Syracuse men’s basketball: disappearing defense dooms dreams

As the Syracuse Orange limp towards the ACC Tournament, the hopes of getting back to the NCAA Tournament are down to winning the ACC’s auto-bid.

Year 3 of the Adrian Autry is coming to a disappointing end and a look at the numbers shows that this year’s team has improved in some areas, while stepping back in others. Here’s a look at some major statistical categories:

Year

Points per game

FG %

3 pt %

Rebounds per game

Turnovers

Opponents Points

Opponents FG %

Opponents 3 pt %

Opponents Rebounds

Opponents Turnovers

23-24

76.3

46.10%

33.6%

33.3

11.4

75.6

45.80%

34.2%

37.6

14.5

24-25

74.7

45.70%

32.80%

37.1

12.6

77.8

46.30%

34.5%

33.3

9.8

25-26

75.6

46.90%

33%

34.8

11.2

73.4

48.9%

33.6%

36.9

12.4

At first glance, the opponents points might make you think that Syracuse has improved on the defensive end-especially defending the 3-pt line. Dropping points against by 4 points should be a positive sign, unfortunately when we just look at ACC numbers this year, it’s frightening. The Orange are allowing 80.7 points per game to their ACC opponents.

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Teams are shooting 47.5% from the field, 54.5% on 2 pt attempts and 34.4% from 3. Syracuse is last in the ACC in opponent field goals made per game (28.8), 2-pt attempts (39.5) and 2-pt makes (21.5). Too many Syracuse games have turned into the same visual- opponents pulling William Kyle away from the rim and then letting their perimeter players drive past Orange defenders straight to the rim.

For the season, Syracuse ranks 178th in the country in terms of points allowed in the second half (per TeamRankings.Com) which is an improvement from last season’s 41. Again that overall number is a bit of a mirage as the Orange have given up 40.1 points in 2nd halves of games away from the Dome.

Adrian Autry talks about energy and Syracuse’s defensive efforts have too often waned in the final 20 minutes. Before the season Autry talked about using his depth to keep players fresh to maintain that effort on both ends, but as the season has gone on that depth has disappeared….

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Publish date : 2026-02-25 17:00:00

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