Points Taken

The game of basketball has changed dramatically since James Naismith hung up a pair of peach baskets and created the sport in 1891. But this simple fact remains: You can only win by scoring more points than your opponent. And therein lies the difference between this year’s Syracuse University men’s basketball team and last year’s 30-5, Sweet 16 edition of the Orange: This year’s team doesn’t put the ball in the basket quite as often.

“The main difference between this year and last year is we think we’re at least as good defensively, but we just can’t score enough,” SU coach Jim Boeheim said after SU’s 64-56 loss to Georgetown Feb. 9 before 26,904 fans at the Carrier Dome. “We’ve got to be able to score more points.”

During their 18-0 start, the Orange averaged 75.5 points per game. But in its next eight games, six of which were losses, SU averaged 67.4 points per contest. Before the Monday, Feb. 14, game against West Virginia at the Dome, SU was averaging 73.0 ppg overall and 68.8 in 13 Big East Conference games.

Last year’s team averaged 80.9 ppg overall and 77.2 in the conference.

This year’s outfit has been prone to long, maddening scoring droughts, and none was more painful than the one at the end of the Georgetown game. The Orange lost its most consistent player, senior forward Rick Jackson, who picked up his fourth foul with 14 minutes, 40 seconds left in the game and didn’t return until nine minutes later. Still, SU led the 11thranked Hoyas 53-49 with 6:40 remaining.

But in losing its third consecutive Dome game, the Orange did not make a field goal in that final 6:40 and scored just one point in the last 4:08. “We had control of the game, we had a lot of {defensive} stops and we kept coming down, but we just could not get the ball in the basket offensively,” Boeheim said. “Eventually, that’s going to catch up with you. You’ve got to score some points.”

Clearly, this year’s team does not have the offensive firepower of last year’s group. Forward Wes Johnson, the 2009-2010 Big East Player of the Year, was a consistent threat from the inside and outside; guard Andy Rautins sank nearly 100 three-point baskets; and center Arinze Onuaku never seemed to miss as he led the Big East in field goal percentage (.668).

Last season’s Orange shot .516 from the floor (.487 in the Big East), .391 from threepoint range (.343), and .677 from the foul line (.705). Through last Saturday’s 73-69 loss at Louisville, the 2010-2011 Orange was shooting .468 from the field (.458 in the conference), .347 from beyond the arc (.360), and .648 from the line (.634).

Johnson, Rautins and Onuaku aren’t coming back, so what can this year’s team do at this point to make up for the lost offense? The players said they have to make better decisions, particularly at the end of close games.

Against Georgetown, for example, SU’s final possessions included a turnover and several illadvised three-point shots when there was still time to play for a traditional bucket.

“Kris {Jopseph} had one {three-pointer}, I had one where I probably should have gone to the basket and I shot the three,” sophomore guard Brandon Triche said. “On those two plays when we were supposed to score, {the Hoyas} went down and got a bucket. I think we have to get in the lane and put it up on the backboard so we can get the rebound. Attack the basket more and get in the lane, put up shots and if you don’t make them, have more guys in there to get the rebound.”

Joseph, the Orange’s leading scorer at 14.7 points per game before Monday, said SU needs to start thinking inside-out, rather than outside-in when it’s going through its shooting slumps. “We have to try to go to something else other than keep shooting,” Joseph said. “You know that old saying, ‘Shoot until it goes in’? Sometimes you have to get out of that habit and get it down low to Ricky {Jackson} to make something happen.”

Joseph, a junior, said the Orange offense should get better as the players gain more experience. Jackson is a senior and a threeyear starter, but Joseph and point guard Scoop Jardine are first-year starters, Triche is a sophomore, and the rest of the players who get the most minutes are freshmen.

“We’re down two with two minutes left and we’re thinking three because we want to get back up,” Joseph said. “We can go for a two-point play, and then we get a stop and score again. We have to take it one possession at a time and not rush the offense and don’t think about the score so much.”

In SU’s 2-6 stretch after its 18-0 start, Orange opponents—all from the Big East— scored 70.9 points per game. Last year’s team averaged 77.2 points per game in Big East play.

“We’ve got to be able to score more points.”

—Syracuse University men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim

Do the math and you can see the difference between last year’s 15-3 conference record and this year’s 7-6 Big East record entering the West Virginia game.

Orange Slices: Freshman center Fab Melo, the Big East’s Preseason Rookie of the Year, didn’t play in the Louisville game because he missed practice Thursday and Friday before the game, Boeheim said. Melo, who was averaging 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds per game, had started 24 of SU’s first 25 games but was averaging just 9.9 minutes per game. Melo said after the Louisville game that he had personal issues with his family, and his status for the game against West Virginia was up in the air. “He’s done playing for now,” Boeheim said after the Louisville game.

Melo’s replacement at center, freshman Baye Moussa Keita, had to leave the Louisville game with about 10 minutes remaining because he took a blow to his sore left wrist. He has been playing with his left hand wrapped in tape.

The 40th annual Men’s Basketball Hardwood Banquet will be held March 6 at the Pirro Convention Center. Former Orange star Jason Hart will receive the 29th Vic Hanson Medal of Excellence, and the event will include a silent auction of sports memorabilia, a player autograph session, and live auction hosted by Boeheim. Tickets are $75 per person and proceeds benefit the Conrad McRae Endowed Men’s Basketball Scholarship and the men’s basketball job program. Tickets are available through March 1 at the Orange Club in Manley Field House or by calling 443-1419.

—Matt Michael