By Derek DeBurger
Life is a whole lot sweeter after a win.
And the final stretch of the schedule already looked pretty sweet.
Louisville will face the Syracuse Orange on Wednesday to kick off what is an arguably favorable road matchup to end the regular season.
Syracuse is maybe the third or fourth toughest opponent left on the Cards’ schedule. The Orange are currently sitting in eighth place in the ACC standings, with no indication that they’ll improve too much beyond that.
They do have a very good defense according to analytics—the 36th-best defensive efficiency in the country according to KenPom—but just the 11th-best in the ACC. A major part of the defensive struggles in conference play could be due to the massive shift in defensive philosophy from last season to this season. All-time great head coach Jim Boeheim retired after last season, and his team was known for only ever running a two-three zone. With first-time head coach Adrian Autry committing to running a man-to-man, there’s going to be a learning curve for those who stuck around. They give up 73.6 points a game while only scoring 75.1 points a game.
That man-to-man, however, has translated into an extra level of aggression helping the Orange get 9.1 steals a game. Their inside presence isn’t great; they only nab 4.5 blocks a game and allow teams to hit just over half their shots on two-point attempts. If the Cards can work the ball inside to Brandon Huntley-Hatfield early and often then that should open up the rest of the offense while giving them a reliable fallback during slumps.
On offense, Syracuse relies heavily on Judah Mintz. Mintz leads the Orange in points per game with 18.2—5.4 more points per game than their next highest scorer—and is used on a whopping 30.5% of possessions for Syracuse. Outside of Mintz, starting center Maliq Brown is a very consistent bucket down low. Brown shoots 73.1% from two, which is the seventh-best mark in the country. He operates mostly off the pass after Mintz sucks in a help-defender, but he has proven to be deadly in that role.
With Naheem McLeod injured, the Orange have a height disadvantage in almost every game they play. While the Cards aren’t a giant team this season, this should help players like Mike James and Tre White score at the rim with a little more ease.
Syracuse is not that good, but Louisville has been bad. With the game in Syracuse, it’s difficult to see the Cards getting a win here— but it’s not impossible.
Let’s hope the Cards can get some momentum going, and pick up back-to-back ACC wins for the first time under head coach Kenny Payne.
Photo Courtesy // Adam Creech, Louisville Athletics
