Tyus Battle’s eyes widened as he crab-walked to his feet and trailed an Old Dominion play in transition. Moments earlier he was the victim of one of Syracuse’s biggest problems Saturday: Paschal Chukwu’s inability to control an offensive rebound.

Battle, who noticed the struggle that the Orange saw so often, crashed from the wing to help secure the ball. But Chukwu’s arms got there first and his hands slipped from the ball like an amusement park crane. When he turned, there was Battle. The two crashed to the floor, allowing ODU a transition opportunity. The ensuing jumper put the Monarchs up by five, a lead it would never lose.

No. 25 Syracuse (7-3), weighed down by the porous play of its big men, was the victim of an upset in the Carrier Dome in its 68-62 loss to Old Dominion (8-3). The Orange were no match for the pair of seven footers the Monarchs flashed in the game as a season-long struggle for big man production materialized to derail the most promising run of Syracuse’s young season.

“It’s not really something you can teach. You can’t teach toughness,” Syracuse guard Elijah Hughes said. “They were physical today, and we’re gonna face physical teams, so we’ve just got to adapt.”

SU head coach Jim Boeheim said after the game that he’s “disappointed” with the play of the frontcourt, and he expects more from them. Since the season opener, Syracuse’s rebounding numbers have dropped or steadied in almost every game and bottomed out following the 33-board performance against ODU. On the offensive side, SU was no better. Bourama Sidibe and Chukwu both went scoreless and Marek Dolezaj, who played in the middle of the zone as SU’s bigs got into foul trouble, scored his lone points on a jumper on the right block that caused Boeheim to wave his arms.

Center scoring has long been a problem for SU, who doesn’t have a player over 6-10 on the roster that averages more than Chukwu’s 4.5 points per game. Sidibe said part of it is playing time. Part of it is defense. It’s not about boxing out, Boeheim said, SU plays a zone. He doesn’t know what’s wrong. But all season, as Syracuse has been shredded by multiple high profile centers— Oregon’s Bol Bol, Georgetown’s Jessie Govan and others — the Orange have scrambled for an answer.

“I can only tell you what they’re not doing, I can’t tell you why they’re not doing it,” Boeheim said. “They’re getting pushed a little bit, but you got to be able to play through that. They can’t. Right now, they can’t.”

---

More coverage:

• Syracuse ‘laid down’ in the second half of 68-62 upset loss to Old Dominion
• The Final Word: Syracuse upset against unranked Old Dominion
• Gallery: Syracuse falls to Old Dominion in Carrier Dome

---

The struggles began immediately with Chukwu, who picked up two quick fouls in the game’s opening. The first came on a reach following a rebound, and the second came as he fought for position down low. Chukwu said he knew from the start that the Monarchs would look to push him out of the painted area and away from the rim. So, the senior opted to go around them. But his strategy placed him on the bench before it could work to his favor.

“When you pick up two, that one affects how you come back the rest of the game,” Chukwu said.

After a brief stint from Sidibe, Chukwu returned to the game and instantly found the body of Old Dominion’s 7-1, 285-pound center Elbert Robinson III. Robinson pounded the paint and forced Chukwu into another foul on an and-1 underneath the basket. As Chukwu protested, Boeheim fumed. SU forward Oshae Brissett said after the game it’s all about “focus.” SU lost that battle Saturday. When SU got inside, it missed. When ODU attacked the lane, it dumped off to its bigs or opened a spot for a shooter beyond the arc. And they converted.

The Monarchs played savvy, Chukwu said. It was obvious they watched film because they knew the zone and its movements. That allowed them to get an extra arm in to push SU’s bigs out from under the basket and gave Old Dominion the edge in both defense and rebounding, which ODU outproduced the Orange in, 38-33.

Occasionally, Chukwu’s superior size led to a strong interior defensive play — like a block at the rim — but following a block in the second half, the ball bounced right back to Old Dominion’s Aaron Carver. Chukwu, who boosted the Orange crowd a second earlier, left the hoop wide open as he stumbled backwards.

“They’re jumping into you,” Chukwu said. “Your momentum is going back.”

After the game, Chukwu sat in the locker room and scrolled through his phone. The last player in his jersey, he put his hands over his face and rubbed it along the top of his head as if the message from his coach was already imprinted in him. After the lockers next to him cleared, he grabbed his towel and gingerly walked to the back room with an ice pack attached to his leg.

Chukwu, Sidibe, nor any other Syracuse player thought the Monarchs brought anything different than what the Orange was expecting. Syracuse had the scouting reports, Sidibe said. They knew what ODU was going to do. But it still didn’t work.

“The thing that happened today in the game, that’s the same thing that the coaches said (would happen),” Sidibe said. “And it still happened.”

Published on December 15, 2018 at 4:19 pm

Contact Michael: [email protected] | @MikeJMcCleary