Three takeaways from Syracuse’s 70-69 win over Louisville

Well, we’re all here.

If you’re still somehow in one piece after watching that, congratulations.

The Syracuse Orange and Louisville Cardinals played one of the messiest and inefficient games of the season with 36 combined turnovers. Syracuse had to make up for rebounding woes with trips to the free throw line, and in the end it was some aggressiveness at the basket and some hero shots from Joe Girard. That gave the Orange the slight edge needed to win 70-69 over the Cardinals.

Here’s our three takeaways from a game that Syracuse should’ve won by more, but certainly didn’t deserve to:

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Nah, you can have the ball

This was one of the messiest games of basketball I’ve ever seen. Syracuse had seemingly solved its turnover problems that plagued the team in the first month of the season. But the Orange played too fast for their own good. The same can be said for Louisville, as the Cardinals entered the game giving up the most turnovers in the ACC. Both teams scored over 15 points off turnovers in a game where neither team shot the ball exceptionally well from the floor. It’s as if no team wanted to actually take care of the ball to win the game.

An old friend becomes an old foe

Syracuse started to fall behind around halftime as Louisville started putting more full-court pressure, especially towards the end of the half. It seemed like the Orange didn’t know how to deal with the Cardinals face-guarding the players in the backcourt, which gave Louisville momentum to go on a run to take the lead before halftime. Syracuse also didn’t know how to free up Girard with Mike James face-guarding the Orange guard all game. The Orange used to mix in the press to mess with opponents, and the Cardinals threw it right back at Syracuse. That full court pressure almost cost the Orange the game at the end as well.

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No one around

And to add to the ways Syracuse almost lost this game, no one helped Jesse Edwards on the boards. The Orange gave up way too many offensive rebounds, which led to Louisville second-chance points. On both ends on the floor, it seems like that Syracuse’s forwards don’t know the right position to be at in order to rebound the ball. If none of your forwards have more than three rebounds, something needs to happen to change that.