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With just over eight minutes left in the first half, Benny Williams craned his arm back to catch Alondes Williams’ missed floater, before turning to find Joe Girard III to kickstart Syracuse’s transition offense. The Orange’s point guard then carried possession across mid-court, crossed over and penetrated toward the right corner before swimming around Carter Whitt’s outstretched hands for a corner jumper that cut SU’s deficit to 22-20.

In the Orange’s 94-72 victory over the Demon Deacons, SU was outrebounded 31-30 — the third game in a row it lost the rebounding battle — but found ways to recover extra possessions by turning Wake Forest over 12 more times than Wake Forest did to Syracuse. The Orange have outrebounded their opponent in six out of the nine games since the new year, and in the three that they haven’t, they’ve won the turnover battle to help mitigate the lost rebounds.

“If you’re getting beat one or two or three rebounds in a game but your turnover margin’s better, then it’s really just not an issue,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said during Monday’s weekly Atlantic Coast Conference conference call. “Not as big an issue as people make it to be.”

Boeheim said after the Orange’s win against Clemson on Jan. 18, where SU outrebounded the Tigers by 13, that “everybody said we’d get outrebounded every game the whole year.” Historically, that aspect of the game has served as a weak spot for Syracuse (10-11, 4-6 ACC) given how difficult the 2-3 zone makes it to rebound. The Orange were also outrebounded in six of their first 10 games to open the 2021-22 season — including a season-worst differential of 21 against Villanova on Dec. 7. But the Tigers played small, aiming to attack the zone with shooting and penetration instead of size, and that paired with a quickness to the ball that SU couldn’t put together earlier in the season.

“That’s as good as we’re going to rebound, without a doubt,” Boeheim said postgame.

On Monday, Boeheim said the rebounding has improved this season with taller players — SU’s average height of 78.9 inches ranks fifth in the country, according to KenPom. Per KenPom, the Orange still rank 313th in defensive rebounding percentage, slightly up from 339th, 331st and 335th the previous three seasons. Their offensive rebounding percentage, at 31.2% and 98th nationally, is the best it’s been across the last four seasons, too.

But, Boeheim cautioned, “too much is made out of the rebounding anyway,” given how slim the margins might be from game to game, especially when SU can find other ways to make up those possessions elsewhere.

Here are some other notes from the Zoom call with North Carolina State head coach Kevin Keatts and Louisville interim head coach Mike Pegues:

NC State’s preparation for SU zone, ‘elite’ offense

On paper, the 2-3 zone is an “easy scout when you think about what the team’s gonna do on defense,” Keatts said. But in reality, when trying to figure out how to consistently score against Syracuse’s zone, that’s when the challenges arise. That’s what makes it a “tough scout,” he added.

Sometimes, NC State will need to hit its shots. Other times, it’ll need to penetrate inside, or dish the ball to the corner — “you gotta mix it up,” Keatts said.

“You have to try to score in different ways,” Keatts said, “but it’s always tough.”

The last time NC State and Syracuse faced each other, the 2-3 zone held NC State to 36% shooting and forced 12 turnovers. But offensively, the Orange torched the Wolfpack with 89 points to open the ACC tournament — carried by Buddy Boeheim’s 27 points and SU’s 57% shooting clip from the field. SU reached similar marks last weekend against Wake Forest, when it exploded for 94 points and shot 57.1% overall after totaling just 112 points in its previous two games combined.

Keatts called it an “elite” offensive performance and added that “they’re starting to click a little bit more offensively than they have early in the season.”

Louisville striving for improved rebounding

While Syracuse has found a way to improve its offensive rebounding during the season, the Cardinals are still looking for a way to concoct that formula. They’re dealing with Chris Mack’s firing and a sharp transition staff-wise in the middle of a season that’s already spiraled away from NCAA Tournament potential, pending an end-of-season run.

Louisville lost to Duke by nine points in its first game since Mack’s firing, and Pegues said on Monday that if it hadn’t been outrebounded 47-34, the result might’ve unfolded differently. The Cardinals surrendered 20 offensive rebounds and 22 second-chance points to the Blue Devils, with 10 offensive rebounds coming in each half, and “we would’ve given ourselves an even better chance at winning the game” had the advantage not swelled as much as it did, Pegues said.

After hosting North Carolina, the Cardinals will travel to Syracuse on Saturday. They will face an SU team that’s held a rebounding advantage in 11 of its 21 games this season but struggled at times when Jesse Edwards doesn’t gather enough boards from the center position, or when Jimmy Boeheim, Cole Swider and the other forwards lose interior positioning.

“I think it’s a simple thing, I really do,” Pegues said. “I mean, shot goes up, find somebody to hit, drive them out, do your best to keep them away from the basketball and pursue it.”

Published on January 31, 2022 at 6:23 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew