Syracuse men’s basketball: Scouting UCLA transfer William Kyle III

Sam breaks down the ins and outs of Syracuse’s first transfer pickup

Syracuse Orange men’s basketball’s first transfer acquisition of the 2025-26 cycle was UCLA big man William Kyle.

Kyle is a versatile threat at the five who can guard multiple positions and a major finisher at the rim. In his only season at UCLA after transferring from South Dakota State, he averaged just 2.9 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. His role cut down later in the year as the Bruins’ style of play was shifting to better suit the player who emerged as UCLA’s best, Tyler Bilodeau.

Going back to Kyle’s sophomore season at South Dakota State, he was named First Team All-Summit League and Summit League Defensive Player of the Year (although the Summit is the worst defensive conference in the country), for averaging 13.1 points and 6.6 rebounds in 27.7 minutes.

He finished second in all levels of college basketball in dunks, with 101, behind only Zach Edey, in 2023-24, as the Jackrabbits fed him in the low post and he feasted on lower level athletes. However, he did not get as many post-up opportunities at UCLA, and he didn’t convert many of them.

The first thing that I notice when watching Kyle on film is how quickly he moves. Despite his 6 foot 9, 230 pound frame, he can get down the floor in a hurry on either end, and he is athletic in his defensive stance when switched onto the perimeter. His hedge-and-recover looks effortless.

Because of the immense ball pressure that UCLA’s guards put on opposing guards, the Bruins didn’t allow a ton of field goal attempts at the rim, but when they did, the defense was usually already at a disadvantage, and teams would be able to score. Kyle fits the mold of a big that can put pressure on the ball, as he’s quicker than most bigs and is able to recover for a dribble drive, and can also recover on ball screens to limit paint advantages.

Additionally, Kyle had a 9.0% block rate at UCLA, which is excellent. The Bruins did an excellent job at keeping teams away from the rim, with and without Kyle, thanks to the scheme, but Kyle himself is a strong rim deterrent. He is an explosive jumper who can rotate down to block shots, help on a drive, or make any other athletic play.

Every once in a while, Kyle would get caught jumping a little bit too far out for a block, and it would open up the offensive glass for the opposing team.

He’s efficient turning his hips on pick-and-rolls, and has excellent mobility, and I think there’s some room for him to be a little more aggressive if the Orange want to hedge him more consistently. However, they’ll have to coach him up, and play better help-side defense.

On this switch, he does a good job staying with the ball, then gets switched again, but is taken out of the play by the ball screen. That explains how Kyle is often a great defender on his first read, but can struggle on the second read.

I think there was a way that UCLA could’ve used Kyle’s tools a little bit better on the defensive side of the ball, but the Bruins had a working formula on that end, even if it didn’t leverage him perfectly.

If you’re signing a player like Kyle in the ACC, you’re probably not asking him to play in drop all the time like he did at South Dakota State. However, I don’t think SU will use him as inconsistently as UCLA did either. I’m curious to see what Syracuse does in the pick-and-roll, but Kyle has all of the athletic tools to be able to play different coverages effectively.

Moving back to my favorite part of Kyle’s game, the ability to get down the floor quickly and score before the defense is set. It wasn’t featured heavily for UCLA in 2024-25, but having a big man who can run the court as well as Kyle is a huge asset to the Syracuse offense that struggled immensely to not just create high-quality transition opportunities, but score off of those.

In the half-court, his role decreased significantly from the primary focus of South Dakota State’s offense, which tried to create post-up opportunities, into a play-finishing off-ball big man. His role was so pigeonholed at UCLA that he didn’t take a single jump shot all season. Looking at his free throw percentage (57% for his career, 39% last season), that’s probably for the best.

Kyle has the Hall of Fame lob city finisher badge, able to turn any type of pass into an alley-oop slam.

UCLA would often try to get him rolling to the basket with space in front of him. My favorite action that the Bruins ran for him setting him a Spain screen to make sure he gets a free roll to the basket.

He can also punish a hard hedging or blitzing defense that doesn’t recover fast enough with how quickly he can get back to the low post for a slam.

Kyle scored just eight points all season long on post-ups, but during his time with South Dakota State, he showed the ability to score in different ways out of the block. When he got the ball to face up, he’d still often try to go into his back down, where he used his spin move to get into the paint for the slam.

In 23-24, Kyle faced a 73rd percentile rate of post-doubles. While that’s slightly lower than one may expect considering his dominance, SDST was a good enough three-point shooting team to discourage help. He actually ranked 16th in the Summit League in assist rate during league play that season, at 13.1, spraying to shooters every once in a while when doubled. Against Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament, who sent a bunch of doubles his way, he only scored on a post-up once, but dished out four assists.

Most of Kyle’s passes came out of necessity with the Jackrabbits and it showed as his assist rate dropped back into the single digits at UCLA. He didn’t have a single assist off the short roll in 2024-25.

If you want to see more analysis of Kyle’s stellar 23-24 season at South Dakota State, check out this thread from friend of the program Joe Jackson from when he committed to UCLA.

It goes without saying that Kyle is best when he’s moving toward the basket offensively, and Syracuse needs to find ways to get him the ball in those spots, whether its as a roll man or out of the dunker spot.

He’ll need to improve as a foul shooter, and he’ll need to be coached up a little on how to react when he’s defending the perimeter, but William Kyle will make plenty of highlight plays, and give SU a different look from last season.