Last season, a shutdown defense and NCAA Tournament run masked how bad SU’s offense was. With the additions Syracuse made for this season, progression should have followed. Two early wins seemed to show improvements.

But at Madison Square Garden last week, Syracuse faced Connecticut and a top-tier backcourt, followed by then-No. 13 Oregon and 7-foot-2 phenom Bol Bol. Those teams made their open 3s, took advantage of Syracuse turnovers and crashed the glass hard. They also stifled an SU offense that still wasn’t up to par.

The step up in competition exposed SU’s issues. But it wasn’t just a two-game blip.

“We’ve gotta play much better offensively if we’re gonna be successful,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Our defense is nowhere near what it was last year … The only thing good about this time of the year is getting these things happen to you, we’ve got a long road to do, we’re a long ways away.”

In their surprise run to the Sweet 16 a year ago, Syracuse embraced an identity as the team that did things right everywhere but on offense to make up for inefficiencies at that end. Winning can disguise problems, and that’s exactly what Syracuse’s season-opening two-game win streak did. Now, the offense has underwhelmed despite additions, and the defense and other aspects of the game have taken steps back. It’d be tough for the Orange to elevate all the aspects of their game. But for SU to avoid losses like its two at Madison Square Garden, it needs to embrace one as an identity.

“It’s only our fourth game of the season and everybody’s acting like we lost, like we’re not in the Tournament or anything,” SU sophomore Oshae Brissett said. “We still have a shot, we just gotta win. Go back, practice harder, play harder and just be a better team.”

Syracuse added the pieces to make an offensive leap: a college-ready shooter in Buddy Boeheim, a dynamic scorer in Elijah Hughes and positive improvements in Brissett’s jump shot. Added depth and a speedy freshman point guard, Jalen Carey, had Jim Boeheim expecting the team to play faster, allowing for transition points that were so limited when SU played six-deep down the stretch of last season.

Yes, Frank Howard’s absence has limited that, but the Orange haven’t shied away from playing fast when the opportunity presents itself. They’ve still shown limitations there, as a lack of shooting allows teams to pack the paint in transition and restrict easy opportunities. When junior Tyus Battle saw an opportunity to push the pace off rebounds, he did. But against UConn and Oregon, the recovering defenders awaited him at the rim and made what could’ve been easy chances difficult.

“If we score points, if our guys score that we think can score, we’ll be alright,” Boeheim said after the loss to Oregon. “If they don’t, we will not be alright. Pretty simple.”

Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

In the regular season opener, SU’s vaunted defense picked up right where it left off a season ago. The Orange held Eastern Washington to 34 points, an opposition low in Carrier Dome history. It even looked like Syracuse had added a frequent full-court press to the arsenal, as it racked up steals that led to easy buckets.

The Orange shot 38.7 percent against EWU, but their defense made it a blowout. The same was true against Michigan State in March, when SU shot 35.7 percent, but their defense made another bad offensive night irrelevant. Facing both low-major and high-major opponents, Syracuse has proven that doing one thing extremely well can win it games.

But then against Morehead State, a team KenPom.com ranks 212th in the country, nearly the same as EWU, Syracuse allowed 70 points. SU regained production from last year’s leading scorer, Tyus Battle, who put up 23 after shooting 3-for-10 in game one. But the defense suffered, leaving the short guards of Morehead State space to operate outside. And the Eagles broke SU’s pressure enough that Boeheim called it off.

By the time MSG rolled around, Syracuse’s defense was all out of sorts. Four UConn players hit multiple 3s, and the Orange allowed Eric Cobb to score 13 points and grab 13 rebounds. Cobb stands at 6-foot-9 and averaged 1.7 points a season ago, yet he had no problem making SU’s centers look “like kids,” Boeheim said. The Huskies finished with 83. Syracuse is the second-tallest team in the nation, but it hasn’t had a strong rebounding game all year.

“We got crushed on the boards, crushed inside,” Boeheim said after UConn. “When that happens your missed shots come into play. We scored 76 points. We got crushed inside. Our bigs guys have to come up and play, or we’re going to have a problem.”

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A night later, Oregon put up 80 of its own and shot 50 percent from the floor. It was a far cry from the Syracuse defense that held a three-seeded Michigan State team to 53 points on 25.8 percent shooting last March.

“We just need to pride ourselves more on the defensive end, go back to our schemes (from) last year,” Brissett said.

As Boeheim has said time and again, it’s difficult to get everything down when SU’s “quarterback” and senior point guard Howard remains out with an injury. But even without him, four of the Orange’s starters from a season ago are healthy. In Buddy, Carey and Hughes, they’ve added three new rotation pieces and weapons on the perimeter.

An identity might not matter against Colgate on Wednesday. But in Columbus against Ohio State, or at home against a ranked Buffalo team, or all through ACC play, it’ll be the difference between Syracuse’s ability to regain its preseason hype or crumble within its own lack of definition. So Syracuse better figure out what it is. And soon.

Billy Heyen is an assistant sports editor for The Daily Orange where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at wmheyen@syr.edu or @Wheyen3

Published on November 19, 2018 at 1:04 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3