Three takeaways from Syracuse’s 88-87 loss to Miami

Ok look, another second half collapse. What a shock.

The Syracuse Orange entered the halftime locker room with a 14-point lead against the Miami Hurricanes. However, Miami adjusted and pressured Syracuse, creating turnovers and outshooting the Orange in the second half. That all lead to an 88-87 win for Miami and another disappointing loss for Syracuse.

Here’s our takeaways from Syracuse’s second ACC loss of the season:

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If you didn’t know, now you know

If it was still a secret to anyone else in the NCAA, it isn’t anymore. No one is billing Miami as a great defensive team, yet the Hurricanes dominated the Orange in the second half. The change? Miami started pressing Syracuse and face-guarding ball handlers closely. Teams have time and time again gone to that strategy against the Orange with resounding success. No one on this Syracuse team is great at putting the ball on the floor to break the pressure, so the rest of the team have to help and be more active off the ball to shake defenders. Otherwise, every team will press Syracuse this year and have success.

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Feed Jesse

Syracuse started the game hot from the field, and it all started with Jesse Edwards. The Orange finally started targeting the big man more with their passes inside and he delivered. Granted, this is against an undersized Miami team but Jesse has been one of the most efficient scorers in the conference even against more physical competition. Get the ball to the big guy more.

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If you’re not good at it, don’t do it

I mentioned Syracuse’s inability to put the ball on the floor. That’s where the majority of the turnovers came from in the second half. The Orange continue to fall into a bad habit of reverting to isolation ball, especially in the final 20 minutes of games. Syracuse had 14 assists in the first half. That number dropped to seven in the second half. The Orange have to continue to move the ball around and prevent the rock from getting stuck in one person’s hand for too long.