The Orange did not come out strong, in its 73-59 loss to Cal Thursday night. It is understandable to be a little nervous about what is to come in the future. Syracuse could not hit a shot from pretty much anywhere on the court, and only being three games into the young season, everyone is going to have to pick up some slack – especially Kaleb Joseph, who has to be an offensive leader.
This was a game in which Cal won more than Syracuse lost. Syracuse shot 36 percent from the field and Cal shot 46 percent.
Through the first five games, including exhibitions, Joseph shows signs of Michael Carter-Williams for one main reason: turnovers.
Joseph turned the ball over four times against Cal, and has 11 turnovers in his first three games. This hurt Syracuse on Thursday because of how well Cal was playing. The Golden Bears were able to beat Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone by attacking the basket. When they were able to force Joseph to turn it over, they capitalized. It would have been a different story, and not very noticeable, if they couldn’t score off the turnovers.
The Orange is not the same strong shooting team this year as it has been in recent years, mainly because Joseph is not a shooter. This will have to change. He must be more comfortable shooting the ball when the opposing defense does a good job of blocking the lane for easy layups.
He was 5-for-10 from the field with 13 points, but his ball handling will hurt his team. When the team is unable to shoot and unable to play defense against a team it should be able to beat, the silly mistakes need to be avoided, such as turnovers.
After the Kennesaw State game, Boeheim said Joseph made mistakes that are typical for freshmen. The season is young. Although Joseph’s turnovers are not helping the team and it is somewhat of a cause for concern, he will need to make this a priority as he develops into a collegiate point guard. If the rest of the team was playing well, making shots, and playing better defense, this would not seem so obvious. Instead, Orange Nation needs to be patient and wait for his emergence, but realize what the problem is.
Posted:  Austin Pollack
