Syracuse Basketball: Orange don’t need Tyus Battle anymore

The Syracuse basketball squad proved on Tuesday night that they no longer need Tyus Battle in 2018. Here’s why that’s actually a good thing.

Headline: The Syracuse basketball squad doesn’t need Tyus Battle anymore. Before you grab your torches and pitchforks, this is actually a good thing!

Let’s go back in the time machine to last season. The Orange at full capacity were operating with five and a half guys in the rotation, obviously not ideal. But because of the cards the Orange were dealt they were super reliant on Tyus Battle to win ball games.

So much so that if he didn’t drop 20 a night last season, Syracuse likely lost the game. Hell the strategy worked and this team had their proverbial backs against the wall all year and made an improbable Sweet 16 run.

This season, Syracuse is dealing with a first world problem and they’re still working out the kinks (more on that later). The Orange are legitimately running nine deep right now with a slew of talented players who can score (nine players are averaging at least double digit minutes so far this season).

A perfect example of this new first world problem occurred on Tuesday night vs Northeastern. Tyus Battle scored just two points on a miserable one-of-seven shooting performance. Yet the Orange won by 23 points convincingly (72-49).

Syracuse isn’t used to this reality, but it seems like the rest of the team is taking this in stride:

"Oshae Brissett on dominating even when Tyus Battle struggles…“It’s great and that’s why everyone has such high expectations of us. We have so many great players on this team that can get going whenever they want. So even if our main guys are struggling from the field it’s nice to have guys like myself, Buddy (Boeheim), Elijah (Hughes), Paschal (Chukwu) to lean on.”Jalen Carey on figuring it out even when Tyus struggles…“It says a lot. When that second group came out we picked it up, we were active on defense. It just shows how deep we’re and when certain guys struggle, we can pick up the slack. I’m looking forward to the next game Tyus is going to bounce back.”"

Earlier I mentioned there are kinks in this system and that’s ultimately what is holding the Orange from their full potential.

Last season Syracuse had no choice the guys who were on the floor had to figure it out and score points. Jim Boeheim didn’t have to make any decisions, it was out of his hands who he played.

This season Boeheim is rolling with nine guys and the balance of who plays and for how long has become difficult. But the real kinks are with the players on the court, because there are so many options the players are trying to balance in their own mind whether to pass the ball or take over the game and aggressively score.

I spoke with Oshae Brissett and Jalen Carey about this after the game on Tuesday night:

"Oshae Brissett:“I wouldn’t say it’s a challenge trying to make those decisions, we’re just playing basketball and making the right reads. We aren’t going to throw it down low if there are too many guys there for example. Like I said, it’s just playing basketball man.”Jalen Carey: “It’s not a challenge to make it happen. First thing I do when I get into the game is I want to change the pace of the game. Getting guys involved is the No. 1 priority, my shots are going to come. I just got to get my teammates open looks and spread out the offense.”"

In conclusion, this is not to say Syracuse can win every game without Tyus Battle playing well. That’s simply not true, look at some of the early games this season where Tyus saved Syracuse with ice cold clutch shots. But what was proven on Tuesday night is Syracuse CAN win occasionally with all the other guys on the team carrying the load. Tyus is going to the NBA one day, so he’s too talented to continue having bad nights. If that’s not a massive confidence booster, I’m not sure what is for the Orange moving forward.