The Downside- Boston College

[SWC75]

- It’s official: we are the worst team in the ACC, having been routed by the former worst team. Any win we get the rest of the way will be an upset.

- Our nation-leading streak of 46 winning seasons isn’t in jeopardy. It’s on life support.


- We don’t keep losing for the same reason: in the early losses. It was that our offense broke down. It’s continued to struggle against the good opponents but not it’s that we aren’t guarding anybody. Both St. John’s and Boston College got wide open jump shots and worked the high-low all night and we never did anything about it. The famous Syracuse zone simply isn’t there anymore. In past years, when we had a scoring drought, we stayed in games with that defense. Not this year. In his presser, Jim said that if the defense hasn’t improved in 14 games, it’s unlikely to.

- We had some late success playing man for man and pressing but JB dismissed ti as an “desperation” and said “We can’t play man for man and we can’t press.” I’m not a Boeheim basher but I share the frustration they have with his intractability and hope that our enxt coach will be more flexible in what he does.

- Our point guards: 3 for 16 from the floor 6 assists and 4 turnovers.

- Jim explained that DaJuan Coleman, a 5th year senior who has overcome knee injuries to stick with the team, did not play because Tyler Lydon can’t play from the three and Andrew White is better there so one of the bigs has to get squeezed out and it’s DaJuan, our one post-up scorer. So long, it’s been good to know you...

- He’s right: Lydon played the three in the first half and had 5 points and 2 rebounds. He played the 4 or 5 in the second and had 12 points and 10 rebounds- a double-double in a half.

- We had some positive stats but they were an illusion. We weren’t compiling them when the game was being lost in the first half and early in the second. It was mostly garbage time, when neither team was playing any defense. Also most of the box score measures offense. the key fact that we didn’t guard anybody is seen in BC’s stats, not ours.

- Jimmy used the “falling on his sword” tact for the first time in his career after the St. John’s game for the first time in his career: it must have been the last thing he could think of to get through to his guys. It didn’t work.

 

[domestu]

Syracuse does have several glaring weaknesses that have been major factors in all of our losses. In all six of our losses we have been unable to get into any rhythm going in our offensive sets. We have only averaged 10.5 assists in these contests while our opponents have averaged 19.6 in our losses. The only times we've had more than ten assists were in the losses to St Johns and BC and our 26 assists in those games pales in comparison to the 55 assists those two opponents had. Even when we cut down on our turnovers like today we still can't generate any flow into the offense. Our guard play has killed us in all of the losses and you aren't going to beat many decent teams with the assist totals we've had in our losses.

Our inability to play defense is another thing we are going to have to live with the entire season. These players just can't cover anybody. I've never seen a Cuse squad give up so many open shots both inside and outside the arc.

3-point shooting has consistently killed us in these losses. Syracuse has only shot 27% while our opponents have hit 43%. Its hard to believe BC and St Johns made 28 3's. We're going to be talking about our defense the entire season.

 

[85SUAlum]

It seems to me what this team lacks this year is the mental toughness to overcome a double digit deficit.
Once they get down 10+ points, they seem to start forcing/rushing things too much on offense, and not clamping down on D.
As bad as the teams were on offense the past couple of years, you couldn't fault their heart and how they played every game to the very end - this year's team just seems to lack that mental toughness and gives up early.

 

[tbonezone]

" He’s right: Lydon played the three in the first half and had 5 points and 2 rebounds. He played the 4 or 5 in the second and had 12 points and 10 rebounds- a double-double in a half. "


tyler lydon had 8 points (6 from the ft) and 5 boards in the last 2 minutes of a game we trailed by 20. factor that in.