Three takeaways from Syracuse’s 78-73 win over Notre Dame

Ah, full court press. Good to see you again.

The Syracuse Orange found themselves in a tough position after a three-point barrage from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish leading by 12 with 12:48 left to go in the 2nd half. A furious Orange comeback ensued over the next minutes, led by the freshmen and the full court press, to wrestle control of the game back. Syracuse eventually won 78-73 off the back of better defense and youth.

Here’s our three takeaways from another Dome comeback:

Living and dying from range

Notre Dame got out to a huge lead through traditional means against this year’s Syracuse team: the three-pointer. The Irish didn’t show exactly how good they were from range in the first meeting between the two teams. That drastically changed in the Dome. Notre Dame seemingly couldn’t miss from distance for the first 30 minutes against Syracuse. The 15 threes that the Irish drained seemed to make a comeback inconceivable. The Orange zone left Irish shooters open way too much on the perimeter, which gave Notre Dame easy looks all game long. You had to assume that the good fortune against Virginia Tech wouldn’t last into the weekend, and for the first three-quarters of the game, Syracuse suffered.

Wait a second, that looks familiar

Who remembers February 20, 2021? I know a lot of you don’t.

I took a look through the archives, and by some sheer coincidence, it was James also on the recap and me on the takeaways from that game against Notre Dame. Take a look at those articles.

Because what you’ll find is that these two Syracuse-Notre Dame games at the Dome ended in eeirly similar fashion.

In both games, Notre Dame got out to a sizable lead. And in both games, the full-court press stuffed the Irish momentum and swung it right back to Syracuse. To cap it off, in the 2021 game, Buddy Boeheim and Marek Dolezaj led the comeback on offense. Tonight, Buddy Boeheim 2.0 (Justin Taylor) and Marek Dolezaj 2.0 (Maliq Brown, without the passing) led the way for Syracuse offensively to kickstart the comeback. And they weren’t alone.

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The youth movement

The comeback with the press happened with a lineup of Judah Mintz, Justin Taylor, Chris Bell, Maliq Brown and Jesse Edwards. That’s a four freshman lineup and each young gun brought something important to facilitate the comeback. Mintz’s drive and defense. Taylor’s big three and big body at the top of the zone. Bell’s career day with 17 points on 5-8 shooting from three. Brown’s third-straight double-digit point game. The young guys are in a position now where they can start being the reason Syracuse wins games. The reliance on Joe Girard and Jesse Edwards can still be there, but the freshmen are helping now, which only boosts Syracuse’s odds later into the season.