Orangeyes Daily Articles for Monday for Basketball

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SU News

SU lost, but Brown played well in homecoming game at Virginia: ‘It felt good’ (PS; $; Waters)

With starting forward Benny Williams out with a stomach bug, Jim Boeheim had a decision to make prior to Syracuse’s game at Virginia on Saturday.

Give the starting nod to Maliq Brown, a 6-foot-9 freshman, or John Bol Ajak, a 6-10 redshirt junior. It would be the first career start for either one.

Brown, though, was already going to be under some pressure. He had grown up in Culpeper, Virginia, roughly an hour away from the University of Virginia’s campus, and attended Blue Ridge School, a boarding school located 20 minutes from Charlottesville.

A throng of roughly 80 friends and family were expected to be on hand at the John Paul Jones Arena to welcome Brown back to the area.

“I didn’t really want to tell Maliq, ‘You’re coming home and you’re going to start,’ " Boeheim said. “Just come off the bench like you have and that was it.’’

Brown might not have started the game, but once he entered the game, he never came out. Brown played a season-high 36 minutes, registering 10 points and eight rebounds in the Orange’s 73-66 loss to the 11th-ranked Cavaliers.

Boeheim even mistakenly credited Brown with 40 minutes played after the game.

“He hasn’t played all that much,’’ Boeheim said, “and I thought he was really good.’’

Neither Brown’s points nor his rebounds were season-highs. He had 12 points against Oakland and 10 boards against Pittsburgh, but his effort against Virginia was clearly his best game of the year.
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Mike Kropf

Wahoo Winner: SU basketball loses to Virginia (Axe recap) (PS; $; Axe)

Syracuse basketball’s 73-66 loss to Virginia is what you make of it.

The result? Well, that was what most expected as the Cavaliers won their fourth-straight game against the Orange with its famed pack-line defense, a passing clinic (more on that below) and being the latest team to expose SU’s zone defense at the 3-point line.

Syracuse missed too many bunnies. It started slow (again), this time in both halves. SU’s two starting forwards failed to rebound (again). The Orange didn’t move the ball consistently and Jesse Edwards looked pedestrian against the Cavaliers.

Yet this one could have been much, much worse.

Syracuse trailed by 23 points in the second half but whittled away Virginia’s lead thanks to a pressure defense that knocked the Cavaliers off the rocker enough to make just three field goals in the final 11 minutes.

The Orange got a big boost off the bench with a starter down due to illness and made a game of it in Charlottesville.

Syracuse, now 10-6 (3-2 ACC), doesn’t need attaboys.

It needs wins.

Quadrant 1 and 2 wins, to be specific, if it has any prayer of building something that resembles an NCAA Tournament resume.

Syracuse didn’t get that win against Virginia but maybe showed it is capable of playing at a level to attain some.

The next chance comes Wednesday night at the JMA Wireless Dome against Virginia Tech.
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Did Virginia Crack Syracuse’s Code? – Orange Fizz – Daily Syracuse Recruiting News & Team Coverage (orangefizz.net; Ezeir)

The 73-66 scoreline doesn’t tell you even a quarter of the storyline to why the Orange lost. In fact, the game should tell everyone more about Syracuse’s flaws than SU’s fight to lose by just seven to the 11th ranked team in the country.

This picture tells the whole story. With three Cuse players averaging over 14 points per game, UVA decided to not just mitigate one of them, but eliminate them entirely from the yesterday’s contest. Their culprit was Jesse Edwards. Instead of allowing their 6’11 and 7’1 centers guard Edwards one-on-one, the Cavaliers forced the Orange’s center to catch at the short corner or at a bad angle on the block and immediately trapped him in a double team no matter what.

There’s a reason Virginia has led the ACC in scoring defense each season since 2011-2012. By doubling a score-first, rebound-second, pass-third type of player and shifting down the rest of its defense to cut off any easy passing lanes, UVA put Edwards in an uncomfortable position for the first time this season.

