Syracuse rarely could press last year when its rotation was only five or six players deep, both Howard Washington and Buddy Boeheim said. But through two exhibitions, and the Orange’s regular season opener against Eastern Washington, SU has frequently press after made baskets or dead balls.

On Tuesday night against the Eagles, the Orange scored 33 points off turnovers, many coming via the press, including a few very direct finishes off press steals.

Here’s a look at two of those baskets that came off press-induced turnovers (all screenshots via ESPN).

Buddy Boeheim’s first Syracuse basket – 17:43 left in second half

Coming out of an Eastern Washington timeout, the Eagles have an inbound pass along the baseline. As he did much of the night, Oshae Brissett sets up to guard the ball. Buddy and Elijah Hughes (red oval) line up with their backs to the inbounder, ready to take one player each, depending on where EWU sends cutters.

As three Eastern Washington players break back toward the ball, Tyus Battle gets involved as a trailing defender, as well. Hughes does a good job of leading the man he’s guarding toward the opposite corner of the inbounder (blue arrow), making that an almost impossible pass.

At the same time, Brissett has his arms spread wide. The best option EWU has in this setup is for the player currently being guarded by Battle near the block “S” to break straight down the center as both of his teammates head toward the sideline. He has space in front of Battle to catch. But with Brissett’s posture, and the fact that he’s jumping up and down, that down the middle pass becomes much harder to make.

The ball is eventually inbounded to the man Buddy is guarding right in front of head coach Jim Boeheim along the sideline. EWU actually has a decent chance of breaking out here. Battle has caught up and Paschal Chukwu is nowhere to be found. A quick skip pass to the opposite sideline would have the press broken.

But Brissett (green circle) hustles over from guarding the inbounder and sets a trap with Buddy, while Hughes (purple arrow) heads back up the lane to cut off any pass toward the free-throw line, leaving open only a difficult cross-court pass.

When Brissett gets over to trap, it’s not quite tight enough and he allows the dribbler to beat him at the baseline. In the meantime, Hughes slips, but EWU sends two players toward the Carrier logo on the floor, meaning Battle can almost account for the two by himself.

The Eagles’ guard sees Hughes’ slip and dribbles hard right hoping to pick out his teammate while Hughes is down. That’s when what Adrian Autry Sr. calls Brissett’s “fast-twitch” energy comes in, as he’s about to beat the ball-handler to the baseline (green arrow), he gets his hand on the ball and steals it.

Here, Brissett has a hand on the ball and wins it from the defender. He’s got options and makes the right move to pass as two defenders come toward him. He picks out Buddy on the right block, who eventually finishes through contact for a conventional three-point play.

Buddy’s first collegiate basket came on this play, courtesy of SU’s newfound frequent press.

Oshae Brissett two-handed slam – 16:10 left in the second

Chukwu makes a layup off an offensive rebound to expand Syracuse’s lead. Brissett again sets up guarding the ball. A camera cutaway makes it hard to see how EWU’s players got to where they are, but as the inbounder looks to pass, one Eagle is already in the short corner with two long-armed players, Brissett and Battle, in the vicinity. Passing it there (red star) would only be asking for a trap.

Near the free-throw line, Buddy again prepares for the secondary receiver to make a cut, and has his body positioned so that any cut behind him he’d have a good view of the ball for a steal.

From out of the window, a fourth EWU player comes back to receive the ball, trailed by Jalen Carey. The Eagles’ problem, which will really show up in the next frame, begins here. The receiver catches with his back to the basket about 75 feet away, and he never fully turns the 180 degrees he would need to to find his open center up the right sideline.

Instead, his body is positioned toward three Syracuse defenders. Both Battle and Brissett are keying on him in this frame, ready to go get the ball (green arrows).

All of a sudden, any advantage Eastern Washington may have had was gone. Battle and Brissett are behind the ball. The ball-handler still is facing the wrong basket. The inbounder hasn’t found space away from Brissett, so any pass there can be denied by him. The man Battle is guarding starts to streak up the sideline, but with EWU’s ball-handler facing the opposite direction, that pass will never happen, so Battle starts to creep in.

Brissett starts to come trap (blue circle) as well, as anywhere he stands in this frame, whether 6 inches or 3 feet from the ball-handler, will be in the way of a pass to the inbounder moving up the floor.

The ball-handler tried to split Brissett and Carey. He had a chance, too, as Carey commits hard to the back side and Brissett didn’t quite close the upcourt gap. But his dribble didn’t get out in front enough, and Brissett reached in to steal. Battle’s positioning ends up not mattering. Buddy remains in a good position even in the above frame to deny any pass to the side the ball-handler turns toward.

Brissett’s steal leads to his own finish this time, a two-handed slam. It was two of his 20 points, two of Syracuse’s 33 off turnovers, and an emphatic moment that had the Syracuse bench fired up, all due to the pressure.

Published on November 8, 2018 at 1:12 am

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3