Syracuse’s thumping of Division II Southern New Hampshire took longer to get started than the Orange would’ve liked Wednesday night in the Carrier Dome. Syracuse trailed 13-8 eight minutes in before hitting the gas on a 22-0 run and racing away from the Penmen to lead by 20 at the break. Star guard Tyus Battle took over as needed and freshman center Bourama Sidibe shined when forced to play more than expected, but the lineups remained fuzzy as the Orange won, 84-54.

Here are three takeaways from the scrimmage.

Still got questions

Grad transfer guard Geno Thorpe didn’t play against SNHU because of a lingering ankle injury that held him out in the Orange vs. White scrimmage, so questions about the Orange’s lineup configurations remained unresolved except for one constant of Paschal Chukwu and Sidibe rotating at center.

Junior Frank Howard seemed to play exclusively point guard and dominated time on the floor at the position. He occasionally switched off with freshman Howard Washington, but Washington sometimes also subbed in at shooting guard for Battle. On defense, only Battle, Washington and Howard played the top of the zone.

That left the small and power forward positions, which rotated through freshman Oshae Brissett, freshman Marek Dolezaj and redshirt freshman Matthew Moyer. Moyer grabbed 10 rebounds but, in 27 minutes, the 6-foot-8 Brissett impressed the most. He scored 17 points from driving and from beyond the arc, as well as adding 11 boards and two blocks.

It’s still unclear how Thorpe affects all this, but it appears he’ll slot in somewhere alongside Howard, Battle, Brissett and Chukwu.

Big man on the floor

With four minutes to go in the second half, Chukwu fouled out and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim shook his head and waved his right hand at the referee. Foul trouble plagued the Orange’s redshirt junior center last season too, before an eye injury cut his season short after seven games. Chukwu finished with six blocks. Boeheim subbed in Sidibe and the true freshman shined.

On the play of the night, Sidibe drew a gasp and cheer from the Dome late in the first half when he timed his jump perfectly and swatted SNHU guard Drew Butler literally into the second row. The man who caught the ball bounced the ball back to Sidibe, but he had already turned to dap up Battle, who nodded and grinned wide to the freshman.

Sidibe had six blocks, the loudest dunks and his active hands at the bottom of the zone forced at least two deflections. Twelve days ago, Boeheim said he hoped to split Sidibe and Chukwu’s minutes evenly this season. He almost did that Wednesday night — Sidibe played 20 and Chukwu, 18 — but Sidibe showed he might be able to anchor the Orange’s defense if needed.

And, perhaps most importantly, Sidibe finished with two fouls.

He’s the captain now

With Syracuse returning just one of its top six rotation players from a year ago, Tyus Battle knew he’d see defensive gameplans focused on him this season. From the jump Wednesday, Battle didn’t care who was in front of him. That may be because whoever it was stood several inches shorter, but Battle steadied the offense’s pace, scored a team-high 20 points and attacked like the top-tier threat the Orange needs him to be.

Early in the first half, Sidibe set a screen to Battle’s left, he used it and immediately pulled up for a 3-pointer en route to equaling his eight shots-per-game average from last season in the first half alone. Battle’s 3 rimmed out, but it didn’t matter because Penmen forward Remo Simankevicius had fouled him. Battle sunk all three free throws to tie the game at that point, and in total he shot nine from the line in comparison to 2.6 per game last season.

The Orange need someone to fill the void from all the shots it lost from last season, and Battle staked his claim to a large portion of them on Wednesday night.

Published on November 1, 2017 at 9:20 pm

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