Before every game, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman writes a list of goals for his team on the chalkboard in the locker room.

Forty percent from the field. Twenty offensive rebounds. No one-and-ones.

The last is most important.

Fewer than 12 turnovers for the whole game.

“It’s huge, because if you don’t get shots, if you don’t get possessions, then you can’t score,” Hillsman said. “Our goal at the beginning of the year, our motto was, ‘Get a shot every time.’”

Although Syracuse has committed 14.3 turnovers per game this season, it’s averaged just 8.5 over the last four games. While protecting the ball has been a problem for the Orange for long stretches this season, that has subsided at the right time.

Syracuse (21-8, 10-6 Atlantic Coast) will need to continue the trend when it begins the ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C., this weekend. SU plays its first game Thursday at 11 a.m. against Clemson (13-18, 4-12), and needs to win four games in four days to win the conference championship.

“We don’t really think, ‘Oh we can’t turn the ball over.’ It’s more of a habit of, ‘We can’t give the ball to this team,’” sophomore guard Brittney Sykes said. “We realize that those turnovers are unnecessary and they can lose us games, and right now you don’t want to lose games.”

Before the Orange went on this clean stretch of play, giving up extra possessions was a huge problem.

It averaged 19.2 turnovers in a five-game stretch, culminating in a 24-turnover performance against No. 2 Notre Dame on Feb. 9 in which SU lost by 37.

Sykes said Syracuse was turning the ball over without too much pressure from the defense, which made it change up its approach.

“We were turning the ball over on top of them turning us over,” Sykes said. “You can control your team, the other team can’t. You can control where the ball goes, where to pass it to.”

One root of the turnover struggles was that Syracuse likes to play a fast-paced game and get out in transition. It’s been a theme for the Orange all season. But while fast-paced play often leads to sloppy play, the Orange showed flashes of brilliance.

Against Clemson on Jan. 23, an 18-0 run powered a second-half comeback. Three days later, it was another 18-0 run that turned a seven-point deficit into an 11-point lead against Virginia.

Those runs are what Sykes calls “fast and clean” basketball, and it’s something Syracuse has done a lot of in the past two weeks — scoring, pressing and not giving the ball up.

“Some people may look at you and think, ‘What do you mean fast and clean?” Sykes said. “ You can play fast, but you still have to think and know, ‘OK, if the ball’s going here, who’s open?’ You’ve got to think fast and you have to think clean basketball.

“If we keep doing that, it’s easy money for us.”

Senior point guard Rachel Coffey said the key for Syracuse, whether it’s playing fast or not, is to remain patient, something that she believes her team has done a good job of recently.

“We just know we have to play our game,” Coffey said. “We can’t force things. When we force things, that’s when we get out of our game.”

Hillsman said there’s no reason for his team to force things, and no reason that his team can’t run and play clean basketball.

He’s seen it all season. And with the stretch run of one of the best seasons in Hillsman’s tenure coming up, he still only emphasizes one goal when his team takes the court.

“Get down the court,” Hillsman said. “And get a shot every possession. It’s not a big coaching strategy. It’s just about emphasizing what you want.”

Published on March 6, 2014 at 12:00 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3