Syracuse, N.Y. -- The chocolate lava cakes from Domino's are crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside and simply decadent throughout.

And Elijah Hughes loved them.

"My favorite,'' Hughes said. "Domino's lava cake. That was my go-to. Late at night, couldn't sleep, call Domino's and get a lava cake.''

But this past year, Hughes steered away from his guilty pleasure.

While sitting out the 2017-18 season following his transfer from East Carolina University to Syracuse University, Hughes worked on his body as much as he did his game.

The 6-foot-6 forward from Beacon, N.Y., dropped five pounds and developed a more sculpted look to his frame.

"I slimmed down,'' he said during a recent interview at the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center. "I turned a lot of baby fat into muscle and got a little more cut. It's been a good year. I'm around 215 now, probably down about five pounds, but it's mostly muscle.''

Hughes said he can feel the change in his body when he's on the court.

"It feels different,'' he said. "It feels like I'm moving faster, jumping higher. I'm in better shape. I'm not as tired during my workouts.''

In addition to the Domino's lava cakes, Hughes also eliminated cookies, ice cream and McDonald's from his diet.

"All that had to go,'' he said.

All five starters return from the Syracuse team that advanced to the Sweet 16 of last year's NCAA tournament, but the addition of Hughes has created even more buzz surrounding the Orange heading into the 2018-19 season.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim recently said Hughes was "as good of an offensive player at the guard spot as anybody we've had in recent years.''

Boeheim's comments raised a lot of eyebrows and caught Hughes a little off guard.

"I did see that,'' he said. "Obviously, to get praise like that from a Hall of Fame coach is surreal, but I've just got to stay focused.''

Boeheim's comments were telling. The Syracuse coaches have been high on Hughes ever since he decided to transfer from East Carolina last year.

But Boeheim's comments can also be a bit confounding. After all, those are some heavy expectations to place on a player who averaged just 7.8 points per game and shot just 27.3 percent from the 3-point line as a freshman at East Carolina.

Hughes said a foot injury that caused him to miss eight games early in the 2016-17 season hampered his play.

"I hurt my foot and it took me out for about eight or nine games,'' he said. "Then I gained a lot of weight. It was hard to get back into the rhythm of things. My confidence was low. I started shooting it bad and everything was going downhill from there.''

By the end of the season, Hughes wanted a fresh start. He also wanted to be closer to his family. "I'm a mama's boy,'' he said.

In the summer of 2015, Hughes participated in Boeheim's summer camp. He played so well that SU assistant coach Adrian Autry offered him an invite to SU's exclusive Elite Camp. But Syracuse didn't have a scholarship to offer and Hughes committed to East Carolina as he headed into a post-graduate year at South Kent (Conn.) Prep.

So when Hughes announced his decision to transfer, Autry quickly contacted Hughes' father.

"We scheduled a visit,'' Hughes said. "We came up and I was like 'I'm ready. No need for any other visits. I'm ready to go.'''

But first, Hughes had to wait a year. The NCAA's rules mandate that transfers must sit out a year before playing at their new school. Hughes could practice with the Orange, but he couldn't play in games.

"It was super hard,'' he said. "There were stretches when the guys weren't playing well and we were losing games and I was like 'We're losing by eight, I could go in and put up eight points.' I wanted to go in and get that rebound or get that steal or make that play. It was hard, but I got through it.''

When Tyus Battle entered his name in the NBA draft, Hughes figured to be his likely replacement at the shooting guard position. But Battle eventually decided to return for his junior year. It's a move that directly impacts Hughes' role on next year's team.

Hughes said that Autry has told him to be ready to spend time at small forward.

"I'm OK with that,'' he said. "Guys like Mike Gbinije played that position. Andrew White. Malachi (Richardson). It shows my versatility. I can play more than one position.''

Hughes has spent the entire summer in Syracuse, taking classes in both summer sessions and working out with many of his teammates. In the first session, he worked out a lot with returning starter Oshae Brissett. Now that the second session has begun, Brissett is back home in Canada, but Hughes is now working out with sophomore forward Marek Dolezaj and SU's three incoming freshmen Jalen Carey, Buddy Boeheim and Robert Braswell.

"We're all excited,'' Hughes said. "We're ready to go. We're happy that everyone's back and we've got more pieces to help us so we don't have guys playing 40 minutes a game. There's a lot of lineups and rotations we can have this year. We can mix it up.

"Everyone's working hard,'' he added. "We're just all ready to go.''

And hold the lava cakes.