Syracuse Basketball vs. Clemson: 5 Keys to the Game
By David Stone
After a tough two-game ACC road trip, the Syracuse basketball team returns home to face 8-6 Clemson in the Carrier Dome tomorrow night at 8 pm.
Back-to-back losses to Pittsburgh and Miami have put a sour taste in fans mouths to start ACC conference play. Thankfully, Syracuse gets an easier game at home against Clemson to try and right the ship.
After a blistering start to the season, Syracuse has crashed down to earth and pretty much completely imploded. They’re getting out-rebounded, out-hustled, and out-played on an almost nightly basis. Something needs to change, and fast.
Cue the Clemson game, an opportunity for Syracuse basketball to get back on track and start to hopefully make a push for the NCAA tournament. I realize that the current outlook is bleak, but keep in mind that Syracuse still has 11 winnable conference games on the slate. If they can manage 11-7 and 21-12 overall, they at least have a shot of making the big dance.
It all starts with Clemson tomorrow. Let’s take a look at the Clemson game and figure out the five keys to the game for Syracuse and what they will need to do to pull out a much needed victory. First off is an issue that has plagued Syracuse ever since the end of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament: inconsistent shooting.
More Than One Player Needs to be Hot
Since the B4A tourney, Syracuse is a pedestrian 31% from beyond the arc. For a team that takes over 20 3-pointers a game and has 4 major threats from the outside, that number is incredibly bad.
A big reason for that is the complete lack of inside game for SU. Even if guys like Dajuan Coleman or Tyler Roberson get the ball in the post, they’re just as likely to hurl the ball off the backboard or commit an offensive foul as they are to score. In fact, the former is far more likely than the latter.
That lack of inside scoring has allowed teams to hound our outside shooters and cut off the open looks.
Against Clemson, we need to have more than one guy who gets hot from the field. Ideally, we need to have either Coleman or Roberson start making some shots down low to open things up on the perimeter. Roberson has shown flashes of that ability, but has been inconsistent. Coleman just hasn’t developed into the big man we all wanted, but could still have some influence if he can get some offensive rebounds and get easy buckets.
Regardless of who steps up, it needs to be more than just one or two guys. Richardson pretty much carried us against Miami, but no one else could hit the broad side of a barn. We need other guys to step up and make shots.