Takeaways from Syracuse's 77-62 loss at Louisville

Syracuse suffered their tenth loss in their last 13 games on Tuesday night, as Louisville put them away with a couple first half runs in a 77-62 game. The Orange struggled from long range, starting the game with an 0-for-12 shooting mark on 3-pointers as they mustered just 21 first half points and trailed by 18 points at halftime.

Here are three takeaways from their loss to the Cardinals.

The defense is what is really dragging this team down

After being an extremely important part of their effective early season play, SU’s defense has failed them for the last couple months. The aggressive defense that kept Syracuse alive deep in games against Houston and Kansas while also keying their win over Tennessee is simply a faded memory at this point.

After the fifth game of the season, that matchup against Houston in Las Vegas, the Orange defense had posted an adjusted defensive efficiency mark of 92.4 points per 100 possessions at T-Rank. If they had that mark right now, they would have the fourth-best defense in the country.

Instead, the defense has lagged since then, most dramatically in ACC play. In their last 15 games, the SU defense has one game with an adjusted defensive efficiency below 100, when they posted a 99.8 mark in the home game against North Carolina on February 21, a game where the Tar Heels were missing Caleb Wilson, their top player.

Some of the raw defensive efficiency numbers have been far worse. Syracuse has given up over 1.2 points per possession five times in that span, including 135.2 points per 100 possessions against Wake Forest on Saturday and 157.4 points per 100 possessions in giving up 101 points while getting routed at Duke.

T-Rank lists the Orange’s defensive efficiency over their last ten games at 108.4 points per 100 possessions. That ranks 167th in the country, making them a slightly better than average D-I team in that span.

Vegas is a long, long way away from Syracuse.

From bad to worse

When things have gone poorly on the floor for SU in recent games, things seem to get out of hand quickly as the team seems to lose focus and, even worse, effort.

Against Louisville, both sides struggled on offense to start the game, but the score remained within a single possession for the first seven possessions. However, once the Cardinals hung their first run of the night, Syracuse seemed to wilt. The second Louisville run late in the first half that built a 21-point margin effectively ended the game.

With the exception of a couple brief, spirited second half pushes that Louisville eventually turned aside, the Orange seemed mostly content to simply run out the clock and get the game over.

One shining White light

The exception last night was the effort from Sadiq White Jr. From the moment he stepped on the court, White was an aggressor for SU, attacking the rim, the glass, and the Cardinals with his defensive effort.

White played 7:48 in the first half, but left the action shortly before intermission after tweaking his shoulder in a rebounding battle. The freshman forward returned in the second half with a sleeve covering his shoulder and played an additional 8:45.

All told, White finished with eight points, four rebounds, and a steal in his 16:33 of playing time. Three of his four scores came from going to the basket, including a pair of dunks. It was a positive performance from the top-rated Syracuse freshman near the end of a freshman season of highs and lows.

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