Five Takeaways: Virginia 73 Syracuse 66
Syracuse basketball fell behind by 23, rallied to trim the lead to seven but ultimately lost at #11 Virginia on Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the loss.
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MBB: Five Takeaways - Virginia 73 Syracuse 66
- Thread starter MikeMcAllister
- Start date
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We never responded to the double team on Jesse. They doubled him every time he got the ball. We floated a lot of passes, making it easier for the double guy to get there. Jesse doesn't pass well out of a double team and we don't seem to help him out much by moving where he can make a clean pass. Jesse has faced some good defenses lately, but he did early in the season also. He went against beefy Soriano of St. John's and scored 18 points in 26 minutes. Don't know why lately guys are pushing him out of position so easily.
Hima looked great. Sophomore Mounir is way ahead of sophomore Jesse on defense and the boards. We need to develop his offense so he can start some day and not hurt us at that end.
We kept dribbling into trouble against their defense, especially Judah. He needs to shoot more from three when they're giving it to them. He seems to have taken Boeheim's criticism after one of the games about shooting threes too literally. Both Pitt and UVA gave him wide open threes and clogged the paint. He's gotta shoot threes sometimes instead of trying to force it inside all the time, he can make them. Quadir came in and promptly tried to dribble into two UVA defenders. Can't do that against UVA. Joe was surprisingly only credited with one turnover, and that was the very first possession of the game when he was stripped for a runout. We should use Symir more. He had five assists in twelve minutes. He gets the easy quiet assists by making a pass at the right time.
The UVA stat people missed some things. Maliq had a clear assist from near the basket to Joe for a catch and shoot three in the last minute or two. Chris had a block in the first half.
Maliq played the last 36 and a half minutes and finished with a positive plus minus of +1. That first three and half minutes where Bol was -8 killed us. Bol wasn't good, but he wasn't the problem and neither was Chris. Our big three all started out lousy on offense while UVA was killing us with threes at the other end.
As good as Maliq played, there were a number of things he should have done better. He didn't finish through contact a few times, just missed getting a ball a few other times, and was late in a few rotations. He was good yesterday and he'll be a lot better than that by next season.
Hima looked great. Sophomore Mounir is way ahead of sophomore Jesse on defense and the boards. We need to develop his offense so he can start some day and not hurt us at that end.
We kept dribbling into trouble against their defense, especially Judah. He needs to shoot more from three when they're giving it to them. He seems to have taken Boeheim's criticism after one of the games about shooting threes too literally. Both Pitt and UVA gave him wide open threes and clogged the paint. He's gotta shoot threes sometimes instead of trying to force it inside all the time, he can make them. Quadir came in and promptly tried to dribble into two UVA defenders. Can't do that against UVA. Joe was surprisingly only credited with one turnover, and that was the very first possession of the game when he was stripped for a runout. We should use Symir more. He had five assists in twelve minutes. He gets the easy quiet assists by making a pass at the right time.
The UVA stat people missed some things. Maliq had a clear assist from near the basket to Joe for a catch and shoot three in the last minute or two. Chris had a block in the first half.
Maliq played the last 36 and a half minutes and finished with a positive plus minus of +1. That first three and half minutes where Bol was -8 killed us. Bol wasn't good, but he wasn't the problem and neither was Chris. Our big three all started out lousy on offense while UVA was killing us with threes at the other end.
As good as Maliq played, there were a number of things he should have done better. He didn't finish through contact a few times, just missed getting a ball a few other times, and was late in a few rotations. He was good yesterday and he'll be a lot better than that by next season.
rochcuse44
Well-known member
We’ve got to solve the problem of getting off to such slow starts and starting slow at the beginning of the 2nd half. It’s killing us and causing us to spend the game digging out of a hole. Jesse is getting the ball too far from the basket and allowing himself to get pushed out. We were guilty of overdribbling against the Cavs, especially Judah and even though he is good at penetrating. With Virginia double teaming the ball, we often had someone open on the back side but weren’t passing the ball quick enough and crisp enough to take advantage.
Our passing in general isn't crisp. Our passes don't look the same as UVA's passes. Soft passes don't outrun a defender and they can get picked off.