Syracuse’s first few additions to the backcourt in Gerry McNamara’s first offseason at the helm skewed toward improving the team’s offense. His third addition is all about the other side of the ball. McNeese transfer Garwey Dual committed to the Orange on Saturday afternoon, according to multiple reports.
The story was first reported by Dushawn London of 247Sports.
Dual will be a senior playing at his fourth school in four seasons come the fall. He started his career as a highly-touted recruit getting some serious preseason buzz at Providence, but it never came to fruition. He stayed in the Big East, transferring to Seton Hall, and started 22 games for the Pirates in 2024-25.
This past season, The 6 foot 5 Dual was a key contributor, playing 26.5 minutes per game, for a McNeese team that won 28 games, finished first in the Southland in both offensive and defensive efficiency, first nationally in forcing turnovers, and made the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 8.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 4.4 assists, along with 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks per contest.
All three of the teams that Dual has been on in college have been much better defenses than offenses by KenPom, especially his two seasons in the Big East, but a year with the Cowboys helped him grow into a role offensively. Playing some on-ball offense, he boosted his assist rate up to the top 125 nationally, while dropping his turnover rate below 20%. Dual and All-American Joshua Jefferson were the only two players in college basketball with block and steal rates above 3%, and an assist rate higher than 25%.
His EvanMiya defensive bayesian performance rating of 3.39 was the second-highest in the Southland, and paired with a top 5 offensive BPR, he finished with a 6.02 BPR, by far the highest in the Southland. And as Evan himself pointed out on Twitter, it was also a higher mark than any Syracuse player had last season, even with the adjustment for schedule that is baked into the calculation.
Simply put, Dual’s physicality, length, and athleticism on the defensive end will give Syracuse a chess piece to work with in the backcourt.
In McNeese’s Southland semifinal win, a triple overtime epic over Kahil Fennell’s UTRGV Vaqueros, Dual had a near triple-double with 10 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds. He then scored 16 points and had six assists in the Cowboys’ NCAA Tournament opening round defeat to Vanderbilt.
Dual operated ball screens at a high frequency for McNeese, albeit not at a highly efficient rate. It’s tough to see much of an offensive role for him off the ball because he’s a weak shooter, but he’s developed his on-ball game over his time in college to have enough juice to do it for a very good mid-major team. Now, we’ll see if he ends up being Syracuse’s choice at point guard.
If so, it would signal a huge emphasis on positional size, with four guards already at 6 foot 5 or taller between him, Gavin Doty, Kiyan Anthony, and Mark Morano Mahmutovic.
Dual has one year of eligibility remaining. I’ll have a full film review on all of Syracuse’s additions coming in the next few months.
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