CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson’s bigs had tired Syracuse out. Buddy Boeheim tried to offer an explanation for a negative-15 rebound differential for SU in Saturday’s second half. The Tigers having “a lot to play for” and “a lot of fire” were further attempts Buddy offered.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim has said repeatedly that the Orange (19-12, 10-8 Atlantic Coast) aren’t a good rebounding team. And in Clemson’s (19-12, 9-9) comeback win Saturday, the Tigers outrebounded SU 45-30. Despite being the nation’s tallest team, per KenPom.com, for the fifth-straight game, and ninth of the last 10, the Orange were outdone on the glass.

“Rebounding was really the story of the game,” Boeheim said.

The Orange’s rebounding issues have festered. As far back as Dec. 15, when Syracuse was upset by Old Dominion, Boeheim pointed out that SU doesn’t box out in a traditional way because of the 2-3 zone.

When a shot goes up, Syracuse’s players often just face and move toward the basket. It’s what Boeheim wants, to an extent, because sometimes there simply isn’t a body in a defender’s area. But even moving toward the basket was a problem at times against Clemson.

Tigers’ guard Marcquise Reed, 6-foot-3, twice slid inside the guards of SU’s zone to snatch long rebounds on the offensive glass. The guards hadn’t shifted down or found a body. Clemson center Elijah Thomas snatched six offensive rebounds and 11 total. Oshae Brissett called himself out for hanging out near the 3-point line occasionally instead of always boxing out.

“We can’t just get complacent with what we did in the first half,” Brissett said. “We’ve gotta keep attacking, and that starts on the defensive end with rebounds.”

The first time Syracuse played Clemson, Marek Dolezaj was still in his stint as SU’s starting center. Thomas outweighed him by 65 pounds, but it didn’t matter as Dolezaj used his mental-acuity to make up for the physical mismatch. The Orange only lost the rebound battle by one board, and won that game on Jan. 9.

But on Saturday, it didn’t matter who SU tried inside against Thomas, Aamir Simms and Javan White. Boeheim used what he called the Orange’s bigger lineup — a backline of Dolezaj, Brissett and either Paschal Chukwu or Bourama Sidibe in at center — at times throughout the game. And they allowed the Tigers to reach 18 offensive rebounds while only securing six on the other end.

“It’s hard when you’re playing a team like that with two big, very skilled guys down there to keep them contained,” Buddy said. “So it’s something we’ve all gotta do is help out down there.”

The 2-3 zone’s rotations make being a consistent rebounding team difficult. Centers closing out on corner shooters, or the two backline forwards pressing up on wing shooters, prevent the classic box-out position that a man-to-man defense would allow. It’s a reality Syracuse has known all season it had to live with.

But the Orange also rotate three 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6 players at the top of their zone. Chukwu is the tallest player in SU history at 7-foot-2, and the other frontcourt players mostly measure 6-foot-8 or taller. The numbers show that Syracuse hasn’t and won’t play a game as the shorter team throughout this season. The glass struggles, based on bracketologists’ projections, won’t keep SU out of the NCAA Tournament. But with the regular season’s close Saturday, they’ll need some resolution.

“Tonight we didn’t want to rebound anything and we had it close a couple times in the second half and we had the ball, we had the ball and we couldn’t get it,” Boeheim said. “I think that was a big part of it.”

Published on March 9, 2019 at 5:32 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3