LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Most of the Louisville crowd had filed out of the stadium 20 minutes ago, when cheering for uncontested alley-oops had somehow grown old. When Syracuse had completely unraveled and the last five minutes were only delaying an inevitable Cardinals win. When they could still beat the traffic before the streets surrounding the KFC Yum! Center turned into a mosh of brake lights and car horns.

When the final buzzer sounded on Wednesday night, finalizing No. 18 Louisville’s 72-58 win, there were more empty red seats than cheering fans. The Orange hurried off the court. The Cardinals didn’t linger much longer. But 200 or so people, clad in Louisville red, stood behind the home team bench as if another game was about to start.

“We can’t leave yet,” a young fan, no older than 10, said to his dad. “I want to see Chinanu … Here he comes!”

The small crowd cheered Cardinals center Chinanu Onuaku as he walked toward the tunnel. They shouted to get his attention. They jockeyed for position to steal a high-five. They all wanted a piece of the player who, for 29 minutes, made Syracuse’s three-man frontcourt look like little brothers tying to play in a big kid game.

Six-foot-10 center Dajuan Coleman, 6-foot-8 forward Tyler Roberson and 6-foot-8 Tyler Lydon — none of them had the size nor strength to keep Onuaku and the Louisville frontcourt from grabbing 14 offensive rebounds and scoring 50 points in the paint. Difficulties defending the paint and rebounding the basketball, the themes of SU’s once-reeling season, have resurfaced at an inopportune time. Because if Syracuse (18-9, 8-6 Atlantic Coast) doesn’t leave those problems in Kentucky, it could put a serious dent in its NCAA Tournament hopes.

The Orange hosts Pittsburgh (18-7, 7-6) at 2 p.m. in the Carrier Dome on Saturday, and the Panthers are one of many teams to have dominated SU inside this season. Then SU hosts N.C. State, which ranks 21st in the country in Kenpom.com’s offensive rebounding percentage. Then a game at No. 5 North Carolina, which has possibly the country’s best frontcourt. Then the regular season ends at Florida State, which has more length than talent on the inside but can exploit Syracuse with its sheer size.

It’s getting to be that time where we roll out all situations in which SU will or will not receive a Tournament bid. One would think the Orange has to win two of its next four games, against teams that are simply stronger and longer in the paint, for a sound regular-season resumé. The frontcourt that played against Louisville won’t allow Syracuse to do that.

“The second half we just went back to probably 10 games ago where we didn’t rebound the ball,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said after the loss to Louisville. “I thought that was probably the main difference in the second half.”

Eleven games ago, Boeheim returned from his nine-game suspension and the Orange dropped to 0-4 in ACC play with a loss to UNC. The Tar Heels scored 46 points in the paint and ran the same high-low play for an Isaiah Hicks dunk, over and over, to erase Syracuse’s upset bid. At that time, the game could have been seen as the low point of the SU frontcourt’s season — rivaled by troubling performances against Wisconsin, at Georgetown and at Pittsburgh.

But in the nine games that followed, Syracuse went 8-1 and only twice gave up more than 14 offensive rebounds. Boeheim hinted at marginal improvements inside. Lydon was more aggressive on both ends. Coleman played more minutes and effectively threw his weight around. Roberson collected 20 rebounds in a win at Duke, 15 more at Virginia Tech and quelled SU’s rebounding issues with his leaping ability and upper-body strength.

So to say that Wednesday’s feeble frontcourt performance blindsided the Orange would probably be an understatement. Onuaku leads a very talented frontcourt — arguably the most athletic in the conference — but it’s also without 7-foot center Anas Mahmoud and 6-foot-10 forward Mangok Mathiang due to season-ending injuries. Still, Louisville scored 34 points in the paint in the second half alone while Onuaku finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds, seven of which were offensive.

It made the game easy to sum up: Louisville was bigger. Louisville was stronger. Syracuse couldn’t compete.

“We just had one of those nights,” Lydon said. “It was just one of those nights.”

Onuaku hung onto the moment, not eager to leave the court and put his most complete performance of the season in the rearview mirror. He waved to fans, chatted with a few close to the court and then ducked into the tunnel out of sight.

“Chinanu was so good,” the son said as he and his dad turned to leave.

“Yeah, but Syracuse is just too small,” the dad answered.

A Louisville fan doesn’t decide Syracuse’s fate. Neither does one game. But he was right about one thing: The Orange’s size could.

Jesse Dougherty is a Senior Staff Writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at jcdoug01@syr.edu or @dougherty_jesse.

Published on February 19, 2016 at 12:58 am