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On Sunday, Syracuse beat St. John’s 68-63 in Madison Square Garden. Tyler Ennis thrived in the victory, and CJ Fair provided scoring and veteran leadership down the stretch. The Fizz takes a look at the five keys to yesterday’s win.
1.   Tyler Ennis
It cannot be overstated how important Tyler Ennis is to the Syracuse Orange. He may not be the most talented freshman in the country, but he is probably the most important freshman to his team. Simply put, the Orange go as Tyler Ennis goes. Yesterday’s game showed that perfectly, Ennis had a great first half and the Orange had a 12-point halftime lead. Ennis began to struggle in the second half, and so did the Orange. When the Orange started to pull away in the last four minutes, Ennis played better setting the floor for the Syracuse offense and getting to the free throw line. Ennis finished with 21 points, six assists, and most importantly, just two turnovers.
2.    CJ Fair
Fair came up big for the Orange all game and he was the go-to scorer for Jim Boeheim following the under-four minute timeout. After the game, Fair told the Fizz that Boeheim didn’t specifically tell him he needed to be the scorer, but he did draw up the plays that would get him shots. Fair dropped 21 points and as a senior, he stepped up and made plays when the Orange needed it most: tied with under four minutes to go in the game.
3.    Points in the Paint
The Syracuse big men still struggled. Rakeem Christmas tallied eight points, Baye Keita had none, and DaJuan Coleman scored four points. Coleman played just 10 minutes all game, but was able to grab four rebounds to go along with his four points. After the game Boeheim said the team needed more of an inside presence, so why did Coleman only play 10 minutes? DaJuan was successful in his time on the court, making his only two shots, but then was taken out 1:47 into the second half. Thanks so Ennis, Fair and Jerami Grant, the Orange put up points in the paint, but Boeheim needs the bigs to step up and score in the post.
4.    Syracuse Needs to Adjust to Fouls
A lot of questionable and borderline fouls were called in yesterday’s game. The Orange kept its composure, and played through the refs. Many times soft contact fouls were called and they were called late once the refs saw whether the shot went in or not. The Orange did a good job not overreacting to the calls, like St. John’s coach Steve Lavin did at times, and kept playing its game. Good teams can work around calls made by the referees, but the new emphasis on contact is something Syracuse still needs to adjust to.
5.    That is a Game Good Teams Win
Madison Square Garden may have felt like a home game in the past, but yesterday the ratio of Syracuse to the St. John’s fans was closer to equal. Even though Syracuse fans still likely out numbered St. John’s fans, the Red Storm students were loud especially when the St. John’s made a run in the second half. The Red Storm is a good team with high-level talent. And the Orange had a tough task in the second half to overcome the Red Storm talent and the loud environment to get the win and head back to Syracuse undefeated.
All in all, big win for the Orange, who got nothing from Trevor Cooney or the big men down low and overcame a big Red Storm push to move to 10-0 and remain a top-three team in the country.
Posted by: Seth Goldberg
8 responses to “Fizz Five: Key Takeaways from Syracuse’s NYC Win Over St. John’s”
I really don’t know what you what you’re looking for out of Christmas. How did he struggle? He made all 3 of his field goals on some sweet moves,both of his free throws, two huge blocks down low. We don’t need Bill Walton down low but somehow people think we struggle if we don’t get Walton numbers.
I thought his offensive game would have improved more than it has so far. He is still a little passive around the run, not assertive, and doesn’t take contact especially well. Yes, he made his 3 shots, but should he be able to get off more than 3 shots? There are enough opportunities where he has been stripped or doesn’t catch the ball that I don’t think it is unrealistic to expect more than 3 shot attempts from the starting center and a 3rd year player at this point.
I have to agree. I would rather see RAK defend and rebound more then score 15 a game. If we could get 20-10 out of all 3 of our big men that would be great. JB is right though Seth they need to get the ball into their bigs on the low box. I don’t know how many time DC or RAK sealed their man on the box and didn’t get the ball Sunday vs ST. Johns but it was a lot. We also really don’t need them to put up a ton of shots bc we have Cooney, Grant, Ennis an Fair, so shots are going to be limited. That all said it would be awesome if JB would teach out players how to properly throw a entry pass bc no1 on the team can do it.
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