Quadir Copeland brings the ‘sauce’ to Syracuse basketball: ‘Showtime. That’s always just been me’

Syracuse, N.Y. — Antron Copeland said he has videos of his son, at age 5, making full-court passes. Julian Dunkley, a Philadelphia-based basketball trainer, points to old videos on Instagram that show Quadir Copeland’s early dazzle with the ball.

Those who know him best saw the Syracuse point guard fight for playing time against older, bigger kids in neighborhood playgrounds and gyms. They watched him answer hostile, sometimes threatening crowds with a slick pass or a finish at the rim.

They witnessed the birth of the Syracuse showman, the kid who seized every opportunity to make a big, splashy play.

“Quadir is just a charismatic, explosive personality in a positive way type kid,” said Dunkley, who runs Difference Makers, a training and mentorship program in Philadelphia. “He loves the limelight. He loves the camera. He embraces it, man. He doesn’t run away from the moment. He’ll do anything to be part of the play to win a game.”

Copeland’s last-second 3-point basket Saturday in the JMA Wireless Dome beat Miami 72-69. He was 1-for-8 from the field before launching that shot. Still, he wanted the ball. He wanted to deflate the Hurricanes with that final dagger.

In the rush of the post-game euphoria, he grabbed a cellphone to record his reaction for SU’s social media. He mingled with Syracuse fans who pounded him on the back in celebration. He basked in the locker room water-bottle dousing from his teammates.

“He loves it,” Judah Mintz said.

Copeland, a sophomore, has emerged this season as an invaluable sixth man, the kind of player who injects energy, tenacity and a distinct interest in getting his teammates involved.

His Syracuse coaches appreciate Copeland because he fights for his team, they said. A renowned talker — “he is never at a loss for words,” his dad said — he can lift teammates sinking to the depths of in-game despair. He can unite players with his interest in sharing the ball, with his ability to find guys in position to score. He can cover point guards, shooting guards, small forwards and power forwards.

His teammates love playing with him.

“He’s aggressive,” Maliq Brown said, “he gets to the paint and he’s always looking to find someone that’s open.”

His coaches appreciate the Copeland dazzle to some degree. They know how a behind-the-back pass that finds a teammate in stride can boost enthusiasm, both from his teammates and from the crowd.

But Adrian Autry and Gerry McNamara are in the business of funneling what Copeland exudes into a more efficient, more precise player. They see the talent. They see the flair. They want him to understand that the best play is sometimes the simplest play.

Through 18 games this season, Copeland has 49 assists and 39 turnovers.

“A lot of the plays he has, most of them he sees the play and he can make the play. But then he sees the play and he wants to put a little sauce on it,” Autry said. “He needs to change that a little bit. Because I believe he has the ability to make plays. He sees it before it’s happening. Now, it’s just how you choose to deliver it.”

“He doesn’t always need to hit the home run. Because he can hit a ton of singles. He can make a lot of simple plays that are great basketball plays. And I think he’s starting to understand that,” McNamara said.

“At this level, you can’t waste possessions. He’s a really good player. He can still be the showman, but do it in an incredibly efficient way and still get everybody involved.”

From the time he can remember playing basketball, Copeland tagged along with his older brother Daiquan to Philly playgrounds and gyms.

Because Daiquan is five years older, that often meant Quadir had to prove to the bigger guys that he was good enough for their pickup team, that he belonged. He learned that kids liked to play with kids who were interested in passing them the ball.

And if Copeland executed those passes with panache, people paid attention.

“I wasn’t always this tall. I was always the dribbler, the layup guy, the passer,” Copeland said. “It was always fun doing no-look passes, behind-the-back passes. That’s what always helped me want to pass. I was passing to guys like my brother. I was like, ‘I gotta get my man a shot. I gotta get my man a 3.’ It just always stayed with me.”

He kept telling his coaches, along the way, that the behind-the-back option was the more “comfortable pass” for him. He relies heavily on instinct, he said, on making a read and making a play in a “split second.”

He spent so many years whistling passes into mere crevices or putting some “sauce” on a full-court bounce pass that he rarely considered the consequences. He simply reacted.

He still trusts his instincts, he said. He still believes he can make every play he sees. But these days, he is trying to be more selective, more thoughtful.

“As soon as I see it, I might try to get it there or I might think, ‘Ahhhh, it’s too much. We don’t need this right now,’ ” he said. “At the beginning of the year, I was trying stuff, even in practice. My coaches, they all have their moments when they’re like, ‘Q, the regular one is there too.’ It’s something I’m starting to learn.”