It led to Jim Boeheim playing the Netherlands native under 28 minutes for just the sixth time this year. Such meager production translated to a tough scoring night. The center scored a season-low four points and in single digits for only the third time this year, while taking a season-worst five shots. Today’s game and Edwards’ recent struggles prompted Boeheim calling his starting big man a “mystery” compared to how well the senior played at the beginning of the season.

First 11 games –> 15 PPG (66/101, 65% FG), 11 RPG, 36/51 FT (71%), 26 fouls (2.4 per game) in 31 min/g

Last five games –> 9 PPG (18/37, 49% FG), 10 RPG, 9/15 FT (60%), 14 fouls (2.8 per game) in 29 min/g
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Quick Hits: Positives for Syracuse in second half offense - The Juice Online (the juice; Stechschulte)

Syracuse lost on the road, 73-66, on Saturday to Virginia. Here are some quick hits from the game:

• Jesse Edwards has struggled with the adjustment to ACC play. After only really struggling on offense against Illinois in SU’s first dozen games, Edwards has shot 50 percent or lower in each of the last four games, all against conference foes (he was shooting 66.4 percent from the field prior to this stretch). Since the Pittsburgh game prior to the holiday break, Edwards is shooting 41.9 percent from the field.
• Virginia shot 12-of-26 (46.2 percent) from three-point range in the game, the ninth time in 14 ACC matchups with Syracuse where they have shot at least 35 percent from beyond the arc.
• Benny Williams missed the game due to an illness, being replaced in the starting lineup by John Bol Ajak. It was an understandable decision, hoping that Ajak’s modest passing ability could help grease the gears on offense, but the Cavaliers treated him as a complete non-threat, using his man as a second defender on the nearest SU player. Ajak was replaced by Maliq Brown less than four minutes into the action for the remainder of the game.
• If nothing else, the Orange should treat their second half shooting effort as a positive. After the break, SU shot 50 percent overall and 6-for-9 from deep, posting 1.176 points per possession against the Cavaliers, who came into the game ranked in the top 20 in the nation in defensive efficiency.
• That Virginia defense certainly did one thing well against Syracuse. The Orange were forced into 16 turnovers on 66 possessions (24.2 percent). Judah Mintz (four), Edwards (four), and Brown (three) were the biggest offenders for SU.
• The Cavalier defense also gave a very, very rude introduction to Quadir Copeland. Copeland had the ball stolen from him on the first possession he was in the game, then nearly had it stolen again, this time in the backcourt, on the following possession.
• While he did lead all scorers with 19 points, Joe Girard III had a tough night, as well, often forcing the issue and finishing 6-for-17 from the field. Space to simply get off a shot was at a premium for Girard, but when he did get space on three occasions, he connected from long range each time. Girard’s field goals in the game:
  
  • an open deep wing three following a crosscourt kickout pass and two swing passes to rotate back to the original side of the court
  • a contested turnaround mid-range jumper on the baseline
  • a contested three coming off a screen where he was leaning to his left to create space away from the recovering defender
  • an open wing three where he cut away from his defender as Symir Torrence neared with the ball and his defender changed course to double team Torrence
  • a quick-release three off one dribble in a pick-and-roll with Edwards
  • an open three off a Brown crosscourt pass after the press came up with a rare steal

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Edwards struggles in loss at Virginia: ‘He’s kind of a mystery right now’ (PS; $; Waters)

Less than two minutes into Syracuse’s game at Virginia on Saturday, Jesse Edwards leaned awkwardly and flipped up a scoop shot that went in the basket.

Edwards scored the two points, but the manner in which he got off the shot, off-balance and avoiding contact, didn’t bode well for the rest of the afternoon for the Syracuse center.

Edwards, who entered the game averaging just over 14 points per game, would manage just four points in the Orange’s 73-66 loss to the 11th-ranked Cavaliers.

Edwards wasn’t in foul trouble. He played 26 minutes and finished the game with just one personal foul.

He did haul in 10 rebounds and handed out three assists, but he struggled to get the ball in the low post and, as a result, only got off five shot attempts. He made two, including that off-balance shot in the game’s opening minutes.

