After getting blown out by Tennessee on Tuesday, today’s matchup presented a prime opportunity for SU to bounce back. Notre Dame came into the contest losers of five straight, but in the ACC opener for both sides, the Orange came up short falling by five down in South Bend. The loss marks the second straight defeat for the squad and the first to Notre Dame in four matchups. So, what went wrong for SU? Let’s dive into all of that and more.
Can’t stop Shrewsberry
It was known coming into the contest that Notre Dame guard Braeden Shrewsberry was going to be a problem, especially with leading scorer Markus Burton out. The Indiana native stepped up, scoring 25 points tying his career-high. Shrewsberry also hit six triples. Before today, the sophomore was averaging a team-high 2.6 three a day and shooting 47% on corner threes. It was a sense of deja vu for the Orange. In last season’s 88-85 win over the Irish, Shrewsberry also knocked down six triples. Syracuse had no answer throughout the entire contest for the guard, who drained two threes within under 90 seconds of each other late in the second half sealing the game for Notre Dame.
Three-point shooting
I’m not sure how a team like Syracuse in a Power Five conference fails to hit a single three in this game. SU went 0-for-9 today from three-point land. The last time Syracuse didn’t make a three in a game was against Holy Cross on December 14th of 2014. Nearly 10 years. That should speak volumes to the struggles that the Orange are facing universally at this point. You simply cannot go 0-for from behind the arc. That is unacceptable.
Charity stripe woes
Today was another game similar to Texas where free throw shooting was the difference. SU finished the game 16-24 from the line, which comes out to just over 65%. Similar to the three-point shooting, that cannot be good enough for this team. If half of those misses go in from the charity stripe, Syracuse could’ve very well won this game or at least sent things to overtime. Something internally needs to change soon regarding free throw shooting, but it’s lost SU games on multiple occasions this season.
What’s next?
The schedule does get a little easier from here on out for the Orange. Following a rough five-game stretch where SU won just a single game, Syracuse matches up with UAlbany and Georgetown at home over the next week. These two games should be automatic wins, but knowing this team nothing is guaranteed. If the Orange are to go 2-0 on the homestand, it could generate some positive momentum heading into a pivotal game against Maryland at the Barclays Center on December 21st.
