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After the Orange’s narrow 85-84 win against Bryant, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said Friday that the game shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

In a virtual press conference, Boeheim made nearly a half-dozen references to why the Orange opening their season Friday was an “unbelievable mistake” on his part. Two positive COVID-19 tests within Syracuse’s program — one from Boeheim and one from a player — led to a 10-day pause beginning Nov. 15. The team quarantined in apartments, worked out on stationary bikes and on Zoom and had just one practice day on Thanksgiving.

Doctors and trainers approved the game because of players’ individual workouts during quarantine, and Boeheim said he didn’t ask a player who wasn’t in shape to play. But that didn’t mean the Orange were in “basketball-ready condition,” he said.

“You cannot play basketball when you don’t practice,” Boeheim said.

Bulldogs head coach Jared Grasso said in his postgame press conference that Bryant gave Syracuse opportunities to push the game back.

“To say (the Orange) wanted to cancel the game is false,” Grasso said.

Other college basketball programs have grappled with contact tracing issues and paused workouts. Positive tests have led to the cancellation of 65 games this week, including Bryant’s original season-opener against Stony Brook.

The Orange’s pair of positive tests shut the program down during its final tune-ups before the opener. Guard Buddy Boeheim said “getting curbed like that” harmed the positive effects of four months of practice, which acclimated newcomers Alan Griffin and Kadary Richmond into the rotation while building on the foundation its returners crafted in 2019-20.

Syracuse’s conditioning also wasn’t the same, Buddy said.

Syracuse had one team workout before Friday. It was a “normal practice,” Boeheim said, where the Orange prepped for Bryant’s press — a 2-2-1 that dropped back into a 2-3 — and cycled offenses through both the Bulldogs’ zone defense and matchup man that branched out of it. But some players were “dying” because of their lowered conditioning level, Boeheim said.

“It was very difficult,” Boeheim said.

Syracuse and other Atlantic Coast Conference programs have invested in chip technology that provides data about how close members of the program are to one another. Boeheim’s not near a player for more than 90 seconds every practice and stands 10 feet apart from them. Managers wear masks and gloves and aren’t near the Orange for more than two minutes every practice. Players use separate bathrooms in their apartments and aren’t in the locker room in groups larger than four. 

Contact tracing protocols need to change “or else the season will be destroyed,” Boeheim said. If a team can’t practice for 14 days following a positive test, Syracuse wouldn’t be able to return and realistically compete against other ACC schools such as Duke, North Carolina and Virginia without seven or eight days of practice. 

The Orange nearly couldn’t secure a nonconference win against Bryant. SU’s rust showed in the beginning, as the Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead and pierced the 2-3 zone with 51 points in the first half. Bryant hit nine 3-pointers, including five from Chris Childs. The deficit forced the Orange to press in return, and the Orange forced turnovers on consecutive possessions.

But Syracuse isn’t a pressing team, Boeheim said, and the Orange had to press more than he wanted to. Before Boeheim could pull out of the press, the Bulldogs started breaking it and finding simple layups.

“You could tell, we just didn’t have our rhythm,” Boeheim said. “We weren’t ready. Nobody can go that long without playing basketball. It was really foolish.”

Published on November 27, 2020 at 9:13 pm

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