Syracuse (10-3) wrapped up its nonconference schedule on Sunday with an 80-67 win over Texas Southern. The Orange next faces Pittsburgh on Wednesday night on the road. With better opponents coming in Atlantic Coast Conference play, beat writers Sam Blum, Jesse Dougherty and Matt Schneidman answer three questions that currently surround SU.

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1) Dajuan Coleman has progressed throughout nonconference play, especially recently, albeit against much smaller teams. Will his success continue against increased competition in the ACC?

Sam Blum: It’s hard to say one way or the other. Sure, he looked pretty good offensively against the second smallest team in the country on Sunday, but how will that translate against one of the nation’s biggest teams in Miami? The Orange has slowly started to use Coleman more, and his continued and elongated presence will be necessary with SU’s six-man rotation, but it’s hard to imagine his success will continue at the same rate it did against Montana State and Texas Southern. He’ll also need to improve defensively, as Texas Southern big man Derrick Griffin did what he wanted to against the Orange interior on Sunday. If Coleman can average eight points and six rebounds, that would be a huge plus for SU.

Jesse Dougherty: Assuming this is in reference to Coleman’s increased scoring numbers, the answer to this question is largely out of his hands. In a perfect world, he’d be a role-playing center who created his own scoring opportunities from time to time. But he’s not, and that’s why Coleman’s success hinges on how well Syracuse is shooting from 3 and how aggressive teams are defending on-ball screens. If the Orange is shooting well and teams are pushing their bigs far from the basket to defend SU guards around his screens, Coleman will have the opportunity to score. If not, his scoring numbers will likely drop in the ACC schedule. But as long as his rebounding numbers don’t shrink too much, Syracuse will be OK with his limited production.

Matt Schneidman: Before the season, I said Coleman’s ceiling would be 10 points and eight rebounds. He’s only reached eight rebounds once but has hit double-digit point totals in four games, most importantly his last two. He’s slowly progressed from being a non-factor to someone who wasn’t even the first player to be subbed off against Texas Southern, something that’s become customary throughout nonconference play. Sure, it’s against two of the weaker teams in Division I in TSU and Montana State, but at least it’s against someone. I don’t see him putting up the same numbers and having the same effect against teams like North Carolina, which has arguably the conference’s best player in Brice Johnson down low. But against a team less physically imposing down low, such as a Duke without Amile Jefferson, why not?

 

 

2) Rebounding has been a struggle for the Orange, which will likely continue against better rebounders in the conference. How can Syracuse win games without having the edge on the boards?

S.B.: Syracuse doesn’t need to be a superior rebounding team to be the better team. Currently suspended head coach Jim Boeheim is willing to give up rebounds because he believes the 2-3 zone does a good job preventing made baskets and leads to turnovers. If sometimes it allows for offensive boards, so be it. Syracuse turned the ball over just five times on Sunday. The Orange needs to do that, and make its 3s, and it can give up rebounds. There’s a difference, though, between getting outrebounded by six and getting outrebounded by 16. The Orange needs to try and limit that margin.

J.D.: Run, run, run and … run. The more Syracuse scores in transition, the more teams have to drop its guards (and maybe even forwards) back on defense instead of having everyone crash the offensive boards. This doesn’t mean the Orange won’t still struggle getting defensive rebounds, because its big men will have trouble rebounding against opposing centers and power forwards. But if SU can make crashing the offensive glass a liability for its opponents, it could hedge its rebounding problems and also get good scoring opportunities on the fast break.

M.S.: It’s simple, be the 3-point savvy team Boeheim advertised. In its three losses, Syracuse has been outrebounded by a combined 43 boards. That’s terrible. But even worse is the combined 24.7 3-point percentage in losses. This team lives and dies by the 3 and is bound to get outmuscled on the glass against the majority of ACC teams. It’ll be up to Michael Gbinije, Trevor Cooney and Malachi Richardson — and even sprinkles of Tyler Lydon — to pull SU out of any funk its lack of presence on the glass it gets into. And those 3s have to come early in games, since Syracuse isn’t as equipped as other teams for a second-half comeback and will fare much better if Richardson and Cooney — the two streaky shooters of the bunch — catch fire early.

 

 

3) What is the most important thing SU must improve on heading into conference play?

S.B.: Gosh, it really needs a seventh person to play significant minutes. It’s pretty crazy that Syracuse didn’t develop any significant seventh man throughout all of nonconference play and it leaves the Orange so vulnerable. Richardson went down against Texas Southern. We don’t know the extent of the injury yet, but even if he’s totally fine, it really puts things into perspective. Without Richardson, Syracuse doesn’t really have anyone to fill his spot. You can’t compete at a high level in the ACC with six players. So either Kaleb Joseph or Frank Howard needs to step up starting now.

J.D.: Interim head coach Mike Hopkins has said it numerous times over the last few weeks, but the Orange has to stop letting the ball into the high post. It completely breaks down the 2-3 zone and forces Syracuse to choose between defending low-post scorers in the short corner or shooters on the wings. That choice isn’t so hard against mid-major teams — because they often have limited talent on the court at a given time — but deep ACC teams with good shooters and offensive-minded forwards will make SU pay regardless of how it plays the high post. The solution is to find a balance between extending the zone to shooters but keeping it tight enough to limit passes into the high post.

M.S.: Rebounding is the obvious answer, but something maybe receiving less attention is Syracuse’s struggle from the foul line. The Orange ranks 12th in the ACC in free-throw percentage and SU is usually a notoriously bad foul-shooting team. The Orange is already third-to-last in the ACC in points per game and every point will be valuable in conference play, as cliché as that sounds. Coleman is SU’s best foul shooter at 82.6 percent, including every player who has double-digit attempts from the charity stripe. That’s nice, but Syracuse needs those who get to the foul line the most — Richardson, Gbinije, Cooney and Tyler Roberson — to improve their percentages, especially Roberson, who is shooting a meager 52.2 percent in 46 attempts.

Published on December 28, 2015 at 3:08 pm