How was that a foul but the play before that was exactly the same a clean block?
does Jim Boeheim have naked pictures of referees around the nation? America needs to know
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Okay, that was definitely a foul…
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I guess, if you’re going to foul a jump shooter, you may as well make it count…
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that looked like a diving axe handle by Lex Luger
Not better than most teams. Better than all teams. The comments come in every year that the Syracuse zone is just different from all other 2-3 zones.
I think his offenses are brutal and he hasn’t brought in the talent in recent years that he used to. But he still brings in enough talent and he wins. They’re in the Sweet Sixteen again. And the teams they’re lined up to play don’t have experience playing them. No reps against this defense in years, and now they’ve got to relearn the game of basketball.
Boeheim is a guy who can name his retirement year anyway. They’re still doing ok. Changing his philosophy would be unthinkable.
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Can someone who’s much smarter than me explain how Syracuse stinks it up each year in the ACC and then turns into world beaters in the the tournament?
The Syracuse zone is actually reasonably easy to beat — John Beilein showed exactly how to do it. You just need to have a 7’ guy who’s an excellent passer. 
The thing is, there are maybe three or four of those every year in college basketball.
Michigan would be demolishing this team.
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I assume you mean the final four game? We only scored 61 points in a 60 possession game. We tore the zone apart in the first half, but they completely shut us down in the second half.
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Michigan only scored 1.01 PPP that game. Not really sterling, especially for how good that team was offensively.
Sam Vecenie wrote an article the other day in the Athletic talking to ACC coaches about why they don’t do well in the ACC compared to the tournament
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The 2 most convincing theories I’ve seen are: (1) the ACC is accustomed to playing Syracuse’s zone, while other teams have to learn it in a relatively short amount of time which is tough to do, and (2) it takes almost a whole season for Syracuse to perfect it, and it gets tougher and tougher as the year progresses. (2) seems more convincing to me.
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Beilein also played them in the Big East every year when he was at WVU. As with the triple option, there is something fundamentally helpful about knowing you will need to scheme for a team annually.
Wouldn’t help the players much, but Beilein didn’t have to invent a new offense from scratch when we drew them in 2013. He just needed to teach the guys to do it. People may recall that it took McGary every last minute of practice to get it figured out.
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Nik Stauskas was 0-4 from 3; the team overall was 8/24. (The non-Hardaway team was 5/14).
In a 60 possession game, one additional made three is 0.05 ppp on its own. The plan worked, and it seems repeatable.
And I agree with SRJK: Beilein’s experience helped — but it’s clear that the lesson’s been absorbed. Coach Howard actually rolled out the same sort of set against the zone just a couple of games ago, as I recall, with Hunter at the high post / free throw line.
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The 2013 game kind of exemplifies why they stick with it. We destroyed their D in the first half, but a lot of it was due to us being hot from downtown. We fell in love with the three and cooled off in the second half. By the end they were right there, until Morgan took that key charge.
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Journalist John Grisham?!
Wait, is The Firm non-fiction?!
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That Syracuse team was particularly long and athletic. Way more than this current team.
That’s basically the same thing everybody does against the zone.
Sure, if they have a 7’ passer. If you put your point guard there, he’s got a much harder time finding the open man.
If you can get Brooks on the corner he’s just so comfortable there RN
As a team we were 8/24. Not great, but not an outlier in either direction. We even got a 4-5 performance from freshman Caris and Spike. I agree we attacked it well, but not like we just dominated it. Syracuse year over year is among the best in the country at 3pt% D, enough so that it can’t be chalked up to luck. Something inherent in their D makes teams shoot poorly from 3. Teams shot sub 30% from 3 against them in 2013. Which speaks to your point that Michigan did well against it relatively.
I think Franz would be great in the middle against the zone.
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