It was a no good, very bad day in Brooklyn
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The Syracuse Orange lost to Maryland inside the Barclays Center, 87-60 on Saturday afternoon. The Terps were led by 24 points from Selton Mighuel and a 17-point, 11-assist double double from Ja’Kobi Gillespie. The Orange trailed by as many as 38, never led, and had few bright spots outside of Elijah Moore’s 16 points.
Here are a few takeaways from what was an absolute bloodbath.
Lineup Issues
Before the game even started, Syracuse was disfunctional. The Orange submitted a starting lineup of Jaquan Carlos, Chris Bell, Jyare Davis, Donnie Freemab, and Eddie Lampkin. But when it came time to announce the starting groups, Elijah Moore was sitting on the bench, waiting to be introduced, while Davis was standing up and clapping for his teammates.
When asked about it in the press conference, Red Autry paused for a moment, and then told the honest truth.
“There wasn’t an idea behind it,” Autry said. “It was something that was miscommunicated, it was something that happened, so we had to start off the game that way.”
Rather than taking a technical foul and starting Moore, Autry begrudgingly sent Davis out onto the floor for the opening tip-off. Within a minute, Syracuse was down 5-0, and Moore checked into the game.
Chris Bell is not confident
Earlier in the week, Jim Boeheim went on Cuse Sports Talk and aired out his grievances with Chris Bell’s poor shooting. Bell has gone from one of the nation’s best shooters, hitting 41.7% of his attempts last year, to being a laughingstock from behind the arc.
He’s down to 22.9% from three, and he attempted just one in the Orange’s loss to Maryland. He had a few opportunities that in past years, would’ve been shot within a split second of when the ball was passed to him, but he shied away from that on Saturday. Additionally, he’s down from 12.6 three-pointers attempted per 100 possessions all the way to 9.1.
Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images
While Bell has done a great job this year of getting the foul line (up to 48% free throw rate from 12.8), it has come at the expense of his outside shot. He was basically invisible for 15 minutes in the first half against Maryland, and then was benched for the final 18 minutes of the game after scoring 2 points on 1-4 from the field. He did not attempt a free throw for the first time this season. Having an elite three-point shooter is supposed to help out as a pressure release for when the team is getting pressured, but his inability to make, and unwillingness to take the outside shot has cost the Orange recently.
Bell struggled in November, but since the calendar flipped to December, he has made just two threes on 16 attempts. It’s the first time he has gone four straight games without making a three in his entire college career.
Points off turnovers
Every single opponent, at least until JJ Starling returns, and maybe even after that, will know that Syracuse doesn’t have a ton of depth from their ball handlers. Kevin Willard even said as much, that Jaquan Carlos was the team’s only ball handler, and that played into the Terps’ defensive gameplan.
“I give Carlos a ton of credit,” Willard said. “He’s the only guard they really have right now, so just make him work, make him work, get them out of rhythm, and I thought that’s kind of what we did a great job of.”
Maryland is a ball pressure team, Tennessee is a ball pressure team, and ACC teams will turn into ball pressure teams to force Carlos into difficult spots. This wasn’t even one of Carlos’ worst performances of the year, but he’s not built to be the only ball handler for 40 minutes, because nobody in the sport truly is.
“They wore JC out,” Autry said. “We don’t have another ball handler right now. Elijah can dribble, but he’s not a ball handler so to speak, he’s an attacker. They made us work every dribble, every step.”
Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images
Syracuse turned it over 21 times against Maryland’s ball pressure, and couldn’t generate paint touches. The Orange’s adjustment of trying to run more offense through the bigs can only work for so long if the team is struggling the way it is. Because of how many live ball turnovers Syracuse had, the Terps scored 25 points off turnovers, including 16 fastbreak points.
No free throws until 5:26
The officials called an extremely loose game in Brooklyn on Saturday, only whistling for 18 total fouls. The Orange’s inability to get quality looks at the rim did play a part in this, but there were some physical moments in the first half that went uncalled. Even then, the lack of free throws for SU is still outlier-level low, and shouldn’t happen under any circumstances.
Syracuse didn’t get to the foul line once in the first half, and finished the day with just two free throw attempts, both coming when the game was well over, at the 5:26 mark of the second half.
The free throw rate of 3.5 was the lowest for Syracuse in the KenPom era, which dates back to the 1996-97 season.
Moore and Freeman in the second half
Syracuse was outscored by 26 points in the first half, arguably the worst half of basketball the program has played in a long time. But in the second half, the Orange heated up, starting to make some shots.
SU’s freshmen tacked on some garbage time buckets, as Elijah Moore snaked through for some jump shots, and Donnie Freeman hit some jumpers as well, along with a three and a dunk. After a scoreless first half, Freeman finished with 15 points. Moore scored just two points in the first half, but finished with a team-high 16. Despite the Orange shooting seven for ten from deep in the second half, they never brought the margin closer than 24.