Syracuse men’s basketball: three takeaways from the 91-73 loss to Clemson

The Syracuse Orange continue to struggle against the best of the best in the ACC. The Clemson Tigers controlled Wednesday night’s game against the Orange from the opening tip and dominated both sides of the floor. The Orange didn’t look that competitive at all which led to a 91-73 loss.

Here’s three takeaways from another frustrating loss:

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Choose your challenger

Jim Boeheim is stuck right now with his lineup balance. He wants to run out a more defensive lineup with four defensive minded players and Joe Girard in the middle of games. However, Syracuse’s offense severely suffered, which in large part led to the big lead that Clemson built in the middle of the first half. To compound problems, the Orange defense didn’t defend all that well. So Syracuse has to choose which style of play it wants to play. In this case, it didn’t look like any lineup the Orange threw out would defend that well against the Tigers. So the Orange should’ve put out the athletic lineup that created offensive chances at will earlier this moth.

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Do something

The other problem is that no matter what lineup Syracuse threw out, a common problem kept creeping up for the Orange. The Syracuse offense often featured a ball handler and four players standing around and not doing anything. The Orange offense doesn’t seem like it has had a concept or a play for quite some time now. If Syracuse doesn’t get to run in transition, the offense looks stagnant. The half-court spacing has been abysmal and right now, there doesn’t seem to be a gleaming light at the end of the tunnel.

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Enjoy him while he lasts

Judah Mintz continues to raise his draft stock with each passing game in February. All of a sudden, his long range jumper is looking more and more smooth, especially over the past two games. He nailed all four of his three-point attempts, a career high, and hit some nice mid-range jumpers as well. Mintz’s distance shooting was his biggest knock heading into the final month of the season, and more games like this one could shoot the talented guard into the NBA draft.