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t the end of this summer, each Syracuse player wrote down the name of their teammate who had the most impressive offseason. About 80 percent of the ballots chose Desiree Elmore. The summer before that, the one before her freshman year, Elmore didn’t have any idea what to expect from college basketball, and it showed.
“Desiree was a kid who had to develop a work ethic,” said Tammy Millsaps, her high school coach. “Sometimes when you come along in today’s generation of social media, sometimes there’s a mindset that I’m very, very good and I don’t need to do too much more.”
Elmore was a five-star recruit and ranked No. 51 by espnW HoopGurlz for the Class of 2016. She graduated from Capital (Connecticut) Prep as a four-time state champion and, as a senior there, she averaged 26.7 points and 15.7 rebounds per game.
Looking back on her freshman season at Syracuse and now understanding college basketball, Elmore said she wasn’t prepared for the pace. This year, she needs to be. The Orange lost four of its starters to graduation, returning only Gabrielle Cooper. There is opportunity and Elmore’s offseason mindset has her ready to seize it.
“I noticed major change,” guard Jasmine Nwajei said. “Even in her aura and her demeanor, how she moves. She’s just more hungry about things.”
Elmore’s freshman season was an adjustment. She wasn’t sure what to expect coming from a small high school in Connecticut to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Elmore averaged just nine minutes per game, a number that dipped even lower during conference play. She had three assists and 15 turnovers.
In her end-of-season meeting with the SU coaching staff, Elmore wanted to know what she could do to “actually help the team throughout the year.” They told her number one was her conditioning. So she went home and did, “as much running as I could.”
Leon Elmore Sr. said his daughter worked out more than she ever had. Before, he said, Elmore never needed to work that hard because she was just “that good.” It shocked him to see her waking up to get to the gym by 7 a.m. Elmore focused on her diet, her father said, and she drank strictly water.
“That’s the first thing coach Q said, ‘Man, we’re gonna have to get her new uniforms. Look how much weight she lost,’” Leon said.
“That’s a sign of somebody who gets it,” Leon added, “somebody who wants to be better. When you don’t have to be told what to do, when you just initiate everything and you go do it.”
Elmore also faced the challenge that she didn’t know where she belonged on the floor. Her height, 5-foot-9, puts her between a guard and a forward. She’s been tasked with being a post player at SU, which meant she spent a lot of time working with Bria and Briana Day last season. Their messages have only begun to sink in for Elmore now, even after the twins graduated.
“Every little thing that they’ve got on me about that they’ve told me for advice,” Elmore said. “It literally is all making sense this year.”
When Elmore arrived back in Syracuse to start the Orange’s offseason conditioning program this summer, she took that advice and didn’t let up. Elmore and her teammates ran the steps on Euclid Avenue. They did a variation of 400-meter repeats, 800-meter repeats and even ran two-mile loops on the track.
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The team ran a mile together about six times throughout the summer, junior guard Isis Young said. Each player was timed and expected to improve upon that mark on each run. Elmore’s performance in the last mile test was “amazing,” Young said. Some players dropped about 10 seconds from their times, and Young recalled Elmore shaving 40. At the end of the summer leading into her freshman year, Elmore remembers barely breaking eight minutes in the mile. This summer, her last mile time was 6:46.
Though Elmore may have not known what to expect at Syracuse, she knew it was the place for her to go out of high school, her father said. Elmore wants to be a broadcaster for ESPN, Leon said, and was impressed that Hillsman himself recruited her and not just an assistant. So choosing SU over other high-major schools she considered, like Baylor and LSU, became easy.
When Elmore committed to Syracuse in October of her junior year, the program still hadn’t reached the Final Four once. But a year and a half later, in the spring of Elmore’s senior year, the Orange made it past the Final Four to the national championship game. Those who once were not surprised with her commitment, Elmore said, now believed she couldn’t compete at that level.
“There were a lot of people who doubted me after that, because they didn’t think I would be able to play on (a team) competing for a national championship,” Elmore said. “So it was just a lot of motivation to help me get to that point and it’s just something that I’ve always wanted.”
On a team full of transfers and freshman, Elmore finds herself in a leadership role as a sophomore. Elmore said no one really understands the positions she plays. That means she now passes down the Day sisters’ messages.
Elmore always excelled at taking charges, Millsaps said, and that as a slightly undersized forward she always relished the opportunity to shut down a taller opponent. Now, with the frontcourt starting spots wide open, everything is falling into place for the sophomore.
“I call myself a whatever type of player because I’m able to do whatever is needed,” Elmore said. “I just feel like I can be more useful because I’m not as tired.”
Instead of losing her breath, feeling winded and not playing much at all, Elmore feels ready to become a regular starter and help the team.
“I think I’m just gonna have to keep doing what I’m doing,” Elmore said. “I can’t let up.”
Banner photo illustration by Josh Shub-Seltzer | Staff Photographer
Published on November 5, 2017 at 11:34 pm
Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3