“Jesse’s just kind of a mystery right now,’’ Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “He’s not playing the way he was early in the year. He was a different player. He’s getting pushed out and not getting to the basket.’’

As most teams have done since Edwards got off to a strong start to the season, Virginia usually ran a second defender at Edwards when he got the ball close to the basket.

“He’s really improved over the years,’’ Virginia coach Tony Bennett said of Edwards. “We just ran some traps at him and that helped us because he scored a little bit right away. Just tried to make it hard for him to get it and when he did get it, if we did trap, hopefully that took some things away.’’
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Five takeaways from Virginia basketball's win over Syracuse (247sports; Curran)

Virginia got back in the win column on Saturday evening as they took down Syracuse at John Paul Jones Arena to cement Tony Bennett as the winningest coach in program history. The Cavaliers led by as many 23 in the second half but a scoreless drought of over seven minutes allowed the Orange to eventually cut the lead down to 7. The Hoos survived, winning by a final score of 73-66 with Armaan Franklin’s 16 points leading the way.

Here are five takeaways from Virginia’s third ACC win of the year.

Tony Bennett is pretty good at his job and Jim Boeheim still has no answer for him after 14 matchups

Of course, we already knew that he was a great coach but now feels like as good a time as any to remind ourselves of how great he’s been in his time in Charlottesville. With Saturday’s win over Syracuse, Bennett surpassed Terry Holland for the most wins in program history with 327. Holland went 326-173 in 16 seasons and Bennett is now 327-120 in the middle of his 14th year at the helm.

Bennett took over the Virginia program ahead of the 2009-2010 season and went 15-16 that year and 16-15 the following year. Since then, not only has Bennett not had a losing season, but he has finished all but one season with a record 11 games or more over .500 and missed the NCAA Tournament just twice. Oh, and he also won a national championship back in 2019 in case anyone has forgotten.

Saturday night’s win was the fourth in a row against Syracuse and it moved Bennett to 11-3 all-time against the Orange. Amid Syracuse’s 13-0 run in the second half, Virginia fans may have started having flashbacks to the 2016 Elite Eight matchup between these two squads. In this edition, the Hoos were able to hold on for the win.
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Five Takeaways: Virginia 73 Syracuse 66 (AI; McAllister)

Syracuse basketball fell behind by 23, rallied to trim the lead to seven but ultimately lost at #11 Virginia on Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the loss.

1. Nice Rally, But Needed More Early

Syracuse did a nice job rallying and making it a game late. The Orange was tremendous on both ends during that stretch. Ball movement was superb on offense, players were moving without the ball and Syracuse was finding open shots. Defensively, the full court press got Virginia out of rhythm, Syracuse forced some turnovers and rebounded well to limit possessions to one shot. That said, it took far too long to get to that level of play. You cannot come out against a top 10-ish caliber team on the road that flat to start. Syracuse left shooters open, turned the ball over a lot and looked all out of sorts offensively. That led to the large deficit. Better play early means that late rally may have given Syracuse a victory instead of just making it close.

2. Maliq Brown

Without Benny Williams, John Bol Ajak got the start. However, he played only four minutes and Brown took the other 36 at forward. Brown was very good, scoring 10 points, grabbing eight rebounds, blocking one shot and getting two steals. It was easily his best overall performance of his very young career. Very encouraging from him and I think he has earned more minutes moving forward. Especially in games where Benny struggles.
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Syracuse Basketball: 4-star recruit puts up a ridiculous quadruple-double (itlh; Adler)

Not too long ago, Syracuse basketball 2025 recruiting target Jerry Easter II, a 2025 prolific-scoring guard from Ohio, put up a stat line that you won’t see all that often in high-school hoops.

According to an article by Thomas Frey on the MaxPreps Web site, in a recent 81-58 win by Easter’s team, the Emmanuel Christian School in Toledo, Ohio, over Whiteford High School out of Ottawa Lake, Mich., the 6-foot-4 Easter compiled a quadruple-double.

