Syracuse (15-8, 5-5 Atlantic Coast) plays Virginia Tech (12-10, 4-5) on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Carrier Dome as it tries to get above .500 for the first time in conference play. SU head coach Jim Boeheim went on the ACC coaches’ teleconference on Monday afternoon and spoke about his team and its upcoming matchup.

On playing Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech started off the conference season with a 4-1 record, a start that included a win over then-No. 4 Virginia. When the Hokies came to the Carrier Dome last season, SU had to come back from down 13 late in the second half to win.

Boeheim said that Tuesday might be a similar type of test.

“(VT coach Buzz Williams) has done a great job against our teams when we played them,” Boeheim said. “We went to the last play last year against them here. He’s got a better team this year. They’ve got multiple guys that can score. They jumped off to a great start in the league. They’ve been in every game they’ve played just about. This is a very good Virginia Tech team with a lot of offensive weapons.

“We’re playing better. We’ve got to continue to play well, and actually still get better. So yeah, that’s important.”

On the improved play of Malachi Richardson

Richardson struggled early against Georgia Tech, failing to score in the first 20 minutes. But his 13 points in the second half propelled SU to another win. During conference play, he’s been on point with his shooting, connecting on at least five shots from long range three times. He scored a career-high 23 points against Virginia on Jan. 24, and hit 6-of-10 from 3.

“He’s a very confident kid. He just goes out and plays,” Boeheim said. “He’s got a lot of confidence in what he can do. He started out the year really well and played great early. And then he had a little shooting spell. Now, since the league started, he’s been our most consistent outside shooter. For a freshman, he’s been really really solid and stable in every game. He’s really stepped it up in the league.”

Boeheim did say that next year, when Richardson will play guard more, he’ll need to improve on aspects like ball-handling. “He can become a really really good guard in the future,” Boeheim said.

On his short bench and tight rotation

Syracuse plays the tightest rotation in all of Division I basketball, per Kenpom.com. Outside of Tyler Lydon and Frank Howard, there are no players consistently seeing minutes off the bench. Still, Boeheim says, it’s not hurting the play of his team.

“I think it’s overstated,” Boeheim said. “Duke won last year playing six or seven guys and won the whole thing. You’d like to have another guy or two. But if you look at the tradition and the history in this game, the championship games and the Final Fours and the last 16 teams, most coaches play six or seven guys. There might be a couple guys out there for two or three minutes. But for the most part, it’’s six or seven guys. And if you don’t have anyone hurt it isn’t a problem. It really isn’t.

“We’d like to have an eighth guy. We’ve been playing seven. We would like to have that eighth guy, that would be ideal. But we do have guys that can play a couple different positions so they can have a little bit more flexibility.”

Published on February 1, 2016 at 12:52 pm

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