The much anticipated season of American Gladiators (known in some circles as Big East conference play) began earnestly this week.
Did it ever, as the Georgetown Hoyas, behind super frosh Greg Monroe, marched into Connecticut and promptly hammered the previously undefeated Huskies.
The Hoyas’ reward for knocking off the No. 2 team in the nation was being clawed at home yesterday at the hands of manchild DeJuan Blair and the Pittsburgh Panthers.
Welcome to the Big East.
Prior to the season, the conventional wisdom was that the muscle of the league would have spent most of the conference portion of their schedules trading haymakers.
The teams riding the caboose of the conference, such as St. Johns and South Florida, were expected to be layups.
Think again.
Notre Dame found out the hard way on Saturday when they lost to the Johnnies, and Syracuse almost learned the same lesson Friday night when they were taken to the wire at South Florida.
So even though the Orange boarded their flight back to New York with an ugly 59-54 win in tow, what made this victory so difficult?
First of all, injuries did play a part.
Paul Harris sat out of the game after injuring his finger in the Big East opener this week vs. Seton Hall and Eric Devendorf hurt his hip very early in the game after colliding with South Florida’s Mobolaji Ajayi.
This isn’t to make an excuse for the team, but when one of their best players doesn’t play and another is hampered almost from the opening tip, they’re going to struggle some.
Injuries aside, there were several other areas in which Syracuse has shown a disturbing season long trend.
The Orange, averaging 16 turnovers per game this season, coughed it up 15 times to the Bulls. They simply must take better care of the ball. Give a team like Pittsburgh or UConn all those extra possessions, and Syracuse will be hard-pressed to win the game.
Another way they can make life easier on themselves is to hit their free throws.
For the season, Syracuse is making only 64.6 percent from the line. The shots from the stripe have been anything but charity.
In their defense though, that statistic is a bit misleading due to the performance of two players.
8 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment
Ryan Callahan 6 months ago
good article. I just think Syracuse should just take the win and forget about this one. not having Paul Harris really hurt them but this should serve as a reminder to the orange that they cannot take any team in the big beast lightly.
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Steve Auger 6 months ago
I totally agree. A sloppy win but since it was a road game and they were w/o Harris and had a gimpy Devo, just chalk it up as a W and prepare for DePaul.
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Jordan Schwartz 6 months ago
Good article, Steve. You're right, Syracuse's free throw percentage isn't that terrible outside of Onuaku but you can't discount his 42% at the stripe because he's the one getting to the line the most. They can't afford to lose those free points in close games against Georgetown, Pitt and UConn. If I was coaching against SU, I'd have my big men foul Onuaku every time he went up for a shot. Arinze needs to work on his stroke from the line.
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Steve Auger 6 months ago
Thanks Jordan.
I really see turnovers and free throw shooting as being downfalls for this team. Although the free throw shooting #s really are because of AO & KJ. You're right that AO needs to get better because he's taken the 3rd most on the team (Flynn & Harris are 1 & 2).
Throughout the years, SU has always been labeled a poor free throw shooting team and stereotypes die hard. I don't think 71% is that bad for a team once you take out AO and KJ, yet the national media has been hammering them this year as if they're all a bunch of brick layers. Whatever.
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Jordan Schwartz 6 months ago
You can't take Onuaku and Joseph out when looking at the free throw stats. Those are two parts of the team and Onuaku is a huge part. Ongenaet is 50% at the line too and Rautins, a great three point shooter, is just 67% at the line. Onuaku was 1-9 from the line against USF. That's just ridiculous. Flynn was 1-3 also. They need to get better at the stripe and need to turn the ball over less like you said as well.
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Steve Auger 6 months ago
I understand you can't take them out. But for perspectives sake, my only point was to show that since AO and KJ shoot it so poorly that they make a 5% differential in the overall team %. How many teams have two regulars who shoot under 50%? (I have no idea). So my overall point is that since the two of them shoot it so exceptionally badly, the perception of the team is skewed because of them.
Ideally at the end of games, the ball will be in the hands of Flynn, Devo, and Harris. Flynn & harris both shoot 72% and Devo is at 81%
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Jameson Fleming 6 months ago
I said this in my roundtable response...Paul Harris plays this game and its a 20 point game. With Harris in the game, the ball would have been pushed up court more often which would have translated to easier baskets for Syracuse. Plus he can make a layup unlike Kristof. I don't take much away from this game. It's a road win in the Big East. Ask Notre Dame how hard it is to win on the road against the lesser teams.
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Steve Auger 6 months ago
You're right. Honestly, I was just looking to write another piece (harness the craft, you know?) and since I took notes on the game, I figured I'd crank something out. Plus, I just wanted an excuse to continue to write about Andy's hot streak from 3.
That loss to StJU is going to come back to bite ND.
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