Through Syracuse men’s basketball’s first two games, the Orange look like the team everyone predicted they’d be at the start of the season.
Syracuse easily took care of Binghamton in the season-opener, winning by a whopping 38 points. The Orange followed up their blowout win over the Bearcats with a 40-point demolition of Delaware State, holding both of their opponents to less than 50 points en route to their 2-0 start.
While that may seem less impressive considering the quality of their opponents, remember that Syracuse struggled to beat Le Moyne in its season opener last year, winning just 86-82. The Orange followed that up with a narrow 74-72 win over Colgate before needing double overtime to outlast Youngstown State.
Not all wins are created equal, but each one is important as Syracuse looks to snap a four-year March Madness drought. That starts with beating inferior opponents, where the Orange are taking care of business.
While it’s a positive sign that Syracuse is winning in blowout fashion to start the season, it’s fair to wonder how sustainable this level of production is. On offense, the Orange are averaging 84 points a game with an effective field goal percentage of 60.3%, numbers that are likely to dip as the season goes on.
Syracuse is also shooting 69.6% on two-pointers with 19.5 assists per game. Naithan George has done wonders for the Orange’s offense since taking over the reins as its lead guard, but SU won’t finish the season making nearly 70% of its attempts inside the arc.
As elite as Syracuse has been on offense, it’s been even better on defense. The Orange are holding their opponents to just 45 points per game with an effective field goal percentage of 27.3%, the best mark in the country in both categories. Opponents are also shooting just 7.3% from deep against Syracuse so far.
The Orange have turned the intensity up to start the season, forcing 18.5 turnovers per game and racking up 8.5 blocks per game. Considering Syracuse’s defensive struggles last season, the Orange will likely drop in all of those categories, but it’s a positive sign to see early improvement to this degree.
In terms of how sustainable Syracuse’s early domination is, it’ll be hard to predict what this year’s Orange will actually look like until their game against No. 1 Houston on Nov. 24. Syracuse should continue to feast on its non-conference schedule leading up to its match against the Cougars, but even if the Orange have a fall from the lofty standards they’ve hit to start the season, it’s already clear this is a much talented and deeper team than last year’s.
