Syracuse Basketball: Unleash the Tylers

Syracuse basketball has had some trouble against bigger teams like North Carolina, which is why both Tylers need to have a big game.

North Carolina poses a serious threat to the Orange, and one way they can control the game is to control the post. Syracuse basketball has struggled most of the season with rebounding against big, strong, athletic teams like the Tar Heels. Surprisingly though, in the first meeting, Syracuse basketball actually out-rebounded the Tar Heels by 3 boards.

In the second meeting, UNC beat the Cuse pretty handily, 40-34 on the glass, yet it was a closer game at the final buzzer. The reason for that? The improved inside presence of Tyler Roberson and Tyler Lydon. It’s not always the rebounding margin that tells the entire story of how a team plays on the interior. A perfect example of that in this NCAA Tournament was the Syracuse-Gonzaga game. Although we lost the battle of the boards, our interior defense was smothering in the second half and caused a number of unforced errors.

The same was true in the second game against North Carolina. In that game, we limited North Carolina, one of the best shooting teams in the country, to just 41.2% from the field. By playing strong interior defense, we forced a team that likes to get into the paint into shooting 25 3-point shots. Shooting perimeter shots is exactly what the zone is designed to do, and it’s exactly what we want out of UNC come Saturday.

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The way that’s accomplished is with a major interior presence on defense, and that comes down to both Tylers. In this tournament thus far, both players have been absolutely dominant on the defensive end. They’ve locked down teams and forced them into tough shots. Even when teams have gotten to the rim, Lydon has been there to alter shots and Roberson has been windex on the glass.

They are a powerful 1-2 punch that have really adapted and figured out how to play extremely well and extremely efficiently together. The key has been quick rotations. If an offensive player catches the ball around the free throw line, both Roberson and Lydon have closed incredibly quickly and played some swarming, smothering defense. Even though there have been open players on the wings or cutters to the basket, there hasn’t been a clean passing lane and that often turned into turnovers or contested shots.

Against UNC, they are going to need to continue to do that. Brice Johnson, Justin Jackson, and Kennedy Meeks live for the mid range game. Johnson can hit that 15-18 footer all day. Justin Jackson is a master at the floater, runner, and baseline jumper. Meeks has a little smaller range, but is deadly around the rim. The three are going to be a very tough matchup for our bigs, but it’s definitely a winnable battle.

In the second meeting, those three were held relatively in check, combining to score 34 points, but missing a combined 11 shots. Justin Jackson went just 4-11, after torching us in the first meeting. We are going to need that intensity and then some. Every shot in the interior needs to be contested. Every pass needs to be through traffic. We can’t give up the easy buckets. They need to work for every point they get.

Next: SU vs UNC: Third Time's a Charm

Both Tylers have been lights out this tournament, and I don’t see that changing just because they’re playing UNC. I think SU still has something to prove, and I think Roberson and Lydon want to prove that they can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the country. This will be their toughest test to date in the tournament, but I am confident they’ll play well.

Lydon might not have the 5+ blocks he’s been averaging the last three games, but don’t be surprised if he ends up with a few. I think both could get close to 10 rebounds as well. They will both be needed in a big way for Syracuse to pull out the victory and advance to the Finals, and I think they are up to the challenge.

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