Syracuse basketball forwards Alan Griffin and Quincy Guerrier are among the top scorers on the team, but head coach Jim Boeheim wasn’t thrilled with the performances of either player after the Orange got crushed by Duke on the road in Durham, N.C., on Monday evening.
In the ‘Cuse 85-71 setback to the Blue Devils, Griffin, a junior, collected 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field, and he also grabbed eight rebounds, per statistics on ESPN.com.
Guerrier, a sophomore, struggled. He had seven points and eight boards, but Guerrier only connected on 3-of-11 shooting from the field.
Boeheim, in his post-game Zoom call with media members after the deflating loss to Duke on the road, said that Griffin, for two contests in a row, is doing these “one-dribble pull-ups” for which the head coach doesn’t seem fond.
For Guerrier, according to Boeheim, the talented sophomore forward has to improve his finishing around the rim. As an example, per ESPN.com, Guerrier tallied a strong six offensive rebounds, but yet he only managed a total of seven points.
In all fairness, though, the Blue Devils’ 7-foot-0 freshman center, Mark Williams, imposed his physicality on Guerrier and totally disrupted the Syracuse basketball player in the interior, Boeheim said.
Syracuse basketball boss Jim Boeheim lays into Alan Griffin, Quincy Guerrier.
As much as Boeheim had some things to say about the offensive outputs of Griffin and Guerrier, what seemed to irritate the head coach even more was their play in the 2-3 zone.
The Orange (13-7, 7-6), as a collective unit, has had an up-and-down stanza on defense, but Boeheim definitely pointed to Griffin and Guerrier as needing to improve on that end of the court.
While some of the issues in the zone are due to the guards, “Our forwards are not playing defense,” Boeheim said, adding that the forwards are not covering and not coming up.
Boeheim said that Griffin and Guerrier are focused more on scoring, and they need to get better on defense. The ‘Cuse needs those two forwards to play well to succeed against excellent groups such as Duke, Boeheim said.
Regarding the woeful defensive performance put forth by the forwards, and really the team as a whole in recent games, Boeheim said, “There’s no excuse.”