In just two days, the Syracuse basketball season officially gets underway with their home opener against Lehigh. The game will be played in the Carrier Dome at 7 pm EST and televised on the Time Warner Cable Sports channel.
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Syracuse comes into the game after having decimated Florida Southern and LeMoyne in exhibition games over the past week. They’ve been firing on all cylinders, shooting a scintillating 43% from downtown and averaging over 95 points per game.
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Lehigh could be an interesting early-season test for Syracuse. Last year they finished 16-14 and in third place in the Patriot League. They return all five of their top scorers, including standout 6’10 center Tim Kempton, who averaged 15.1 points and 8.7 rebounds last season.
His size will be a good indication of how Coleman will play against bigger centers who can score the ball. Coleman still outweighs him by about 30 lbs, so it will be interesting to see if he can hold his own in the low block.
Aside from Kempton, Lehigh’s roster has four other players who are 6’7 or taller and could see some playing time. This will be a good opportunity for Syracuse to see how they play against a slightly larger team, as both LeMoyne and Florida Southern were pretty small. Lehigh is by no means a colossus, but they’ve at least got a few guys who can stretch the Syracuse offense and force them to take some shots over defenders.
For Syracuse this season, the team will go as Gbinije and Cooney go. The two fifth year seniors lead one of the most experienced and talented back courts in the country. Gbinije is continually undervalued by all but a select few, and is poised to have an absolute monster year. With the amount of perimeter players the Orange can put on the court at any one time, Gbinije is going to have plenty of room to operate at the top of the key.
Look for him to drive the ball into the lane and either kick out to the open man or take it hard to the hoop and draw fouls. He is going to need to be much more dependable from the free throw line, and unfortunately he has still looked pretty spotty there. It still baffles me how a guy who can hit almost half his three pointers can hit barely half his free throws as well, from 8 feet closer and completely unguarded. I think some of it is mental, so hopefully he can buckle down and get that percentage up to around 70%.
Trevor Cooney is going to have a somewhat different role for the team this year. As opposed to just being a volume three point shooter like he has been the last two years, I think Cooney is going to be driving to the basket a lot more this year. He’s already done that in both exhibition games and has routinely found the open man for easy shots. That’s the benefit of having so many other shooters; he can be more selective with his own shots.
Lehigh wasn’t known for their defensive prowess last year as they ranked 166th nationally in scoring defense. They also weren’t an offensive juggernaut, finishing 156th in scoring offense. While those numbers aren’t particularly impressive, they still managed to keep most of their games pretty close. They only lost by 11 points to Villanova and lost 7 other games by 6 points or less.
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In order to win, Syracuse is going to need to continue to shoot the ball well from the outside, while also stepping up their defense. They looked great against a couple of D2 opponents, but now the competition gets a little stiffer and they are going to need to step up and play solid. Lehigh isn’t a team that’s going to rain threes on you, but they are consistent and always play hard.
Their head coach, Brett Reed, is entering his ninth season and he has the most wins in Lehigh history. He also has two Patriot League titles and 2 NCAA tournament appearances, so he is definitely a very solid coach who understands the fundamentals of the game.
Even so, I think Syracuse is just too big and too athletic for Lehigh to keep up, and I predict the game will be well out of reach by the early second half. Final score, Syracuse 89-Lehigh 66.