Who is the knock-down shooter on this roster?
After the Syracuse University men's basketball team lost its conference opener on Wednesday, 64-61 against Clemson, our own Tom Goslowski raised an interesting question in a postgame video from the JMA Wireless Dome.
Who is this team's knockdown shooter? Let's dive a little deeper.
Goz, in his own words:
...now Syracuse basketball fans will remember some of the names like Gerry McNamara, Andy Rautins, James Sutherland, Buddy Boeheim. Some of the best three-point shooters in the history of the program. Well, uh, who's the shooter this year? Syracuse and Clemson both struggled, less than 35% from the field combined, no one could find that spark. Is it (Tyler) Betsey? Is it Donnie Freeman, Kaiyan Anthony? In a world where the three-point shot continues to change college basketball and the NBA, if you've got to kick it outside, who's the shooter? Naithan George? Nate Kingz? Syracuse still struggling to find that knockdown shooter. Where are the days of Trevor Cooney?..."
Why he's right
Through 14 games (9-5), Syracuse is shooting just 30.9 percent as a team from three-point range. As of this posting, that's 303rd in the country (out of 365 teams).
When you combine that low percentage with Syracuse's 364th-out-365 free-throw shooting percentage, it's easy to see why the offense struggles for prolonged stretches. While Syracuse has players that can get to the rim, they lack someone who can really dial it up from distance.
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Looking further
Think about a few different scenarios for the Orange:
Big men William Kyle III and Donnie Freeman are excellent players for this team. Both are 6'9, and Kyle especially, likes to hang around the rim. If teams don't trust Syracuse from the outside, they will just hang back and clog the lane. That makes it harder for those players to attack the offensive glass and makes it harder for guards to penetrate if there's nowhere really to maneuver.
The hope is that with Freeman back, teams will respect him enough to have to guard him on the perimeter, freeing up some room in the paint, but guys still have to be able to hit their free-throws if they're fouled, and guys have to be able to hit shots once a guard drives and dishes.
Other questions
Tyler Betsey has the ability to get hot from deep, but he's a sophomore and head coach Adrian Autry has clearly prioritized his veterans in big moments. Betsey and Anthony both played fewer than 16 minutes in the loss against Clemson. Is Autry willing to sacrifice some minutes for upperclassmen like Kingz in order to get Betsey and Anthony's scoring on the floor more?
Up next
Syracuse will travel to Atlanta on Jan. 6 to take on Georgia Tech. George and Ibrahim Suoare both played at GT before SU.
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