Tournament Thoughts: Syracuse vs. Dayton

First two shots are missed 3s by Cooney and Gbinije. Syracuse has no inside scoring, but they can't just settle for 3s. They need to drive and dish.

DaJuan Coleman can't catch a pass or make a layup. And he's often out of position defensively. The team might be better off without him next year.

The nets were too long? Who even makes extra long nets? For what purpose? And I see why that is less than optimal, but why would they have a major impact? A major distraction for shooters?

Billy wanted you all to see this:



Syracuse must make shots to win this game, or any game. They started off 1 for 9 and the 1 was a putback by Roberson. It took nearly 10 minutes to make a shot from beyond 2 feet.

Syracuse should not make this game a 3-point shooting contest because it's much easier to get open shots against this zone than Dayton's man defense.

Franklin Howard is now 1 for 16 on 3-point attempts this season.

Malachi Richardson was the best player in the first half. He kept the team in it when no one could make a shot.

Huge shot by Gbinije to give SU a 10-point lead with 15 minutes left.

Huge run of 3s to give SU a 26-5 start to the second half.

Interesting decision to leave Richardson in with 3 fouls and 16 minutes. The other option is Frank Howard who can't shoot, do I don't necessarily disagree with the decision. He ended up playing 8 more minutes before picking up his 4th, another dumb one, but he played a pick part of that huge SU run.

We entered the part of the game where Syracuse implements what I call the Jim Boeheim Memorial No Points Offense. Lots of teams do it, they try to bleed the clock, which is strategically sound, but they do it too well and end up getting bad shots. There has to be a balance between using time and still getting good shots.

Great game for Richardson, 21 points when he fouled out. Tyler Lydon was second with 14 points.

And Roberson was critical with 18 rebounds. One short of Derrick Coleman's school record for a tournament game, which game in the 1987 title game against Indiana.

Those three guys will all be back next year. Maybe there is hope for the future.

Two things I don't often get to say about Syracuse. They outrebounded their opponent by 20.
And they shot 87% from the line (20-23) while their opponent was 44% (9-19).

Huge victory to at least partially validate their inclusion to the tournament. But that's not important. What matters is beating Michigan State.

Final Score:
Syracuse 70 Dayton 51

Otto feels like break dancing