Buddy Boeheim and Syracuse Basketball looks to stay hot against Houston Cougars

2. Use 2-3 zone to limit Houston’s outside production

The Cougars offense comes through its guards, mainly Quentin Grimes, Tramon Mark, and Marcus Sasser. Grimes and Sasser are the two leading scorers for Syracuse to worry about, combining to produce over 31 ppg. A lot of those points come from three-point range, where these two take a combined 16 attempts from deep a game. Grimes makes 42% of them, a mark of how efficient he’s been all season.

As a team, Houston is a high-volume three-point shooting team. They’ll make at least nine a game and take 26, both ranking in the top-40. For a team that doesn’t get points through post-ups, they can’t afford to go cold from three-point range, especially against good competition. Throughout the season, opposing teams have gone to a zone to try Houston on offense, with not much success.

But Syracuse’s zone is different, particularly against coaches not from the ACC who sees them on a yearly basis. Head coach Kelvin Sampson has his own experience but not the Cougar players on the court. The size of the guards for the Orange will make most shots contested and may cause Houston’s players to take deep three-pointers and other bad shots they aren’t used to.

They’ll have to be careful of their ability to penetrate but if Houston makes only 5-6 three-pointers, Syracuse will have a strong chance to win this one.