Georgetown vs. Syracuse Basketball: 4 Observations After Orange Defeat Hoyas

The No. 2 Syracuse Orange eked by the No. 11 Georgetown Hoyas in overtime on Wednesday night, 64-61.

The Orange (24-1, 11-1 Big East) were paced by 29 points from senior forward Kris Joseph, whose three-point basket in the closing seconds of the extra period sealed the Hoyas' fate.

With Syracuse’s departure from the Big East to the ACC looming, this game was billed as the possible last meeting at the Carrier Dome of the two schools which have shared a mutual hatred of one another for over 30 years.

Syracuse played with calm and effectively used both the three-point and free-throw lines to keep the game close throughout. The win gave coach Jim Boeheim win No. 880, which puts him in sole possession of third on the all-time list of victories in Division I, breaking the tie with North Carolina’s Dean Smith.

Only Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski are ahead of the Syracuse stalwart.

The Hoyas (18-5, 8-4) played a strong zone against Syracuse and obviously knew how to position themselves inside the Orange zone through good positioning and ball movement, which included inside-out passing and overloading the sides.

Georgetown failed to capitalize on its superior rebounding effort by attempting to shoot over the defensive zone but only managed to hit 5-of-21 shots from beyond the arc, a recipe for disaster against Syracuse.

This was going to be an ugly game. Syracuse and Georgetown are two of the top defensive teams in the country and showcased good ol’ fashioned, hard-fought, physical Big East basketball.

Here are some of the prevalent impressions that should be taken away from this game.

Fab Melo Owns the Paint

Fab Melo 2.0 has been nothing short of a miracle for the Orange.

A quick comparison of his numbers from last year to this year tells the story of a boy who wants to be a man.

His rebounding average, only 5.5 per game, does not tell a true tale of his worth, though.

Melo scored 11 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked an amazing six shots. His presence alone forced the Hoyas to move the ball outside, but a deeper look into his numbers tells why.

Georgetown took a total of 63 shots and only made 21. Subtracting the 5-of-21 three-point shooting, the Hoyas went 16-of-42. This means that Melo blocked one out of every seven shots taken by the entire team inside the arc. The Orange as a team blocked 11 shots, which means that, incredibly, one out every 3.8 shots taken from inside the three-point line was swatted by the Syracuse block party.

I’ll write it another way:

Fab Melo blocked more than a quarter of the amount of total shots made by Georgetown.

That’s dominance.

Kris Joseph Can Lead the Team When Needed

Kris Joseph made big shot after big shot, but none were as big as the three at the end of overtime to seal the game.

The line on Joseph: 9-of-20 field goals, 6-of-11 three-pointers, 5-of-6 free throws, five rebounds and three steals.

The most telling stat was that Joseph played all 45 minutes of the game and overtime.

Not quite Jonny Flynn numbers against UConn in the Big East Tournament, but this is the first time this season that a player played an entire game for the Orange.

Many writers, including myself, have given Joseph criticism for not stepping up and taking control of this team.

He deserves credit for displaying leadership and he sent the word out that his 13.7 points per game did not mean that he is not capable of torching a team.

Lighting up a team with the defensive proficiency of Georgetown made it all the sweeter for the senior whose final two schools when he was being recruited were Syracuse and Georgetown.

Hoya fans should be sad at not having his talent.

Rebounding Needs to Improve, but It's Not the End of the World

Syracuse was out-rebounded by Georgetown 48-30.

On the surface, this looks terrible, and for those who only look at stats to break down a game, it looks glum.

The word is already out: Syracuse can’t win the tournament because it can’t rebound.

Syracuse was lucky to win because it got killed on the glass.

Etc., etc., etc.

Blah, blah, blah.

This wasn’t the best rebounding effort for Syracuse, which averages only 35.8 rebounds per game.

Georgetown averages the exact same number, but this is a conference game against the Orange's biggest rival. The only stats that matter in games of this magnitude are wins and losses.

Something must be remembered when looking at the rebounding figures: Georgetown missed 16 three-point shots. These are long rebounds and accounted for a good portion of the Hoyas' 20 offensive rebounds.

Another thing to consider is that Syracuse leads the nation in forced turnovers and managed another 14 against Georgetown to go with 11 blocks.

Rebounding is important, but there are other ways of getting the ball, which Syracuse has shown a proclivity for accomplishing.

Depth Isn't Always the Key

It’s no revelation that Syracuse is a deep team, perhaps the deepest team in the country.

I’ve dubbed them the Fab-10, but it hasn’t caught on yet…I’m still hoping.

In a normal game, all 10 of the Orange regulars will play between 15 and 25 minutes in a game, depending on foul trouble and who has the hot hand.

Against Georgetown, only six players logged more than five minutes.

Kris Joseph had 45, Fab Melo had 39, Scoop Jardine had 32, Brandon Triche had 21, C.J. Fair had 38 and Dion Waiters had 35.

In the postgame press conference, Jim Boeheim expressed some deep frustration with this team for not listening.

Perhaps this exclusivity of minutes was a message to the team that the team may be deep but it doesn’t have to be, and Boeheim has made a career out of teams only going six or seven deep.

With the NCAA tournament only a month away, Syracuse players showed that they can play extended minutes without tiring or losing focus.

This has to be at least one plus for the exasperated coach.