The dust has settled, and at the end of the day, Syracuse is the biggest loser of the Legends Classic tournament at the Barclays Center down in Brooklyn. SU fell to Texas Tech 79-74 in the third-place game tonight, and once again some vices continue to cause struggles. Instead of doing a report card like we usually do, let’s instead compare night one of the tournament to night two.
Shooting
Both of these games, the biggest issue that I’ve seen from the Orange has been a lack of efficiency on offense. Throughout the 80 minutes of basketball played by Syracuse the past two nights, they shot a combined 48-of-110 from the field, equating to 43.6%. It’s not that that’s an awful figure, it’s more or less that the shot selection has been quite terrible. This team lacks an offensive identity, and it clearly showed against two higher level opponents. Donnie Freeman really struggled from the field tonight (1-of-7), and was taking shots that really made you scratch your brain. At the end of the day, you’re going to miss shots, but when you have one of the game’s biggest centers in Eddie Lampkin, use his size to your advantage and take some higher percentage shots.
Three Pointers
Unfortunately for Syracuse, this has been a theme that just refuses to change, and I don’t know how you fix it at this point. The ‘Cuse went 5-of-21 from deep tonight, which embarrassingly is a higher percentage than their average this season. Chris Bell had a big game tonight, but not in the way he needs to be. Syracuse continues to struggle from deep, and everyone is accountable. It comes down to bad shot selection as I mentioned earlier. If SU wants any chance of competing in March, someone is going to have to step up, and that someone has to be Chris Bell. Freeman and Bell shot threes that could have turned the tide of the game down the stretch, but both barely hit the rim. Coach Autry was disappointed about it postgame, and so should everyone paying attention to this team right now.
Free Throws
We gotta take at least one positive from one night to the other, and Syracuse definitely figured it out at the line tonight. After shooting 9-for-18 against Texas that basically cost them the game, SU was seen working on their free throws a LOT pregame, and it paid off. The ‘Cuse went 24-of-28 from the charity stripe, and I know what you’re thinking. How crazy is it that the Orange had so many more opportunities to shoot from the line after an awful blunder the night before? Maybe that was in the game plan for the Red Raiders, but either way, it’s a significant improvement. Shoutout to Chris Bell for being an absolute workhorse from the line, knocking in all 11 opportunities. One thing to add though, JJ Starling’s free throw form is horrendous. Please get rid of that hitch.
Syracuse fans packed the Barclays Center on both nights of the Legends Classic and went home disappointed each time. I asked Coach Autry about the impact Orange Nation made, and he said “We let them down.” Despite the 0-2 record in New York City, there’s a lot to learn from this experience against two Q1 teams and plenty of season left to right the wrongs.
