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Quincy Guerrier jutted out toward the 3-point line as Virginia’s Sam Hauser drove on the opposite side, inching toward the Greensboro Coliseum’s 3-point arc. Two of Guerrier’s teammates had collapsed on Hauser, forcing him to pick up his dribble and glance at Trey Murphy III — standing unguarded behind the arc, hands set for a pass and, eventually, a shot.

The ball from Hauser reached Murphy, and he rose into his shooting form. But Guerrier had anticipated that kick-out pass. With the Orange down by two points and needing a stop with 40 seconds left in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinal, Guerrier deflected the shot as it left Murphy’s hands. It never reached the rim, resulted in a shot clock violation for the Cavaliers and gifted SU another possession, allowing two free throws from Buddy Boeheim to tie it.

Despite the loss, which eliminated Syracuse from the conference tournament, sequences like that deflected shot against Murphy reflected Guerrier’s growth in Syracuse’s defense throughout his second year. Head coach Jim Boeheim said after a loss to Duke on Feb. 22 that Guerrier wasn’t playing good defense and he didn’t know why. Two weeks later, Boeheim said that mistakes Guerrier makes in the zone are “normal.”

Guerrier is still Syracuse’s top rebounder, but has also lifted his block and steal numbers from last season from 25 and 15 to 26 and 22, respectively. His presence in the zone has grown, and continues to grow, in his first full season as a starter.

He’s served at the head of Syracuse’s press, the one that Boeheim said earlier in the season couldn’t “press a pair of pants.” But he still keyed comebacks in games against Notre Dame on Feb. 20 and Virginia last week — complementing his 14.4 points per game with more of a defensive presence than he did his first year at SU (16-9, 9-7 ACC) heading into his first NCAA Tournament game on Friday.

“His rotation has gotten better,” said Ibrahim Appiah, Guerrier’s coach at Thetford Academy. “I felt like he’s more instinctive now versus in the past where I felt like he was still thinking. Now, it’s like it’s pretty automatic.”

Last year, Appiah said, it was easy to diagnose Guerrier’s weaknesses. Offenses could set up on his side of the zone, eventually initiate a backdoor cut and have an easy lane to the basket. But that was Guerrier’s first year in the Syracuse zone, and it didn’t resemble anything close to what he would’ve played in high school — unless Thetford needed rest or was blowing an opponent out.

Guerrier’s defensive upbringing was shaped through man-defense principles at Thetford and with the Canadian national team. His off-ball defense needed work, head coach David DeAveiro said, but on the ball, he was strong.

That was normal, DeAveiro said. Most defenders that came through the Canadian national team as 16- and 17-year-olds were just “OK” — not much better and not much worse. Guerrier occasionally guarded an opponent’s top offensive threat at Thetford and served as their last line of defense in the press, tasked with halting transition opportunities that stemmed from breakdowns.

When Guerrier arrived at Syracuse, Appiah said he was initially surprised at how much rotation Boeheim’s defense required. The 2-3 sometimes extended to the point where it more closely resembled a 3-2 or 4-1, with the forwards on the blocks chipping in with the guards to pinch opposing 3-point shooters back.

“We need to know where (shooters) are all the time,” Guerrier said after SU’s season-opening win against Bryant. “Don’t lose them and all that.”

Guerrier spent last season learning his role in the zone while serving as Syracuse’s sixth man — tasked with coming in, grabbing rebounds, providing a spark off the bench or serving as a foul-trouble replacement. But even with the extra year in the zone, mishaps still followed. He crept too high up on the wing in the early minutes against Duke on Feb. 22, and Matthew Hurt cycled the ball once more to create an open 3 for the Blue Devils — beating Marek Dolezaj’s sprint from the middle of the paint to close out and cover for Guerrier.

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More coverage on Syracuse in the 2021 NCAA Tournament:

• Going dancing: Syracuse makes the 2021 NCAA Tournament as No. 11 seed
• Data breakdown: A closer look at Syracuse heading into NCAA Tournament
• Buddy Boeheim makes All-ACC Tournament team after averaging 29 points per game
• Is Syracuse poised for another March Madness run?
• Buddy Boeheim’s career-high 31 points not enough as Syracuse loses to Virginia

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Mixed in with those errors, though, were signs that Guerrier had started to complement his offensive game. Against Pitt on Jan. 6, his closeout with three minutes left in the first half forced an airball — and left Jeff Capel on the sidelines with his hands on his hips, standing on the floor shaking his head. Then, last week against Virginia, his tight closeout on Hauser, who was fading back as the shot clock ticked down into its final seconds, forced another UVA violation in the first half as SU built an early lead.

“A lot of people think playing zone is lazy, but you work way harder than man-to-man,” Appiah said.

With just under 90 seconds remaining against the Cavaliers and Syracuse trailing by two, Guerrier sprinted to the baseline after he made a basket. He thrusted his hands in the air before pivoting to the corner to trap Hauser with Robert Braswell and nearly forcing a turnover on UVA’s pass back into the middle of the court.

It took time for Guerrier to learn that, to piece everything together about a different defense — and a different role in the press — than he was used to. But then deflections and disruptions like those started to emerge, the evidence that Guerrier’s growth had started to do the same.

Published on March 17, 2021 at 11:24 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew