Syracuse Basketball: Oakland Golden Grizzlies crystal ball predictions
Ryan Lee, contributor (9-1)
The Syracuse basketball men’s team is returning home after falling to Georgetown, and greeting them are the Golden Grizzlies of Oakland. Syracuse doesn’t have marquee wins on their schedule and Oakland will not bring them that. The Golden Grizzlies could give Syracuse something much worse, a bad loss, something Syracuse is also currently without.
So far on the season, Syracuse is 5-0 with their most impressive win coming against Georgia Tech on the road. In the first NET rankings of the season, the Yellow Jackets came in at 128th, making Syracuse’s placement of 75 much less surprising.
The NCAA Tournament committee breaks down wins and losses with quadrant 1 (Q1) games being the most beneficial wins and least hurtful losses. The trends shift to the opposite as you make your way to the lowest quadrant, quadrant 4 (Q4). With these rankings being fluid the number of wins in each quadrant changes as the season progresses but so far the Orange sit 0-and-3 in Q1 games, 1-and-2 in quadrant 2 (Q2) games, and 4-and-0 in Q4s.
So far no bad losses but no impressive wins and Syracuse hopes to do that until they jump into ACC play. ACC has been down this season with an astonishing eight games currently scheduled would be quadrant 3 (Q3) games.
Combined with their three remaining non-conference games 11 opportunities for a devastating loss lay ahead. 11 potential NCAA Tournament crushing losses out of 21 remaining games for a .500 team just emphasizes how important it is for Syracuse to get on a run.
Looking into what lays ahead of the Orange the potential seems more probable then it was just a couple weeks ago when Syracuse looks outclassed in the NIT Tip-off then Iowa at home. Since then Syracuse has only won one of their previous two games but their offense has really begun to hit a stride.
In their games against Georgia Tech and Georgetown, the Orange averaged 88 points-per-game and has not boosted their season average just is now over 70 points a game at 72.8. Subtract the 34 point albatross to Virginia and their average jumps to 77.
That would put Syracuse in the top 100 offenses in the nation early on, an impressive feat with Syracuse playing the 9th toughest major conference schedule if you count the Big East with the other Power 5 conferences according to KenPom.
In their last two games, Syracuse has dominated when getting to the rim. A combined 19-for-25 in the two games. They have also limited bad midrange shots. By bad midrange shots, this mainly means early in the shot clock pull-ups a step inside the three-point line. With only eight midrange attempts according to barttorvik.com against Georgia Tech, Syracuse was back up to 21 attempts against Georgetown.
But as mentioned earlier these shots were not of the low-quality variety as many were in the beginning of the season. Elijah Hughes shot seven of them with four makes. Many of his looks came over quick isolations in the mid-post where he was able to convert on a high percentage fade away before a double team.
I expect Syracuse to keep rolling with Hughes against Oakland. Hughes can do more than be a near-lock for 20 points, he is averaging 19.7 per game, but Hughes is the defacto playmaker in the Orange’s offense.
The ball is instantly in his hands as the initiator of the offense for not just himself but his teammates. Hughes in now the point-forward of the team with Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard III being off-ball guards most possessions. Hughes had a career-high nine assists last time out showing his playmaking ability but the junior has had at least four in seven games this year and leads the team with a 4.5 average.
Hughes will crack twenty points again and the starters will carry the load. Keep an eye on Quincy Guerrier, Howard Washington, and the potential emergence of Jesse Edwards Wednesday night. Guerrier cannot pick up two quick fouls when coming into the game, no matter how tick-tac they were against Georgetown.
The Orange’s offense has a chance to carry this team this year. A weak field throughout the landscape of college basketball can mean a team that can be good to great on one end of the floor and around average on the other end might just end up making a run this season. Syracuse might just be primed to make that leap.
Syracuse 88 Oakland 71