Five Takeaways from Syracuse's Loss at Pitt
1. POINT GUARD PLAY
Neither point guard was great in this game. Joe Girard was 0-4 shooting including 0-3 from three and scored just two points in 22 minutes while making several defensive mistakes to allow penetration or open shots. Kadary Richmond had just two points in 18 minutes on 1-6 shooting, but did have three assists and three rebounds. Head coach Jim Boeheim stated after the game that they do not have a viable option that would result in Girard's benching.
"He hasn’t played well overall. He’s had a couple good games, but Kadary hasn’t played well in those opportunities. So it’s not like we have viable alternatives."
Jim Boeheim has forgotten more about basketball than I will ever know. So at the end of the day, who am I to question him? He sees more at practice than we get to see just during games. All valid points. That said, I am going to disagree with him slightly here.
I do think giving Richmond more run will be helpful. Not only to the team in the immediate future, but also helping him develop for beyond this season. The experience is invaluable. He is not turning it over at an alarming clip. He gives a lot defensively in most games, and brings something different to the table than Girard. Perhaps Girard being a scoring threat off of the bench would also get him out of his funk. Allow him to play more efficiently.
It might not work. It might not change anything. And Boeheim's point that teams sag off of Richmond and that hurts his ability to drive while clogging things up for others is a valid one. But something has to change. Syracuse is just not getting enough from the point guard right now.
2. SECOND HALF DEFENSE
What else is there to say other than I cannot remember a half where Syracuse looked that inept on defense. They've had struggles over the years, but not like that. Boeheim said it best in his two comments that say it better than I could.
"They got it inside too easily," Boeheim said. "When they missed, they got it and put it back. Every position struggled. The forward position struggled, the guard position. We struggled at every position defensively, really the whole second half."
"Our defense was probably as bad as I’ve seen it since I’ve been here," Boeheim said. "Sixty-four points? Yeah that’s a lot of points."
Pittsburgh got into the lane too easily, had no resistance at the rim, and got open looks from the outside. It was a collapse of epic proportions on the defensive end where not a single part of the zone was working.
Syracuse had not been anywhere close to this bad all season defensively. Until and unless it happens again, I'll take it as an anomaly. It is still inexcusable, however.
3. OUTSIDE SHOOTING
This team came into the year as one that was supposed to have a plethora of outside shooters. Buddy Boeheim, Joe Girard, Alan Griffin, even a little here and there from guys like Robert Braswell, Woody Newton and improvement from Quincy Guerrier. We are now 11 games into the season, and they have failed to live up to the billing. They are not anywhere close to that expectation.
Shooting 3-22 from beyond the arc cannot happen with that many capable shooters. Syracuse is now shooting 31.6% from distance this season. That would be its worst outside shooting season since the 2014-15 campaign. They are getting looks, they just aren't making them. That has to change for this team to win games.
4. PLENTY OF BLAME TO GO AROUND
When you get blown out, especially by 25 points in a single half, there is plenty of blame to go around. That is the case here. Syracuse did not shoot the ball well. Buddy and Girard combined to shoot 0-11 from beyond the arc. There were defensive mistakes after defensive mistakes from Griffin, Girard, Buddy, Guerrier, Dolezaj, etc. Essentially everyone had their issues in this one. Some will point to the point guard spot due to Girard's season long struggles. Some will point elsewhere. But for this game in a vacuum, the blame lies with everyone.
5. WHAT NOW?
"This was a bad day," Boeheim said after the game. "You can have those. We've kind of avoided that. We've been in every game. This is the first game (we've been blown out) and we were ahead at halftime so wasn't like we were out of it in the beginning. You're going to have a game like this, I think, during the course of the year. It's unfortunate, but we're four games into the league season. We've got to put this behind us. We've got try to get better defensively with who we have."
For this season, this is the correct approach. A bad game. A bad performance. Put it in the rearview mirror and focus on improving moving forward. There is no question that is what has to happen.
So take a look at the rest of the schedule. Syracuse has games against Miami, NC State twice, Boston College, Notre Dame, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech remaining. If they find a way to go 6-1 in that group and pull off an upset or two against a Clemson or Virginia Tech or Louisville, you have a team that could be in the bubble discussion. If there even is an NCAA Tournament.
We will see how it plays out.
