there's Elijah Hughes. The 6-foot-6 East Carolina transfer sat out last season. He has shed about 10 pounds (to 210). With Tyus Battle back, Hughes will play mostly small forward. And everybody who's seen him play this summer has raved about him. Including Boeheim.

"Elijah's been the best player here this summer," Boeheim said.