Syracuse Basketball To Clash With Florida State At The Carrier Dome
By Neil Adler
The Syracuse basketball team is going to have to play their A+ game to topple one of the ACC’s elites in Florida State. Can they do it?
The Syracuse basketball squad faces one of its toughest tasks of the 2016-17 campaign when it hosts No. 6 Florida State on Saturday afternoon in Central New York.
The Orange (12-9, 4-4 in the ACC) is coming off a nail-biting 81-76 home triumph over Wake Forest this past Tuesday night.
The Seminoles (18-3, 6-2), meanwhile, got absolutely drubbed on the road against Georgia Tech on Jan. 25. FSU shot woefully from the field, managing a mere 15 points in the first half of a 78-56 pasting.
That setback dropped FSU into a second-place tie with No. 14 Notre Dame and No. 12 Virginia behind No. 9 North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.
Plunking the Georgia Tech debacle aside, the Seminoles so far this season have proven pretty sensational. For example, in recent weeks, Florida State took on six ranked teams in a row, and the Seminoles beat five of them, with their only defeat coming to the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, N.C., by 13.
FSU owns victories over 10 outfits currently in the RPI’s top 100, such as No. 13 Louisville, No. 25 Florida, Virginia, Minnesota, Notre Dame, No. 17 Duke, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech – although all of those results, save for the Cavaliers contest, came at home.
Other than the aforementioned losses to North Carolina and Georgia Tech, the Seminoles also fell
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89-86 on a neutral-court to Temple back in late November (say what?).
Leonard Hamilton is in his 15th year as Florida State’s head coach, and his 29th stanza as a collegiate head coach. Previous stops include Oklahoma State and Miami, as well as one disastrous year with the NBA’s Washington Wizards.
Hamilton, the first to receive coach of the year honors in both the ACC and the Big East, has never gotten past the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, although his present Seminoles squad may amount to his best chance to advance further in the Big Dance.
Florida State has some serious depth. A dozen guys see at least 10 minutes of action. Three players average double-figures in scoring, led by sophomore Dwayne Bacon (17 points a game) and freshman Jonathan Isaac (13 points a game).
The Seminoles are an offensive powerhouse, putting up 84 points per contest, while allowing 71. FSU connects on 49 percent from the field, 36 percent from 3-point range and 69 percent from the free-throw line.
The Orange, on the other hand, averages 76 points a game and gives up 68. SU is shooting 46 percent from the field, 39 percent from downtown and 70 percent from the charity stripe.
As for other statistics, Florida State collects 38 rebounds per contest, along with 15 assists, six blocks and eight steals. That’s fairly similar to Syracuse, which nabs 37 boards, dishes out 17 dimes, blocks five shots and tallies eight thefts. Both schools commit about 12 turnovers a game.
I have no doubt that Florida State is going to perform much better than it did against Georgia Tech, so we need all hands on deck – a true team effort.
Our point guards have to step up. We need scoring from guys other than the trio of graduate transfer Andrew White III, sophomore Tyler Lydon and freshman Tyus Battle.
Syracuse can ill-afford to get crushed on the glass. We need the locked-down version of the 2-3 zone that SU has displayed on many occasions inside the Carrier Dome. Bacon and Isaac are likely to get their points, but the Orange has to contain them as much as humanly possible.
Given that Hamilton has basically 12 dudes at his disposal, and ‘Cuse head coach Jim Boeheim is using a supremely short bench, I’m concerned that fatigue might factor in. Also, Florida State gets to the free-throw line in droves, so Syracuse has to keep its number of silly fouls at bay.
We all know that SU has yet to emerge victorious on the road, but the Orange has proven relatively solid at home (minus Georgetown and St. John’s … yuck).
Next: Syracuse Football Recruiting: What do the Orange Need?
In the 2015-16 term, Syracuse got past Florida State in Central New York. Here’s hoping for an identical outcome this Saturday afternoon.