No Payne meant plenty of Pain
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — In front of a subdued and sparse crowd inside the JMA Wireless Dome, the Syracuse Orange played to the same level that they have all season long.
After grabbing 2-0 and 3-2 leads, the Orange never led again, falling 85-61 at home to Louisville. It was the largest loss inside the Dome since Duke defeated Syracuse 97-72 in 2022.
Here are a few takeaways:
Metrics Update
Wins over Georgia Tech and Boston College lifted Syracuse ten spots in KenPom, up to 114th, but the blowout loss on Tuesday night dropped SU right back down to 128th.
It’s the lowest that Syracuse has ranked on KenPom since at least when day-by-day tracking started for the 2010-11 season.
JJ Starling was shut down
Coming off a second half in which JJ Starling scored 20 points, getting to the lane whenever he wanted, Louisville completely turned his water off. The Cardinals limited Starling to just seven field goal attempts in 32 minutes, turning him into a decision-maker with the ball in his hands, rather than somebody who can attack the basket.
He missed his first three shots in the first few minutes, and didn’t get another attempt off until there were fewer than four minutes left in the first half. A few of his missed shots were chances that he usually converts, but when those shots don’t fall, it sets the Orange back offensively.
Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
It was the first time this season that Starling was held below 12 points, finishing with just four after a scoreless first half. Additionally, he turned the ball over six times, a career-high. Coming off of handoffs and ball screens, additional defensive attention made life difficult for the Orange to properly execute their actions, and SU had to scramble for other answers.
Syracuse couldn’t get to Plan B
After the game, Adrian Autry said that Syracuse’s Plan B for when Starling was struggling was to get the ball in the paint. He also added that SU didn’t do a good enough job of that.
Eddie Lampkin scored just two points in the first half, as the Cardinals forced him away from the paint. Because Syracuse couldn’t get into its favorite actions for Starling, Lampkin had to come up higher than he’d like, and try to create offense himself, which also hurt SU. Once Lampkin got going in the second half, the margin was already up to 20 points.
Syracuse scored just 28 points in the paint, well below the season average of 36.7. The fewest points in the paint that Syracuse has scored in a win this season is 30 against Colgate, but SU has scored at least 34 paint points in every other win. When Syracuse wins, the team averages 43.5 points in the paint. In losses, the number is down to 30.7. In SU’s last four losses, the Orange have not cracked 30 points in the paint.
Louisville punished mistakes
Good teams will make you pay for mistakes, and Louisville did exactly that. With 90 seconds to go in the first half, two Syracuse defenders were late diving for a loose ball after it was poked out, then James Scott delivered a pass from the ground to a wide-open Chucky Hepburn in the corner. Hepburn deposited his fifth three-pointer of the first half. It was one of many examples of “junkball” turning into points for the Cardinals.
Many of Louisville’s 12 made threes were generated quickly as Syracuse’s defense didn’t do a good job limiting quality looks.
On two separate occasions, Hepburn was inbounding the ball underneath the Orange basket, and he found his way behind the arc for a wide open three. On the first occasion, Starling was attempting to protect from a pass toward the basket, but it backfired when Aboubacar Traore screened for Hepburn to go to the corner after inbounding the James Scott, and it turned into an easy triple.
Photo by Rich Barnes/Getty Images
Louisville ran a similar play in the second half, taking advantage of the Orange’s alignment trying to take away a pass into the lane, and screening Starling out of the play after sending a pass to the elbow, and Hepburn drained a wide open shot.
The Cardinals scored ten points from five BLOB opportunities.
Additionally, Louisville was 11-11 from the foul line.
Other Notes
For the second time in the last few weeks, Elijah Moore got the start, but played just six minutes.
Chris Bell has scored in double-figures in three of his last four games since being moved to the bench.
Jyare Davis scored 10 points in the first half, but didn’t score in the second half.
Petar Majstorovic stayed out of foul trouble and played a season-high 19 minutes. However, the Orange were a -13 in those minutes.