Syracuse basketball knocked off Notre Dame 88-85 in the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the win.
1. Justin Taylor
Justin Taylor has received a lot of criticism this season, especially as he has struggled with his shot. Against Notre Dame on Saturday, he scored 10 points and was active offensively. The way Syracuse used him, cutting against bigger, slower defenders to get looks right at the rim, was a nice wrinkle we had not seen. Kudos to the coaches for that adjustment and to Taylor for taking advantage of those opportunities. Lastly, I will let head coach Adrian Autry have the final word on Taylor from his postgame press conference.
"Super excited for Justin Taylor," Autry said. "I thought our guys did a great job of finding him. I thought he came out with a mindset of being a mover and create some scoring opportunities for himself. I think we can do that a little bit more but I was happy for him. Just a guy that shows toughness. He shows up every day. As a coach, those are the guys you pull for. You pull for your team, obviously, but when you have a guy that hasn't played the best he's capable of. He didn't hold his head down. He kept working. I'll say this right now. I'll take a bullet... and I don't care what any of you guys say. I'm with these guys every day. Every day.
"These are young men that are trying to help us win. They do everything I ask them to do. When I have players like that, I don't care what you say, those are the guys I stick with and I go with. Because they show up every day. Justin Taylor's an every day guy. This game sometimes, you're going to go through not making a shot. You're going to go through some stuff, but he never quit. Always kept battling. That's what it's about. And that's what should be talked about. That's what should be talked about. Nothing else."
2. Defense
The first half defense was solid, but still allowed 50% shooting. The second half defense was far worse, allowing 56 points and 69% shooting. Syracuse forced a lot of turnovers, 17 to be exact, and scored 31 points off of them. But the Orange allowed Shrewsberry too many open looks and Burton to get into the lane with ease. It was not for lack of trying to make adjustments, as Syracuse switched between man and zone, put different defenders on Burton, etc. Nothing worked. It was disappointing to see that lapse, especially in the second half. Syracuse can be a much better defensive team than that.
3. Offense
Offensively, Syracuse had a strong game. Especially in the first half. The Orange put up 88 points, shot 53% from the floor, 44% from three point range, only turned it over seven times and had five players score in double figures. The second half was not as efficient as the first due to lack of ball movement and questionable shot selection at times. That said, Syracuse still scored 39 points in the second half which should have been good enough to prevent Notre Dame from making it interesting. Syracuse has scored over 80 points in three of the last four games. During that stretch, Chris Bell is shooting 59% from three point range. If he keeps shooting at a high clip consistently, it opens things up for everyone else.
4. Turnover Margin
In the last four games, Syracuse has won the turnover battle three times and tied it once. The Orange is taking better care of the basketball recently and continues to force opponents into mistakes. Syracuse, for the most part, has been good in both categories all season. With issues on the boards given Syracuse's lack of size and depth due to injury and defections, the Orange has to win in this category in order to be successful. If Syracuse can win the turnover margin by more than it loses on the boards, that is a recipe to be in games.
5. A Win is a Win
Syracuse needed to win this game to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive. Period. Yes the second half was ugly defensively. Yes it was almost an epic collapse from being up 29 to nearly letting Notre Dame pull it out late, but the Orange made the plays it needed to and got the win. The unfortunate part is it was looking for a while like Syracuse would get a 15+ point win or so. That would have been helpful in terms of the NET ranking. However, a win was still needed and Syracuse got that. Now the Orange has to win against Virginia Tech and Louisville in the next two to set up a road game at Clemson that could put Syracuse right in the mix with a win.
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