Our Syracuse Orange have had its fair share of ups and downs this year. Lets break down what factors made the Orange successful and what was ultimately their demise. Positives:
VERY LONG. we all know that. Ones of the best 2-3 zone's Boeheim has ever put on the court. MICHAEL CARTER-WILLIAMS. Everyone knew he would make an impact, but no one could have predicted it would lead him to be a potential first round draft pick. (lets cross our fingers he becomes a junior). PERSEVERANCE. This team certainly persevered through some adversity. We'll get to the adversity later. FIGHTING THRU SCREENS. MCW and Senior Brandon Triche did a wonderful job fighting thru screens at the top of the zone. ultimately could be the reason the Orange were so successful in the zone. 3 POINT DEFENSE. Unbelievable defense on the perimeter, and its at the hands of a zone, unreal. Negatives:
FREE THROW SHOOTING. The orange had to be last in the nation in free throw shooting. Brandon Triche was atrocious from the FT line this year, and so was everyone else, except CJ Fair. He led the team in FT shooting, although he still managed to miss when they mattered, along with Triche, and MCW. SHOOTING IN GENERAL. Especially the 3. James Southerland was our best 3 point shooter at 39% but was often inconsistent. The Orange lacked that Andy Rautins type shooter that put them over the top to extend defenses. Triche declined in his shooting, and MCW has a way to go before going pro. Or he could become Donte Green, lord I hope not. CJ Fair of course was arguably our best 3 point shooter all around. But he didn't shoot enough of them. Trevor Cooney was to come in and fill the void and open up our offense. He showed flashes of a good 3 point shooter. According to Coach Boeheim he shot 90% in practice but it didn't translate to the games, and those flashes were quicker than the speed of light. Our shooting was at times the Orange Achilles heal. A RAW SCORER. The loss of Kris Joseph really hurt the Orange. When the tough got going last year it was get it to Kris and get out of his way. MCW played that roll slightly but was often not nearly as consistent as Joseph, and wasn't nearly the finisher. He showed promise but he was so wishy washy one game he was magic, the next game he was chris Dudley. not really. Ultimately....DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING. This has been a known issue due to playing zone. however this year was bad. Ultimately it cost the Orange the game against Michigan. Scoring like 20% of their points off second chances.
Great year we overachieved.
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