Syracuse has struggled to shoot the ball this season. It’s not just one player.
The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team is struggling mightily to make three-point shots this season. As a team, the Orange is shooting 27.1% from outside, ranking No. 345 in the country. Only one Power Four program is shooting a lower percentage than Syracuse in Wake Forest.
Syracuse is certainly hurt by missing its top gun in JJ Starling, allowing defenses a reprieve and Syracuse’s next best players to slide up one spot on the scouting report. Starling too was an improved outside shooter in the second half of last season. Still, Syracuse’s shooting struggles can’t be explained just by Starling’s absence.
Of Syracuse’s players that have taken ten threes or more on the season, not one player is shooting above 33.3%. The highest percentage shooter is freshman Elijah Moore, who has connected on 12 of his 36 attempts from outside on the year. Donnie Freeman trails him at 32% while Chris Bell, Lucas Taylor and Jaquan Carlos are all below 30%.
Jyare Davis, who doesn’t take many shots from outside, explains that sometimes basketball is a fickle game.
“Sometimes it’s the nature of basketball. The best shooters in the world shoot 40%. I think that when you start to struggle a little bit, you know, that 40 turns into 30, 20. I think we have really really good shooters on the team, of course Chris, Choppa, Lucas can really shoot,” Davis said after the Georgetown game.
What’s more, in this era of modern basketball where the three point shot is relied upon more than ever, Syracuse isn’t taking nearly as many as other Power Four teams. The Orange take just 18.1 shots per game from beyond the three point arc, which is just 29.3% of Syracuse’s total shots.
Not taking threes would be a good strategy for teams that know they can’t shoot the ball. Syracuse doesn’t think that way.
“We have shooters on the team. We have the right guys on the team. We’re getting the right guys shots,” Jyare Davis said. “I think that everybody needs to continue to trust themselves and continue to trust the work that they’ve put in their whole life to make shots.”
It would helpful if Georgia State transfer Taylor, who shot 35.4% from outside last season, could connect from outside. But Syracuse has relied on him for defense and he’s only taken 13 attempts from outside.
No Syracuse player has been put under the microscope in quite the same way Bell has this season. A third-year starter, Bell was expected to take a step forward as a leader of this team and continue his torrid outside shooting. He’s been able to showcase other areas of his game on offense and he’s an improved rebounder, but the outside shooting struggles have been a bit of an enigma. Through Syracuse’s first ten games he’s 11 for 47 from beyond the arc.
“Shooting in particular just getting out of my own head, not listening to people. I think sometimes I play into the idea that I’m Mr. Perfect, like maybe I am supposed to be eight for ten every night. Sometimes it gets in my own head and it messes up my shot,” Bell said.
Syracuse was 9-1 in games last season when Bell made four outside shots or more, a season in which Bell shot 42.0% from outside. But many of those looks came from catch-and-shoot scenarios with teams focused on help defense with Judah Mintz and Starling. Opposing teams are taking that away this season and making Bell a driver. He has also struggled to hit outside shots when he’s been open.
“A lot of people aren’t letting me come off down screens anymore or just sit in the corner and shoot threes,” Bell said. “So how can I get myself more involved? Cutting, doing other things like that.”
What can also be done by the coaching staff to encourage a guy through a shooting slump and free him up for easier looks? Bell has been 0-3 in each of his last three games from outside, including 0-4 overall against Georgetown.
“I think he just has to keep taking his shots. We gotta try to get him some shots,” Adrian Autry said. “They (Georgetown) probably did one of the better jobs all year of just kind of staying on top of him and make him be physical when he tries to run off stuff. We tried to get him going early and they did a good job of top-blocking him and being physical coming off of curls and staggers.”
To his credit, Bell has still been able to score the ball in other ways. He’s gotten to the paint much more this season and he’s finished well around the rim, drawing fouls and finishing through contact. When it comes to shooting, he says, he needs to stop listening to outside noise because he’s the only one shooting the ball.
Bell wants to make sure, he said, to not stop taking shots if misses the first few early on.
“I think I gotta do a better job myself,” Bell said.
If it wants to improve its season, Syracuse — as a team — will need to do a better job as well.