Syracuse Basketball: Winning Ugly is Still Winning (We Think)

The Syracuse Orange are 8-4. If you look strictly at the win-loss column, things are fine. If you actually watched the games this week, you might have aged five years.

The Orange picked up two wins at the JMA Wireless Dome this week, first swatting away Mercyhurst and then outscoring Northeastern in a game that apparently outlawed defense. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t dominant, but hey—in this economy, we take the Ws where we can get them.

Here is the breakdown of a weird week on the hill.

Game 1: The "Not Those Lakers" Victory

Syracuse 76, Mercyhurst 62

On Wednesday, Syracuse hosted Mercyhurst. No, that is not a wing of a local hospital; it is a university, and their mascot is the Lakers. Unfortunately for them, LeBron James was not walking through that door.

The Orange jumped out to a 39-23 halftime lead and then promptly put the car in neutral and coasted downhill. Mercyhurst actually outscored Syracuse in the second half, which is something you never want to see against a team named after a body of water.

The star of the show was William Kyle III, who decided the paint was a "No Fly Zone." He finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks. JJ Starling added 15 points, and the Orange did just enough to avoid embarrassment. It was the basketball equivalent of eating a plain turkey sandwich: It sustained life, but nobody was excited about it.

Game 2: Defense is Optional, Points are Mandatory

Syracuse 91, Northeastern 83

If Wednesday was a turkey sandwich, Saturday against Northeastern was a deep-fried Twinkie—exciting, unhealthy, and potentially dangerous for your heart.

Syracuse won by eight, 91-83, in their highest-scoring output of the year. The offense finally woke up! The bad news? The defense hit the snooze button.

The Orange gave up 52 points in the second half. Northeastern, a team that ranks somewhere near the bottom of the NET rankings, shot nearly 50% from the floor. Syracuse’s defensive strategy appeared to be "hope they miss," which, surprisingly, is not a sustainable analytic model.

However, the offense was electric. Naithan George dropped 22 points and dished 6 assists, and the bench mob of Kiyan Anthony (18 points) and Tyler Betsey (14 points) combined for 32 points.

The Miracle of the Stripe

The real MVP of the game was the free-throw line. Syracuse shot a staggering 48 free throws and made 34 of them. That is not a typos. In a world where college teams usually shoot free throws like they are throwing bricks into the ocean, the Orange hit 71%. Naithan George basically lived at the line (12-of-14), paying rent and setting up a mailbox there.

The Verdict

Syracuse is 8-4 with one non-conference game left. The offense is clicking, Kiyan Anthony is looking like the real deal, and William Kyle III is blocking everything.

But if the Orange want to survive the ACC, they might want to consider guarding the other team occasionally. Just a thought.