Bailey: Syracuse establishes itself as Atlantic Coast Conference favorite
C.J. Fair was calm in answering questions after No. 2 Syracuse’s 49-44 win against Miami (Fla.) on Saturday.
It was a game in which the Orange offense sputtered for about 34 minutes. Its two biggest weapons, Fair and Trevor Cooney, were stifled by the Hurricanes’ 1-2-2 matchup zone. Players hung their heads. Coaches writhed in fury. Fans fell silent.
But in the final six minutes of the game, Syracuse made every play.
“It’s all about your will to win and your determination not to lose,” Fair said. “That’s the biggest thing — you don’t want to lose. When you don’t want to lose, that brings a lot of fight out in you.”
In a conference touted as arguably the most elite of all time, Syracuse (14-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) has separated itself as the premier Atlantic Coast Conference program entering league play. The Orange has built up an offense to match its formidable 2-3 zone defense. Fair is living up to his ACC Preseason Player of the Year hype. Cooney is transforming into one of the best outside shooters in the country. Tyler Ennis is bringing more poise and savvy play as a freshman point guard than most seniors. And Jerami Grant is still one of the most electrifying players in the country.
Yes, that offense has gone stagnant at times — like during SU’s 8:50 stretch without a field goal to start the second half against Miami on Saturday. But the truly elite teams find ways to win, even when they’re playing their worst basketball.
And that’s what SU did against the Hurricanes.
“We have good resolve on this team,” head coach Jim Boeheim said, “I have no doubt about that.”
While the Orange has been the better team at the end of each of its games this season, its top ACC competition — No. 7 Duke and No. 19 North Carolina — hasn’t.
Three hours after Syracuse came back to beat Miami, the Blue Devils fumbled away a 79-77 loss to a Notre Dame team just two weeks removed from losing its best player in Jerian Grant, and one week removed from escaping Canisius in overtime.
The Tar Heels have already lost to Belmont, Alabama Birmingham and Texas.
Now, that’s not to say the Orange will run the table in conference play and win its Feb. 1 and Feb. 22 matchups with Duke and its upcoming date with North Carolina this Saturday. But the team has shown a tendency to close out games strong, and that bodes well for future conference barnburners.
“We can win tough games. We’ve been doing it all year,” Grant said. “We turn up our defense and we play better than we do throughout the whole game.”
Boeheim has said multiple times that the Syracuse zone seems to tighten up toward the end of games. It held the Hurricanes to 2-of-7 shooting and forced three turnovers in the final 5:26 on Saturday.
That, combined with an offensive team effort, has allowed SU to stave off each upset bid.
Against then-No. 18 Baylor in the Maui Invitational and St. John’s at Madison Square Garden, it was Fair who lifted the Orange to victory from the right baseline. Against Indiana, it was Cooney who logged five triples and scored 12 points in the team’s decisive 25-4 second-half run. And against then-No. 8 Villanova, it was Ennis who commandeered a 20-0 scoring run that turned an early 18-point deficit into a 78-62 victory.
“The first thing we’re going to do is get stops,” Ennis said. “Then we’re going to rebound quickly and get out on the break.”
With DaJuan Coleman on the mend and Rakeem Christmas beginning to polish his post game, the Orange offense is only going to improve.
It’s unlikely Fair and Cooney will share many more off games this year, and increased practice reps against the 1-2-2 matchup should give Ennis more understanding of how to attack the defense — which SU will see again sooner or later.
For now, the Orange can’t afford to look past Virginia Tech on Tuesday. The strong play from Miami and Notre Dame on Saturday proves that while the ACC may not be the deepest in the country, even its lower-echelon members have the talent and athleticism to hang with the powerhouses.
The question is: who can hang in crunch time, consistently?
So far, only Syracuse.
Stephen Bailey is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at sebail01@syr.edu or on Twitter at @Stephen_Bailey1.
Published on January 5, 2014 at 7:04 pm