Copeland and Dunkley said they appreciate how much rope Autry has allowed his sophomore guard. They appreciate that the SU staff can tolerate the occasional misplaced creativity because of everything else Copeland provides.

Those intangibles were evident from SU’s preseason exhibition games. Copeland said he benefited during that period from a minor injury that kept Mintz from the lineup, the major injury that still sidelines Chance Westry and the suspension of Benny Williams. Those absences, he said, opened a playing door for him.

Autry, though, said Copeland was destined to play this year. He believed Copeland’s ability to defend man-to-man would be useful. He liked his defensive instincts, his mental toughness, the pride he took in getting stops.

“When you play up with the older kids, you gotta win,” Antron Copeland said. “If you don’t win, you gotta get off the court. And a lot of times, when he was smaller, the older kids weren’t giving him the ball on offense, so he had to go out there and really play defense if he wanted to stay on the court and get picked up.”

Quadir Copeland said those early basketball days shaped him. He grew up in Southwest Philadelphia, and when his team played teams from other neighborhoods, there were often “grown men” on the sidelines boldly suggesting that if he kept making shots something dire might happen to him.

His dad, an amateur boxer back in his day, described the aggressive banging on walls or stomping of feet designed to distract opposing players. A lot of trash was talked.

“I was raised knowing how to protect yourself and don’t let nobody mess with you,” Copeland said. “So, when I get out there on the court, there’s only so much you can do. I know you can’t step to no extreme levels. I’m not going to let you push me around, bully me. I dealt with that in real life. So, when we’re on this court, when we’re between these lines, I feel like there’s nobody out there tougher than me.”

Scoop Jardine, the Philadelphia native and former Syracuse point guard, calls the phenomenon “Philly tough.” Jardine, who now coaches at a California junior college, spent about a week back home last summer with Copeland.

During those workouts, Jardine recognized the promise of Copeland’s 6-foot-6 size and talent. He saw the sizzle and wondered how much the SU coaching staff would tolerate.

But he also saw the toughness and the edge Copeland plays with. And Syracuse, Jardine said, needed some of that Philly fierceness.

“I think because he fights for you and he’s willing to mix it up,” McNamara said, “sometimes that fancy turnover, you live with it a little bit because you know he’s gonna battle for a big rebound, he’s gonna get on the floor for a loose ball, he’s gonna yap it up with the opposing team’s best player a little bit.

“You know what you’re getting. I think that’s what we all probably love the most about him. You know you’re getting a guy who’s going to lay it on the line for you.”

Copeland averages 8.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21.5 minutes overall this season but has been better in ACC play, where he’s scoring 11.1 points and grabbing the same amount of rebounds in 25.6 minutes. In conference games, he’s making nearly 43% of his 3-point shots (6-for-14) in limited attempts. He started the season 0-for-9 from 3.

Dunkley, Jardine, Autry and McNamara said Copeland’s jump shot is better than the numbers suggest, that once he finds a comfort zone on the perimeter, his percentages will improve.

Last season, Copeland said, was in many ways the most miserable year of his basketball life. He averaged seven minutes per game. In high school, in prep school, on travel teams, he never sat on the bench, never felt the humiliation of invisibility. His people back home told him it was a process, that his time would come if he continued to work.

When SU announced its coaching change after last season, Autry told all his players they began 2023-24 with “a clean slate.” Everybody, he said, would need to prove they belonged on the floor. Everybody would get a fair shot.

That’s exactly what Copeland wanted to hear.

“I literally told Red, I’m not asking for you to start me, I’m just asking for a fair chance to get an opportunity,” Copeland said. “I’m gonna practice hard every day. I’m gonna be a leader. I just want a fair chance.”

Autry said Copeland has made the most of his opportunity.

The SU coach likes that Copeland for the most part is self-aware and accountable, that he can acknowledge what he’s done wrong and try to improve it. He doesn’t blame anybody but himself.

And he is first and foremost, Autry said, about winning basketball games.

“He has an infectiousness and a toughness and a joyfulness and he just brings people up when he plays,” Autry said. “Everybody can’t do that. If his teammates are not going well, most of the time he’ll lend a hand and try to pick them up. He wants to play well. He wants his team and his teammates to play well.”

If that means sometimes sending a pass into a thicket of defenders, sometimes bouncing the ball between a defender’s legs, sometimes completing a 360 spin move at the rim, well, that is the current price Copeland charges for his opportunity.

Sometimes, he can’t help himself.

“I love the crowd. I love playing in front of the crowd,” Copeland said. “Showtime. That’s always just been me. I just try to enjoy the moment, make memories and have fun. At the end of the day, it’s a basketball game. It’s a kid’s game.”

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