Syracuse Basketball: Orange offense fails in season opener to Virginia

In an extremely tough offensive game for Syracuse Basketball, they open their season with a loss at home to the reigning national champions.

Syracuse Basketball opened its season at the Carrier Dome on Wednesday night against the 2019 National Champion Virginia Cavaliers. The Orange did well to hold this new look Coffense offence to just 48-points, the only problem was on the other end they only scored 34.

This was always going to be a game where ‘Cuse was projected a loss, but it was an exciting prospect. Playing the champions on your own floor to start the year is a fantastic opportunity, one that could kickstart the whole campaign for the better. But, it wasn’t to be. It never was. The Orange took a 2-0 lead after almost two minutes of basketball – as both teams started the game very sloppy on the offensive end – but, this was to be ‘Cuse’s only lead of the whole night.

The Hoos ominously got into their stride in the end – albeit, not to the extremes of last season where the likes of Kyle Guy, De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome lit up opponents. But it was enough to outscore this continuous struggling offence of Jim Boeheim‘s with ease. The Orange shot 7-27 from the field in the first half as too many times it looked like they were rushing their shot. Hughes went 2-8 for the half, but the isolation that the Orange players found themselves in wasn’t working. Spacing and separation was a massive problem in the first half, and this didn’t change at all down the stretch.

After just 19 first half points, Syracuse was still just six points adrift of Virginia’s total, going into the locker rooms. This was down to excellent defence really. For the struggles that the Orange had on offence, there are definitely plenty of positives to take away from last night – mainly down to their aggression and concentration on the defensive side of the ball. Five ‘Cuse players contributed to the cause with a steal, including Quincy Guerrier, in his first college game. Although the freshmen struggled to score, it was impressive to see how they fitted into the zone, in the limited minutes that they did play, and even in man-to-man coverage ‘Cuse looked very strong.

Hughes, unsurprisingly led the Orange in scoring with 14 points on 4/14 shooting. Marek Dolezaj looks like he’ll play a big role on both sides this year, as he gathered nine rebounds, three of which were on the offensive end. Bourama Sidibe and Jesse Edwards give this side length in the middle of the floor, with Edwards impressing, as he recorded a block and a bucket in just five minutes on the floor, down the stretch. Buddy Boeheim got seven on the night but shot just 1/8 from downtown – a number of his looks just weren’t good and ‘Cuse have got tot do something about this. Limiting forced shots and getting good screens to create spacing are huge points to focus on when talking about the offensive game.

All in all, you can’t say this was a great start. I mean, Cole Anthony, superstar freshman for the UNC Tar Heels, equalled Syracuse’s points total of 34 all by himself in his opening game against Notre Dame. 34 points in 40 minutes of basketball isn’t good at whatever level you play at. It was against Virginia, and you can cut this new look roster some slack. But, there’s plenty to work on if Syracuse wants to compete with the better teams. The defence is great, there’s no question.

Holding Virginia to just 48 points is a fantastic feat for this team, and it should give them the belief that they can compete against anyone. It’s just a question of trying to match the opposition on the offensive end. If they can at least be competitive and constantly good at scoring, then they really can beat anyone – especially due to the talent they show on the defensive side which gives this team different levels to it.