Syracuse Basketball: 5 Early Adjustments Orange Should Consider

After Tuesday night’s 68-65 loss to the No. 17 Michigan Wolverines, the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team finds itself going back to the drawing board.

Since a Nov. 21 loss to Cal in the 2K Classic semifinals, Syracuse (5-2) found a way to bounce back and take out a respectable Iowa squad and seemed to fine tune its defense against a couple inferior opponents in Loyola-Maryland and Holy Cross.

The Orange looked confident on the road in Ann Arbor and took a two-point lead at the half, but 19 turnovers and poor rebounding allowed Michigan to improve to 6-1 while Syracuse travels home to search for answers.

Syracuse is a young team, with two of its starters being freshmen Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough, and Rakeem Christmas, Trevor Cooney and Michael Gbinije being the only players on the roster who contributed meaningful minutes last season. Additionally, the absence of forward DaJuan Coleman, who is recovering from knee surgery, has placed Christmas in a bind where he can ill afford to commit fouls as he is the team’s main sources of offense.

The Orange will need to learn on the job but time is running out on the out-of-conference schedule. Saturday, Dec. 6, a decent St. John’s team will visit the Carrier Dome and two weeks later, on Dec. 20, Syracuse will travel to Philly to face No. 10 Villanova. Those are the only respectable games left before the ACC schedule starts on Jan. 3, at Virginia Tech.

If the Orange want to clean up their act, they’ll have to take care of business against the Johnnies at home and spend the next two weeks studying Villanova tape. Without those two games, the Orange could have a very tough time avoiding the NIT.

All is not bad for Syracuse. The Orange showed signs of life with a run to tie the game with a minute left against Michigan after trailing by 10 with 7:00 left on the clock. Cooney came alive in the second half with a handful of three-pointers, McCullough grabbed some key rebounds and Gbinije was a spark off the bench, a la Dion Waiters.

This Syracuse team is good at a lot of things but not great at anything. With a few adjustments, the Orange can speed up the clock and improve ahead of schedule.

Here are five of those adjustments.

Clean Up the Turnovers

Duane Burleson/Getty Images

Turnovers sank the Orange against Michigan.

Going onto the game against Michigan, Syracuse averaged 12 turnovers per game. Last season, the Orange gave the ball away only nine times per game the whole season.

On Tuesday night, Syracuse coughed it up 19 times, including three in the final minute with Syracuse down one point.

It’s not as easy as just saying don’t turn it over so much.

At fault were poor skip passes, balls being forced inside, poor dribbling and passes to players either not ready for a pass or unaware the ball was coming.

These are fundamental problems and can be cleaned up in practice but good habits aren’t fixed overnight. For the Orange’s sake, these fundamental flaws will have to be fixed sooner rather than later.

Get Tougher on the Boards

Duane Burleson/Getty Images

Against Michigan, Syracuse won the overall rebound battle 36-31 but a deeper look shows a problem.

Syracuse allowed Michigan 17 offensive rebounds and only grabbed 26 of the Wolverines’ misses. Conversely, Michigan out-rebounded Syracuse 14-10 on the Orange end of the floor.

Christmas, McCullough and B.J. Johnson are all good rebounders but they cannot allow teams to control their own offensive glass. One of the biggest strengths of the 2-3 zone is its ability to force poor shots. Allowing teams to reset and continue to attack the zone tires the defense and diminishes its effectiveness.

Some of the rebound imbalance comes from the positioning of the zone but toughness is also a factor. This is not to say the Orange aren’t tough. It’s just to say there’s always room to get tougher.

Let Cooney Fire Away

Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

In the two games prior to the Michigan game, Trevor Cooney made only one of his nine three-point attempts.

In the second half against Michigan, Cooney connected four times from outside and kept the Orange in the game.

It’s been a rocky road with Cooney, who proved last season he has the chops to be one of the best three-point shooters in the country and also showed he can go terribly cold.

Syracuse will get the majority of its offense from the blocks but without Cooney hitting from the outside, those blocks will be awfully crowded. Christmas and McCullough will control the paint but this team’s only true threat from three is Cooney. His play will be the difference in winning and losing.

As long as Cooney can keep the defense honest, the lanes will be free to roam. The only way to do that is let Cooney fire away and hope for the best. That is, until someone else steps up and proves his mettle.

Back to the Basket

USA TODAY Sports

While Rakeem Christmas and Chris McCullough combined for 25 points against Michigan with a few nifty moves to the basket and some athletic putbacks, their total could have been higher and more effective.

McCullough was mostly absent from the offensive game until the second half and Christmas often found himself playing 10 feet from the basket, rather than on the inside where he could do damage and generate fouls.

Part of this had to do with Kaleb Joseph’s inexperience. He seemed to struggle getting himself in a position to deliver the ball effectively to the blocks. Part of it had to do with good old-fashioned boxing out.

Aggression does not seem to be a problem, especially for Christmas, who was reluctant in past seasons to be a major part of the offense. Now that this is his team, he has been a huge asset and goes strong to the basket at will. With his and McCullough’s tremendous size, seeing both of them get the ball on the blocks will be a welcome change to the brand of Syracuse ball to which Orange fans have grown accustomed.

Get Gbinije More Involved

Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Michael Gbinije scored in double figures for the second time this season. Interestingly, however, both games were Syracuse losses.

Gbinije spent last season as the utility understudy. He filled in for Tyler Ennis when needed at point guard. He filled in for Trevor Cooney as the shooting guard. He also played forward whenever anyone else needed a breather.

He could do a little of everything and showed signs of brilliance, which makes it perplexing why he hasn’t blossomed yet this year. He’s averaging two steals per game and plays great defense, but that isn’t carrying over to his offense as he’s only made two of his 20 three-point attempts.

Perhaps his 10-point performance against Michigan will be a catalyst to his season. He was a step quicker than everyone on the court and could be the slasher the Orange have missed since C.J. Fair’s graduation.