Syracuse (18-10, 8-7 Atlantic Coast) suffered its second straight loss after a five-game winning streak, this one to Pittsburgh (19-7, 8-6) by a score of 66-52 in the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon. The Orange was dominated on the boards and had one of its worst games from the field all season, leading to a second consecutive 14-point defeat and a presumable spot closer to the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Here’s what we learned from the game.

Why Jim Boeheim thinks his team is all of a sudden getting dominated on the glass

Before losing to Louisville on Wednesday, Syracuse had outrebounded eight of its prior 10 opponents. The early-season woes on the boards had vanished and SU was getting contributions from Tyler Roberson, Tyler Lydon and a host of others.

In the last two games, though, Syracuse has been pushed around on the glass and outrebounded by a total of 31. After Saturday’s game, Boeheim said Roberson, the team’s leading rebounder and one of the best in the country on the offensive glass, wouldn’t play a single minute if SU had someone to sub in for him.

Pittsburgh grabbed 43 rebounds to the Orange’s 23 to suck even more life out of a thin frontcourt and Boeheim’s reason for the sudden decline on the glass was cut and dry.

“Well Louisville is the best rebounding team in the league and Pittsburgh is probably the next-best rebounding team,” Boeheim said. “And the eight teams we played prior to that are not very good rebounding teams.”

Dajuan Coleman was a rare bright spot in a lackluster SU frontcourt

As the shot clock hit one second and Ryan Luther put up a last-ditch layup, Coleman soared from behind to block the shot off the backboard. It jumpstarted an attack the other way that eventually ended in a Tyler Lydon and-one.

And on a day where that and-one was one of the few bright spots Syracuse had on the interior, Coleman drew three fouls and chipped in eight points and eight rebounds in the losing effort.

He only had one foul at half and didn’t pick up his fourth until less than five minutes remained. Coleman played 23 minutes, the fourth-most all season, and led Syracuse on the glass by tying his personal season-high eight boards.

Boeheim did mention that Coleman should’ve taken three charges that instead resulted in six Pittsburgh points, but his stat line was one that stuck out on a mostly stagnant day from the field and on the glass for Syracuse.

“I thought Dajuan did some good things, his movement was better,” Boeheim said.

Tyler Roberson needs to be more effective

In his most bleak statistical game the season, the junior grabbed four rebounds and didn’t score. He only took one shot and Boeheim didn’t hold back in his criticism of the power forward who has been the most dominant player on the court in spurts this season.

“If Tyler Roberson’s going to play, he’s got to get us some points and rebounds,” Boeheim said. “They’re not guarding him, he’s dribbling sideways.

“You can’t have a junior be in the program and play all the time and when you get to your junior year not score. You can’t. We can’t win that way.”

Published on February 20, 2016 at 6:48 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman