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Yes, the Orange has now lost four out of five games. Yes, losing to BC and GT at home are bad losses. But no, that doesn’t mean the season is over. Losing to Duke in Cameron by six is not bad, especially considering the game was even closer than the final score. Virginia is a bad loss, but really only because the Cavaliers couldn’t miss a shot in the final 15 minutes of the game. And this stretch is drawing comparisons to some struggles that the Orange encountered last season.
Last year, the Orange struggled around the same time. In February, the Orange dropped four out of five, including two ugly games against Georgetown and a blowout against Louisville.  In fact, as The Fizz examined earlier in the week, those statistics are quite similar to this year’s slide. And just look at what SU did after that awful stretch. Boeheim had the Orange ten minutes from a Big East Championship and made a run all the way to the Final Four. You could argue that the losses last year were a good thing for the Orange and fueled the run that followed.
Of course, this year isn’t last year. Gone are MCW, Triche and Southerland. But enter Tyler Ennis and Michael Gbinije, who have both been valuable assets to the team. Ennis of course is the standout freshman floor general and Gbinije brings versatility and the ability to play three or four positions off the bench. In fact, Boeheim even said after the Virginia game that Roberson would start for injured Jerami Grant because he didn’t want to lose Gbinije’s versatility off the bench. This team has its strengths and weaknesses and differences from last year.
Part of the problem this year of course has been finding another source of consistent scoring to go along with CJ Fair. It hasn’t been Trevor Cooney, or Rakeem Christmas, and Gbinije simply isn’t that kind of player off the bench. Bottom line, there is no Southerland on this team that will step off the bench and put 15-20 points on the stat sheet. Another difference from last year has been on defense. While the Orange has played well, the team is worse in every major defensive category than it was last year, including opponent’s points per game, field-goal percentage, three-point percentage, steals and blocks. This is simply a different team.
Another difference is the injuries. It started with DaJuan Coleman going down for the season in late January. Yes, Coleman has largely been a disappointment since stepping on campus last year, but he was a big body who could defend down low. Then add Keita’s injury on top of that. Keita has simply not looked the same since he missed the NC State game with a leg injury.  Against Virginia, it looked like Keita, usually solid on defense and the boards, could do nothing right in any aspect of the game. And now add in Grant. All of a sudden, Boeheim is forced to play Roberson, who Boeheim said had “nothing to contribute” to the Orange after the loss to Georgia Tech.
So yes, maybe the Orange lost four out of five this year. And it lost four out of five last year. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the outcome will be the same. There is still some time for the Orange to turn it around again. Both teams fell and now the Orange once again need to use the conference tournament to build momentum, and only time will tell if Boeheim has an encore run up his sleeve.
Posted by: Seth Goldberg
94 responses to “Can Syracuse Recapture the Magic of Last Year’s Final Four Run?”
They need JG back. Period. End of story. If JG comes back in the tournament healthy, all will be fine. If he can only play 10-15 min, then we are in trouble sine we don’t have coleman. IMHO, the coleman thing is the hardest hit. If he was healthy, we could just move Rak to the wing and be fine, but we have to use him in cnter because BMK has a bad knee.
Healthy centers are a big thing seeing that thats how we lost to GT
This year’s team is different…
CJ wasn’t the #1 option alone//Southerland, MCW, TRiche could score. MCW was more dominant than Ennis at the point..top 15 NBA pick(?)6’5″ tough to shoot over at the top of the zone. Deflections and steals– last year’s team looked to run. This year not so much.
2 things to consider…
1) Is there a dominant team this year? Michigan last year had NAMES and that freshman center went nuts in the tournament. Louisville had a great backcourt and athletes all over..they spotted us about 15 points and then blew us out on the BE tournament…
I just don’t see a team with no weakness..Florida maybe.
2)Which leads me to point 2. What if Grant’s back clears up over the next 10 days and gives him no problem? What if “Terry” Cooney remembers how to shoot the 3? And as a bonus, Roberson can give us 6 good minutes a game off the bench?
6 weeks ago that was a #1 team…we were the best team in the nation. I know it’s pulling an inside straight but there is no concrete reason-today- it absolutely cannot happen.
I think when we look back at this year we will reailize that JB and staff did an amazing job coaching this year. Our tremendous start and finsihes early masked some inherent problems with this team. Mainly, with the exception of Fair, we don’t have anyone that can create their own shot consistently. I have seen more offensive sets this year than in years past just to get guys open. If you watch underneath, watch how many screens Cooney and Fair run through just to get open. Teams are pressuring us so that they guys have to run ragged just to get the ball. As games have gone on, the pick and roll on the point has been further and further from the basket allowing teams to help and recover. Teams are now daring us to shoot from deep and we are not being successful. Unless we can get more simple shots our tourney run could be short.
what happened to Cooney after they played at BC, he looked tremendous. he was dunking off the steals, making the 3, now he looks like last year. must be driving the coaches crazy
Sorry, tired of these comparisons. I know you have to report it and this story is well written, not your fault. Fans need to stop this nonsense. This team does not have the ability to speed teams up like the team last year. Run outs just don’t happen like they did last year, thus close grind it out games which destroy a teams mentality. This zone is not the same as last year, period. Carter Williams was a difference maker. Ennis is great but a totally different player. Grant is being discussed as this huge amazing piece of the puzzle. Guy cannot make a shot outside 5 feet. Most of his offensive output is from Put-backs. That will only take this team so far. There are big, physical teams waiting to just pack it in and make this team shoot. Tourney run will be short…….it was a nice season but it is what it is. Glad Keita is leaving……Coleman better get healthy as @ least he can provide offense.
I dunno Bunche, Fabry drew him pretty ripepd in all the Preacher covers. He looked more ‘normal’ when Dillon drew him alright though.’Jackie’, since when have you been drawing comics? Oh, and you just want the blog sketchy so you don’t have to go to any actual effort!Dec.
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