Syracuse scared its fans for the first five minutes Tuesday night before slapping aside Boston College, 69-61 in front of 23,781 in the Carrier Dome. Here are three things I saw that I think you should too.

1. Boeheim calm
Rather than take his normal arm-crossing, jacket-flapping perch in front of the Syracuse bench, Jim Boeheim started out the game sitting down. His Orange had a simple task in shutting down Boston College’s offense.

A pair of early blown defenses briefly brought him to his feet and he eventually took up his normal position. But his players also quickly showed he only had so much to worry about in this game.

2. No plan B(C)
Once Syracuse started jumping the Eagles’ ball screens and cutting off the passing lane to the corners, SU had started winning and only stopped with basic breakdowns late.

Boston College wasn’t getting any dribble penetration. The top of the zone was sealed. On the rare occasions the Eagles got angles for entry passes their bigs weren’t getting past Chinonso Obokoh or Rakeem Christmas.

By crunch time, BC’s offense had been reduced to swinging the ball and waiting-hoping for late rotations. The Eagles weren’t getting open unless the Orange let them.

3. Obokoh-kay
A week and a half ago, after Chris McCullough tore his ACL, Boeheim said Obokoh needed to play defense and rebound when he was asked about the sophomore center’s offensive role.

He did just that against BC, making his first appearance since Jan. 11. And in a career-high 16 minutes Obokoh did just that, limiting Dennis Clifford and Will Magarity while snagging four rebounds.

Obokoh is still largely absent on the offensive half of the court — he sets decent screens — but with Christmas in foul trouble and ultimately fouling out, he was far from exposed.

Published on January 20, 2015 at 9:17 pm