Three takeaways from Syracuse’s 92-69 win over Louisville

Never doubt the powers of a Dutch man.

The Syracuse Orange continued its fine offensive stretch, comfortably winning over the Louisville Cardinals 92-69. The Orange once again shot incredibly well, going 55.2% from the floor and 52.2% from three. Jesse Edwards and Buddy Boeheim led the way with 19 points each.

Here’s our three takeaways from another fine Syracuse performance:

Unlocking the offense

Early on, it became clear that screens and pick-and-rolls would be a very effective form of offense for the Orange. Jesse Edwards was getting free looks at the rim with Louisville being vastly undersized. The Cardinals had to adjust by sending one of the players stuck on the screen to roll with Edwards. That left the ball handler on a one-on-one matchup they were more than happy to fire away.

Louisville had a bad tendency to softly guard the ball handler which left space for Syracuse to fire away from distance. The early use of pick-and-roll allowed the Orange to develop their offense inside and outside, and that combination is tough to stop.

Firmly grasp it

The one issue you could probably take away from this game was the rebounding. Without Malik Williams, Louisville’s tallest player on the floor was 6-foot-8. Even with the inherent issues of the zone, Syracuse should have commanded more of the rebound margin. In the end, the Orange only held a 35-33 rebound advantage.

Syracuse needs to strengthen their hands. Too many of their rebound attempts have either been softly bounced around or loosely knocked away. It’s unfortunately been a problem that has persisted.

The snowball’s on fire

That’s three straight games were we’ve seen lights out shooting for Syracuse. Shooting is almost always contagious and the confidence that the Orange have scoring right now is immense. Especially with the schedule coming up, there might not be a stop sign that would derail the snowball that Syracuse’s offense is building.

It was clear early on that this Orange team was built to be an offensive powerhouse. And after the first part of the ACC schedule, that offense is finally starting to flex it muscles.