Keep throwing enough good Syracuse basketball teams at the University of Louisville and, sooner or later, a Jim Boeheim team will prevail, 52-51, ending a seven-game losing streak to U of L.
Especially when those dump-off passes beneath the basket are bouncing into ankles and elbows. Neither Russ Smith nor Peyton Siva capable of making them. Russ pulled from the game after two of them with eight minutes remaining. Siva making the fatal one with three seconds to go.
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For people wanting to point fingers, Siva committing five turnovers in 27 minutes, Russ four in 10 minutes. Syracuse would outscore U of L 14-8 on baskets after turnovers.
These same skeptics will point out those occasional, but glaring, brain freezes of Siva which tend to obscure his overall effectiveness at the point. That quick second foul giving him three fouls in the first half, for example, and that over-the-shoulder pass to no one in the second.
Mind-numbing. Inexplicable. Inexcusable.
But enough about the mistakes and turnovers.
This game may have been decided on a bad pass, but to blame the loss on a turnover would be to discredit the defensive efforts on both sides. Both teams failed to hit better than 35% of their shots for good reason, each competing against one of the better defensive teams in college basketball.
Rick Pitino will never admit it but he has to be encouraged about just how far Louisville’s defense has improved in three weeks, putting his team in position to topple the second-ranked team. Much more emphasis and progress to come, with only one game (Saturday at DePaul) in the next nine days.
Maybe they will work in some time for free throw shooting as well after hitting only 12 of 21 attempts. Looking for a reason for the loss, look there.
Not to be overlooked is the continuing improvement of Chane Behanan on the glass, most of his 16 points coming on hard-fought second chances against the highly-touted Fab Melo, who managed only one block against Louisville. Gorgui Dieng, meanwhile, had four of them.
The quality of defense dictated that a win could have gone either way, the laws of averages finally falling in Syracuse’s direction.
Siva was the only one on our team that could penetrate the zone. I love all our players but Justice playing for 7 minutes was a joke, he gets us no where on offense. I love these guys, each and every one of them and I am headed to Chicago on Saturday to help us bring home a win. We just have to shake this one off and get back on track.
What we seem to need now is one of those hypnotist treatments Denny used awhile back. At least for Siva, maybe some of the others. Couldn’t hurt, and then maybe the rest of the season will go more happily. Go Cards!
The reality is that Peyton Siva is the best qualified player on the team to play the point position, as difficult as that may be to accept for some. He has the ability to make exceptional plays but also the lack of focus at times to commit horrendous errors. The quickness of the game is unforgiving for someone who doesn’t have all the right instincts.
He is not overrated, he is who he is. We’ve been lucky to have exceptional point guards over the years prior to the Edgar Sosa era so it is a little difficult for U of L fans to tolerate less than perfection at the position. He is the best we have so we have no choice right now but hope that he learns to play well more consistently and without the lapses.
Agree 100%. Siva is not an exceptional point guard and he is the best that we have. The final play was broken down frame by frame on the CJ website. Siva did several things very well on the play but just did not have the instinct, court vision, or anticipation of the movement of the defense to see Kuric wide open in the corner. Trust me on one thing, though, no one feels any worse about the final play than Peyton Siva. UL had a 5 point lead with 3:38 to go and failed to score the rest of the game. This was not Siva’s fault.
Tons of reasons why Louisville lost last night and free throws certainly stand out but Siva get the vote here. Drove in too deep to the lane, got boxed in and had nowhere to go with the ball. Kuric standing there wide open. All said, Siva was on fire earlier but dumb fouls and dumb decision-making at crunch time eventually caught up with him.
ChrisTh33 – Not sure what U of L b-ball you’ve been watching all season but Siva has been pathetic! Open youar eyes. Siva was the reason we were in he game?? He scores 8 points and has 5 turnovers and rides the bench playing 27 minutes, less than all starters. He wasn’t even in the game during some of the runs. He is so overrated it’s ridiculous. His stats suck, he’s not a leader and he blows it in when he needs to be making plays. Since I’m an idiot, maybe you should post his season stats to this site and let’s see how he compares to other guards in the Big East. Then you tell me who should be starting and who should have the ball in their hands to win the game. Not Siva.
I blame this loss on Siva. I sound like a broken record when I say he “sucks” but what else is there to say?? Big time game and what happens? Scoreless in the second half and a stupid, out of control turnover when they had a chance for the winning shot. Once again I say – BENCH HIM! I can just see him screwing things up in the tournament.
You sir are an idiot. Siva was the reason we were even in the game. Bench him? Stupid.
Why does he suck?!?!? Yes he has and did make some poor descions but he far from sucks! What were you saying about him after he made a last second layup to win the game last year against WVU or what were you saying after those last second layups to put the game in overtime and then to win the game against Uconn….Christh33 obviously was correct in his assumption of you!