DURHAM, N.C. — The prevailing answer to Syracuse’s offensive futility on Saturday night was that the Orange has to “keep taking good shots.”

But the biggest problem in SU’s 19-point loss to Duke was that “good shots” were at a heavy premium. The Blue Devils’ man-to-man defense all but physically shrunk the court while holding Syracuse to just 19 makes on 62 attempts — with a focus on keeping drivers out of the paint and the ball out of Rakeem Christmas’ hands.

And if any team is built to duplicate, or even one up, Duke’s defensive clinic, it’s Virginia. The Orange (18-11, 9-7 Atlantic Coast) welcomes the No. 2 Cavaliers (27-1, 15-1) for a 7 p.m. game in the Carrier Dome on Monday night, when the conference’s best defense will meet one of its coldest offenses.

UVA holds opponents to a 35.2 percent shooting clip — the country’s second-best average behind No. 1 Kentucky — and the SU guards will need to step up after stumbling at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“We just have to move the ball better and really attack it better,” SU guard Trevor Cooney said after the Duke game of facing Virginia’s defense. “Our movement wasn’t there tonight and because of that our other stuff wasn’t there.

“When we’re moving, when you look back at games, that’s when we’re at our best offensively. Just movement wasn’t there.”

After Saturday’s game, SU head coach Jim Boeheim looked at the open shots his team missed instead of the ones it couldn’t create. He mentioned missed transition 3s by Cooney, Michael Gbinije and B.J. Johnson, and added that Syracuse had to “make some of them, if not all of them, to be in the game.”

That will also be the case against Virginia and, since the Cavaliers also pride themselves on top-notch transition defense, there could be even less open shots to go around.

“We know they’re good and have a really, really good defense,” Christmas said on Saturday. “That’s what we know.”

Like the Blue Devils defensive approach on Saturday, UVA’s man-to-man is capable of taking away the low post, perimeter and penetration all at once. The Cavailers’ pack-line defense emphasizes helping in driving lanes, doubling down on big men and closing out hard on shooters, which doesn’t bode well for an Orange team dependent on a small handful of scoring threats.

With this defense, the Cavaliers have held three teams below 40 points and three below 30 this season. If SU doesn’t move off the ball, shoot better and ultimately improve the way it lagged against Duke, it could join one of those clubs.

“We didn’t spread it out enough tonight and we couldn’t get inside off the dribble,” Gbinije said after the Duke game. “… It’s nice we get to turn around and play right away, and we’ll need to fix those things against a tough Virginia team.”

Published on March 2, 2015 at 12:20 am

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