Despite Herculean Effort From SU, More Wins Are Required

The Syracuse basketball team tried their best but came up short. Here’s why moral cookies don’t mean anything at this point in the season.

The underlying narrative coming off of Syracuse basketball’s loss last night’s was: “good effort, better luck next time”, even one fan told me if you’re going to lose that’s the way you want too. I would beg to differ.

Moral cookies mean nothing in the middle of February. Earlier in the season, maybe I would’ve listened to an argument that said well we can build on this. You don’t say that when you have four regular season games to go.

Jim Boeheim seemed proud of his team’s effort saying on multiple occasions during his presser that not a lot of teams could’ve made it a game down that many to Louisville. He also suggested that SU’s magic might be out.

How many games can the cardiac Cuse keep coming back from? They already had one Tyus Battle shot earlier this season that won them the game, Boeheim said you don’t get two of those in one season.

Let me just get a few nuggets out from last game that I want to get off of my chest. A congratulations is in order for John Gillon who is now the new record holder for most consecutive free throws in SU history. 35 free throws in a row (and that streak is still alive).

Tyler Roberson’s ability to miss water if he fell out of a boat is frustrating. While the team as a whole has done well over the past several games from the charity stripe, Roberson has been an utter disappointment.

He’s struggled with his free throws throughout his career from what I understand. So why not mix

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it up? Whip out the old grandma underhand shot, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Mix it up man, as soon as you came to the line I shoulda woulda coulda turned off the tube because I knew Roberson was going to miss just like Jim Boeheim.

Despite Mike Hopkins saying that Tyus Battle would be a full-go, he was anything but. He struggled from the field (one-for-seven) and just didn’t look himself.

While the backbone of this team throughout this season has been Andrew White III and he just didn’t have it either. An abysmal 7-for-24 from the field and that was the worst 22 point game I had ever seen. He kept missing open looks (2-14 from downtown). On a night where SU really needed White to step up he faltered. If he shoots 3-14 from the field we win the game, but sometimes that’s how it goes.

Franklin Howard seems like he’s starting to get his confidence back, slowly but surely. One last nugget on Johnny G, I’ve begged him to penetrate the lane since Week 1 and he’s been routinely rejected by bigger men in the paint.

I would’ve preferred a hold the ball and take a last second shot at the end of regulation personally and that could’ve cost the Orange the game. I like the thought process, attack the basket if you miss there was still a potential tip in situation on the table.

The loss was gut wrenching, not thought provoking. IF SU could’ve won that would’ve been their third straight home win over a top-10 ranked foe, but it wasn’t.

This would’ve guaranteed, SU’s entrance into the March Madness tournament. 100% lock the Orange would’ve been in the tourney, but they aren’t…yet. There’s still the aforementioned four games to go and also whatever happens in the Barclay’s Center for the ACC tournament.

I’ve been saying for weeks that the magic number is 10-8 in the ACC, you do that, you’re in. I don’t know how much stock I’m putting into ESPN’s resident Bracketologist Joe Lunardi who tweeted after the game that it’s going to take two more wins for SU to get into the dance with this weak bubble.

This game on Sunday for SU may not be must win, but I’d argue the latter. This is a bubble busting game if there ever was one. Georgia Tech and SU are both on the outside looking in at the current tournament standings according to those “experts”.

Next: The Syracuse Basketball Squad Suffers Deflating Home OT Defeat To UL

So if the people that get paid to study this stuff say that Georgia Tech and SU are close and they have two games remaining against each other, you do the math. At a bare minimum they have to split and with the last two against Duke and at Louisville, I could argue they better sweep to guarantee their trip.

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