This season has not gone as planned for Syracuse men’s basketball. The Orange entered the season with five-star recruit Donnie Freeman, a March Madness-experienced Colorado transfer in Eddie Lampkin, and a new-look backcourt featuring JJ Starling.
One of the reasons for the downward spiral this season is the inconsistent attitude displayed on and off the court throughout the year.
As a recent example, Starling has played some of his best basketball of the season lately. The junior has scored 20 or more points in each of Syracuse’s last three games. Despite the impressive stats, it’s often taken Starling an entire half of basketball in some instances to get his feet under him and find his rhythm.
The Baldwinsville native scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half against North Carolina over the weekend. In fact, 14 of Starling’s 28 points against Boston College came after halftime, as did the majority of his points in the first meeting between the Orange and the Eagles.
Starling is not the problem, obviously, and the numbers support that. However, Starling had an interesting message for his squad after Saturday’s contest versus UNC.
“We just gotta change our habits,” said Starling. “We gotta work harder. We gotta play more together as a unit. Just do things that we haven’t been doing up until this point. It comes down to who’s willing to make a change and who’s not.”
This suggests that certain members of Syracuse’s roster might not be fully bought in at this point in the season. While no one is calling anyone out directly, the inconsistencies seen on the court may be tied to the poor 11-15 record SU currently holds and the attitude that either some have or don’t have.
Starling is clearly attempting to lead his squad to victory night in and night out. Lampkin is also putting up career numbers and recorded his 11th double-double of the season against UNC.
Beyond that, where does the attitude stand amongst the rest of the squad?
For another “Anatomy of Disaster” piece, check out Tyler Aitken’s article about the lack of talent.
