Jim Boeheim hasn’t lasted 25 years at Syracuse University, won 600 games and earned millions of dollars by failing to live up to expectations.
How often in the last quarter of a century have the Orangemen been ranked No. 1 in a preseason poll? Or in the Top 10, for that matter?
In that regard, Boeheim’s 25th edition may be quintessential. This is a classic Boeheim team. The Orangemen don’t have much size, much depth, much outside shooting and, in reality, all that much respect even though they’ve won 25 games and lost only eight.
“We were doubted at the beginning of the year,” said Allen Griffin, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, “but coach Boeheim said we’d be better than people thought and I believed him.”
Damone Brown, a 6-9 senior who leads the Orangemen in rebounding (8.9) and is second in scoring (16.8), admitted he was peeved when the preseason publications mentioned Syracuse only in passing.
“It kind of hurt,” Brown said, “but we worked hard to be the best team we could be and it’s paying off for us.”
Brown has to work hard. So does Griffin. And so do Preston Shumpert, the team’s leading scoring (19.5), and sophomore guard DeShaun Williams. All four of those Orangemen average more than 34 minutes a game. Griffin and Shumpert average more than 37 minutes. In fact, Griffin has played all 40 minutes 12 times this season.
After those four, no Orangeman is averaging more than 19 minutes or 5.7 points per game.
Boeheim has always been a zone coach, but some years he uses man-to-man as well. This year the Orangemen have been in a man defense about as often as the upstate New York school has a January without snow.
Why so much zone this year?
“I’m not going to be negative,” Boeheim said. “I’m going to be positive. We use defenses we think can win games. We lost our three best defensive players from last year, and that was my concern. Some years we’ve been 50-50 using man and zone. Other times 80-20. This year it’s about 90-10.”
The Orangemen have been outrebounded by an average of about two boards a game, and rebounding is a strength of the Kansas club Syracuse will meet today in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional at Dayton Arena.
“We’ve seen big teams this year Georgetown is really big,” Boeheim said, “and rebounding is always a problem. Kansas will probably have an edge, but we have to keep it as close as we can.”
A quick look at Syracuse’s season stats shows this is a team that will go only as far as its aggressive 2-3 zone defense takes it. The Orangemen have more than a hundred more steals than their foes and they’re holding opponents to a 40.5 shooting percentage.
Offensively, the Orangemen are challenged everywhere except the free-throw line, where they shoot a glossy 71.8 percent. From the field, they’re shooting just 44.1 percent 34.3 percent from three-point range.
Griffin leads the Orangemen in assists and steals, but he shoots under 40 percent from the floor and an embarrassing 26 percent from beyond the arc.
Backcourt mate Williams is even worse a 36.8 percent shooter from the field.
That only shows how heavily the Orangemen rely on Brown, who hails from Buffalo, N.Y., and Shumpert, a Fort Walton Beach, Fla., product. Each a first-team All-Big East selection, Brown and 6-6 Shumpert account for nearly half the team’s scoring and three-eighths of the rebounding.
Syracuse tied for second place in the Big East’s west division with a 10-6 record. Notre Dame was first at 11-5. Then the Orangemen bowed to Pittsburgh, 55-54, in the Big East tournament championship game and were accorded the No. 5 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Syracuse earned the right to meet Kansas today by dropping Hawaii, 79-69, on Friday night. In that game, Brown had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Shumpert 18 points and eight boards. Both logged 38 minutes. Griffin scored 15 in another wire-to-wire performance, and Williams had 10.
Syracuse’s fifth starter is Jeremy McNeil, a 6-8 sophomore who averages 2.5 points and 3.1 rebounds.