It was a valiant effort, but yet another instance of Syracuse not playing a complete game cost them yet another winnable conference matchup. This time, SU fell to Pitt 77-73 in a Saturday matinee from the JMA Wireless Dome, let’s dive into it.
Eddie Lampkin Jr. – B+
Coming into this game, the biggest conversation was about the size of Pitt’s frontcourt. With five players rostered 6’10” or taller and the success of Florida State transfer Cameron Corhen, it was expected that Lampkin would have to battle to find his usual success on the glass. If that was the case, Lampkin battled HARD. 23 rebounds to go alongside 20 team offensive rebounds is extremely impressive. Here’s the problem… all those offensive rebounds, and only 16 second-chance points. I don’t understand why Lampkin struggles so much on the putback with his size. If just two of his many putback misses find the bottom of the basket, we’re talking about a tie game. It’s just unfortunate that such a strong performance from the Colorado transfer went wasted.
Three Point Shooting – C
Going off that last point of Pitt having an extremely large frontcourt, you knew that SU wasn’t going to be able to succeed down low. Therefore, Adrian Autry’s squad tried to strive on offense through the long ball. The ‘Cuse shot a season-high 32 three-pointers in this one, and only connected on 11 of them. If Syracuse was able to win this one, then sure, I would say shooting your way to wins isn’t a crazy idea. But they didn’t, and the “sharpshooting” options on this team have not been consistent enough for this to be a method of victory. It was worth a shot, but let’s not do it again.
JJ Starling – B-
It’s time to have a hurtful conversation about JJ Starling. It’s not crazy to say that at this point of the season, Starling is the offense. When JJ Starling doesn’t perform at the high level we see from him time and time again, the team does not go. Right now, Starling is simply too inconsistent to be relied on as the only thing winning and losing SU games. Pitt’s guy is Jaland Lowe, Louisville’s guy is Chucky Hepburn, ND’s guy is Markus Burton, you get my point. Only three first-half points is never the recipe for success for Syracuse, and it almost feels like toward the end of games, we see Starling play a little too much hero ball. If Syracuse wants ANY chance of being successful for the rest of the season, Starling needs to consistently be THE GUY.
On the topic of being “the guy,” SU has a tough test ahead going out west to the Golden State. The first of two matchups out west is against Stanford on Wednesday, which has the ACC’s leading scorer in forward Maxime Raynaud. Want a chance to win this game? JJ needs to match him or better, and the way things are going right now bad might just become worse.
