Oshae Brissett’s first in-game shot at the Carrier Dome came from the corner. On a 3-pointer last season, the ball sailed past the rim. Brissett shook his head and ran back on defense.

“That,” Brissett said last September, “was a big depth-perception thing on that miss.”

Depth perception is a part of the Carrier Dome’s history. Built in 1980, the Dome accommodates multiple Syracuse sports, including football and lacrosse. For basketball games, the areas behind the baskets of SU’s makeshift court allow greater space than most other college venues between the basket and bleachers. The angle of the Dome’s bleachers is less steep than most other basketball arenas. That’s contributed to a long-standing ideology that the Dome is a notoriously difficult place for shooters, especially ones who are not used to it.

But how true is that notion?

Boeheim, associate head coach Adrian Autry and assistant coach Gerry McNamara swear the Carrier Dome depth effect isn’t real. Some players think it exists only in moderation.

“I don’t think it’s in play,” said Boeheim, Syracuse’s 43-year head coach. “We practice, they get a lot of shots before games. People exaggerate that perception thing a bit.”

Yet current and former Syracuse players, plus visiting players and coaches, say the Carrier Dome’s design creates a perception that can throw off one’s ability to shoot. Based on interviews with 88 players and coaches, The Daily Orange found that, of that group, 45 percent of players believe the Carrier Dome depth effect exists while the other 55 percent don’t think the building’s design causes skewed depth perception.

Morehead State head coach Preston Spradlin specifically told his players not to think about the depth effect and Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton highlighted it as a force to overcome. More than a dozen visiting players, including former Western Michigan guard Jerry Overstreet, said they struggle with depth perception as they shoot. Particularly when they catch and shoot in one motion. It gives them less time to set up and see the rim.

“It’s like shooting into outer space,” recalled Overstreet, who played in the Dome in 1988.

The thought is not new. Since the Dome was built, former players said there were rumblings about how shooters could struggle to get going in the arena.  Visitors said they focused more in the team shootarounds, hoping extra shots would mitigate the effect. Other players and coaches think the depth effect is overstated and its effect is distorted, only a myth that gets into players’ heads.

“I don’t think there’s any depth effect,” said Autry, an SU forward in the 1990s. “Those things didn’t have an effect on how I shot the ball. They shouldn’t. Either you make it or you don’t.”

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Some, who said they don’t notice a difference, believe focusing on the rim helps. Picking a spot — either the front of the rim or back — keeps the background out of the equation. Syracuse director of operations Kip Wellman compared it to a backstop in baseball or a batter’s eye in centerfield. You see the background, but that’s not your focus, he said.

Not every Syracuse player thinks the depth effect exists, though. But Brissett, Jalen Carey, assistant coach Allen Griffin, walk-on Brendan Paul and graduate assistant Ben Horwitz each air-balled their first shot in the Dome. Last season, junior guard Tyus Battle said the Orange were getting off to slow shooting starts because younger players had to adjust to shooting in the Dome.

“I think that was depth perception, but we picked it up,” he said in November 2017.

Empty bleachers increase the depth effect, while fans mitigate it, players and coaches said. Location on the floor also contributes: Players said corner 3s are the hardest, especially those facing open space, where the only sight beyond the rim appears dark. Most players agree straightaway 3-pointers skew one’s perception the least.

Among the 47 percent of players who do believe in the depth effect, they don’t always agree on which way it gets you. Most players say their first shot was an airball. As a result, they overcompensate and shoot farther to reach. But some players and coaches said they tend to shoot long and hit backboard or back of the rim, so they aim for the front rim.

“It’s almost a christening,” Horwitz said. “You have to airball your first shot.”

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On the day before games, SU women’s basketball guard Isis Young goes to the Dome for extra shots. She needed the preparation for confidence, because she felt the “enormous” background and curved bleachers altered her view.

“For a while, I didn’t feel like I could shoot in there,” Young said. “I felt like I’m chucking it and I’m not chucking it, and I was hitting the front rim a lot. The depth made me feel like I had to shoot longer, but I felt like I was chucking the ball and was still short. From the corners, it seems way farther than what it is.”

Young’s teammate, Gabrielle Cooper, said she couldn’t find a rhythm until several games into her freshman season. “It’s like, ‘Woah,’ the stands are so far back,” Cooper said.

Former SU guard Matt Roe, who left SU as the program’s all-time leading 3-point shooter, believes the most difficult aspect is gauging one’s distance to the basket.

“The Carrier Dome looks like the rim is floating in the air,” he said. “All you want to do is use more legs. You can’t explain it, so you try to over-do it and then it just messes with your head.”

SU women’s basketball head coach Quentin Hillsman has joked that shooting in the Dome is “like shooting to a football field.” But many players, including Sykes, never understood why teammates and opponents complained about the depth effect. So for now, at least, one of the larger mysteries surrounding the Dome’s history remains unsolved depending on whom you ask.

“Your first time in there, it definitely gets you,” said freshman Buddy Boeheim. “The Dome isn’t like any other gym.”

Published on March 4, 2019 at 12:30 am

Contact Matthew: [email protected] | @MatthewGut21