Easter registered 40 points, 13 rebounds, a ridiculous 12 steals and 10 assists in Emmanuel Christian’s victory against Whiteford. I also saw online that Easter reportedly had three blocks in this game.

Rated as a top-50 national prospect in the sophomore class by multiple recruiting services, Easter received a scholarship offer from the Orange coaching staff last July. He said in a recent interview that his family is close with ‘Cuse hoops legend Derrick Coleman.
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‎Locked On Syracuse - Daily Podcast On Syracuse Orange Football & Basketball on Apple Podcasts (apple.com; podcast; Locked on Syracuse)

Matt Bonaparte and Owen Valentine break down Syracuse Basketball's road loss to a solid Virginia squad. As 'Cuse drops to 10-6 on the season, what should the thoughts on the team be? What is going on with the bigs? Can Joe Girard lead this team to victory? It's a Locked On Syracuse Monday.

Syracuse University cheer teams prepares for nationals (cnycentral.com; McCarthy)

The Syracuse University cheerleading team is less than a week away from competing in the Universal Cheerleading Association Nationals in Orlando, Florida.

Syracuse fans are used to seeing the cheerleading team cheering on the football and basketball teams, but this is the one time a year they receive some cheers of their own.

The team began practicing for the UCA competition back in August. Since then they practice for their routine everyday as well as cheering on other Syracuse athletics.

"I've been focusing on getting a nice healthy balance of being ready for games as well as taking focus on their routines," said Francesca Beyer, head coach of the Syracuse cheerleading team. "They do practice a lot. They practice every single day."

The big competition is just days away and they team is anxious to perform.

"We're all super excited but we're a little bit nervous," said senior Arianna Boyce. "This showcase helped us get rid of those nerves and help us get ready for the upcoming week."

After months of preparation, it was their time to be cheered on. Friends and family weren't going to miss out on a chance to see them perform even if it wasn't at Nationals. The turnout from the community was bigger than expected.

"It was awesome because we are always on the sideline cheering other people on so it was great to see the community come and show us the support that we always show the community," said Boyce.
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(youtube; video ; ACC DN)

Virginia Tech's Grant Basile looks to have an easy dunk in transition, but NC State's Casey Morsell chases him down and swats the ball away from behind for the ACC Must See Moment.

VIDEO: Josh Pastner on Friday’s ACC PM (ramblinwreck.com; video)

Head coach Josh Pastner on ACC PM, January 6, 2023

Other

The Kirby's Grill & Taphouse at 408 E. Genesee St. in Fayetteville closed in October.

Another restaurant likely to move into Kirby’s: Mayor says many businesses clamoring for the space (PS; $; Doran)

For years, Kirby’s in Fayetteville was a fixture in the village, offering staples like steaks and burgers in a prime location along East Genesee Street.

In October, the owner closed the restaurant, and soon after the Westvale Kirby’s location shut down as well.

Since then, there’s been enormous interest in the former restaurant space in Fayetteville at 408 E. Genesee St. The restaurant is in a highly visible location with a lot of traffic passing by, said Fayetteville Village Mayor Mark Olson.

A local restaurateur, who operates two other concepts in the area, looks to be taking over the space, Olson said. Olson said he can’t reveal the name of the restaurant as details of the lease are still being finalized.

Others are waiting in the wings, however, Olson said.

If for some reason this restaurant doesn’t work out, a second restaurant operator is interested. An urgent care center also is interested in the space, the mayor said. And several other restaurant operators also expressed an interest in the property, he said.

“It’s a great site,” he said.

Kirby’s owner, Richard Zdyb, closed the Kirby’s chain due to staffing and other issues that resulted since the Covid-19 pandemic. He said previously he had trouble hiring and keeping workers.

The local Kirby’s restaurants - at one time there were four - began as outlets for the national chain Mr. Steak in the early 1970s. Zdyb purchased the Central New York Mr. Steak franchises in 1982, renaming them Kirby’s.

Because it’s already approved for restaurant use, it’s unlikely it would need further village planning board approval.
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