Syracuse Basketball: What's Next for Orange After Losing Chris McCullough?

Don't look now, but the Syracuse basketball team is tied for the lead in the ACC four games into the conference slate. The Orange (13-4, 4-0 ACC) are knotted with Virginia atop the ACC after beating Wake Forest 86-83 in overtime Tuesday night.

Rakeem Christmas again shouldered the scoring load for the Orange, dropping 35 points (a career high) and playing the entire 45 minutes. Trevor Cooney chipped in 21 points and hit five threes for Syracuse while also going the distance in the game.

Tuesday's win was Syracuse's first game without freshman Chris McCullough, who will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL he suffered against Florida State, per ESPN.com. The Orange were able to win without McCullough this time, but there were times when Syracuse missed its freshman big man. 

To start with, Wake Forest forward Konstantinos Mitoglou had the game of his life and scored 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting off the bench. Mitoglou routinely found himself open on the baseline and connected on a number of jumpers from the wing, including four of the seven threes the 6'10" freshman attempted.

Did we mention Mitoglou averages 7.6 points per game? If McCullough were on the floor, he might have been able to slow down Mitoglou a little. As we mentioned, Mitoglou lived on the baseline, so McCullough would have often been the one challenging the shots.

McCullough is longer than both Michael Gbinije and Tyler Roberson, so Mitoglou may have found it more difficult to get good looks with McCullough flying out at him. Expect other teams' shooters to get looks on the baseline over the smaller defenders Syracuse has on the wing.

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In addition, McCullough's loss depletes an already-thin rotation at center for Jim Boeheim. Without McCullough, it's unlikely Christmas will sit unless he gets into early foul trouble. The Orange already couldn't afford to have Christmas (their leading scorer) sit for any extended stretch. Now the only depth the Orange have at center is Chinonso Obokoh, who is essentially a freshman after sitting out last season.

The Orange will also miss McCullough on the offensive end. He was averaging 9.3 points per game on the year, and without him, what is now essentially the team's "Big Three" has to show up every game. If one of Christmas, Cooney or Gbinije struggles, the Orange will have a difficult time scoring enough to win.

Tuesday's game provided a perfect example of this conundrum. Christmas and Cooney had it going for most of the game, but Gbinije had an off night shooting the ball. He ended up with 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, but he made only five of the 12 shots he took.

This allowed the Demon Deacons to stay in the game. Roberson looked lost every time he caught the ball on offense, passing up several open jumpers along the way. Even though it's a small sample size, Roberson's showing against Wake Forest doesn't give much hope he will be a threat on offense.

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

And while he couldn't be stopped Tuesday, Christmas will likely get a lot more attention down low without McCullough on the floor. Syracuse doesn't have another threat around the rim, so Christmas better get used to operating against two defenders. This could give Cooney more room on the perimeter, but Boeheim will be asking a lot from his top three scorers either way.

Losing McCullough doesn't automatically sink the season for the Orange. But the loss definitely hurts, so they will have to make the most of a relatively soft start to the ACC schedule before the competition heats up down the stretch.

Syracuse's next game is Saturday at Clemson, so we will see if the team continues to adjust and improve without one of its top players.