Syracuse Basketball vs. St. Bonaventure: 6 Things to Watch
By David Stone
Nov 13, 2015; Syracuse, NY, USA; Syracuse Orange center DaJuan Coleman (32) dunks the ball against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks during the second half at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse defeated Lehigh 57-47. Photo Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
How Will Coleman Respond to a Sub-Par Game?
Two points, two rebounds, four fouls.
That’s all that Coleman could muster in the opening game against Lehigh. To be fair, he never really got into a rhythm after picking up two early fouls in each half, but a lot of that is on him. He was always a step behind on the defensive end. Instead of getting his hands up, or timing his jumps, he ran at Lehigh players with abandon.
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It’s certainly not like last year where Rak would pick up fouls just for looking at players. Coleman earned all four of his, and looked like a mess defensively doing it.
But honestly, what did people expect? It was his first game against D-1 talent in almost two years, and it happened to be against the A-10 former player of the year, Tim Kempton. He was bound to struggle against a quality opponent in his first game back.
This game offers a much better matchup for him. The tallest player on St. Bonaventure is 6’7. They will be playing Dion Wright at the center spot, and although he’s athletic and versatile, I think it’s an opportunity for Coleman to use his size and brute force to dominate the interior.
Don’t be surprised if Syracuse goes inside to him in the paint early in this game. The team this year needs Coleman to have some kind of offense, so I have to imagine they will try to get him the ball a lot with the huge size mismatch.
I expect Coleman to have a solid bounce back game. Aside from scoring on post moves, I could see him having a good day rebounding the ball as well and getting some easy putbacks off offensive rebounds. I think he will still make some mistakes and probably give up a few careless fouls, but he’ll have a much better overall game than against Lehigh.