OMAHA, Neb. — When Braedon Bayer arrived at Syracuse, he was hopeful that he could walk on to an ACC heavyweight led by a Hall of Fame coach. After drawing zero Division I scholarship offers out of Trinity-Pawling School, a prep institution about 20 minutes southeast of his hometown, Lagrangeville, N.Y., he averaged 10.7 points per game over one full season for Grinnell College, the D-III program in Iowa best known for a gimmicky style of basketball that involves pushing the tempo to the extreme, encourages launching three-point shots with abandon and occasionally produces ridiculous individual scoring outbursts.
Drawn to Syracuse by the friendship he had developed with former Orange forward and eventual NBA first-round draft pick Tyler Lydon through prominent, New York state-based grassroots program City Rocks, Bayer transferred in 2015.