Orange’s March Musts.
By: Mike Lindsley
Syracuse has clearly been vulnerable in late February. A terrible loss to Boston College at home, followed by a road loss at Duke followed by a brutal offensive performance at Maryland. This team has also not had any real semblance of a consistent offense all month and has faced an injury here or there and foul trouble, all of which didn’t exist in the beginning of the season.
Moving into the new month, the month with the madness and the tournaments and everything on the line, Syracuse needs to fix a bunch of things. Here are four “MUSTS” if Syracuse is to reach the Final Four in back-to-back years.
- Offense. Yes we mentioned this. Jerami Grant-Tyler Ennis-Trevor Cooney-C.J. Fair. Those are the big four Syracuse needs every game. No one can have an off-game. The key question is if Michael Gbinije and Rakeem Christmas can provide 10-15 points per game to offset one of the big players having an off night. Syracuse can win plenty of games in the 50’s because they have a great 2-3 zone defense, but in the NCAA Tournament you eventually need to score deep into the brackets because those teams generally have one extra scorer or one extra NBA talent on the roster. Last year against Michigan in the national semifinal is a great example of this. Low scoring game, but Michigan had more talent and more offensive options and so they won.
- Run more. It is hard to run when you don’t have the horses, but Baye Keita is back now and looked better at Duke and Maryland. Jerami Grant’s back is key here too. But Syracuse, too many times, gets into a half court lull because their opponents play that way. We saw at Maryland the Orange pull-up often. For what? Run the break. This team always has. Why stop now?
- Guard the 3. Syracuse can’t allow a team to shoot 35-40 3-pointers every game because those teams will eventually hit plenty of long balls. In other words, no repeats of Duke (36 attempts and 15 made) at the Carrier Dome. Simple as that.
- KISS theory. Keep it Simple Stupid. Free throws made. No turnovers. Take good shots. Win the loose balls on the floor. These little things are always crucial and everyone knows that. But the little things are magnified when you play in ultra-close games, which Syracuse has done all season.
