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If you couldn’t tell by the score, Syracuse was outmatched all night. Most of that had to do with SU’s inability to deal with mismatches created by Wake Forest.

In its 99-70 blowout loss to Wake Forest (14-7, 6-4 Atlantic Coast), an “unacceptable loss” according to head coach Adrian Autry, Syracuse (14-8, 5-6 ACC) allowed their opponent to shoot 66% from the field. Wake Forest’s 12 3-pointers were the most the Orange have conceded since a Dec. 2 blowout defeat on the road against Virginia. The Demon Deacons, particularly big forwards like Andrew Carr, were frequently able to create mismatches against SU.

Throughout the game, Carr, a 6-foot-11 forward, found himself matched up against guards like J.J. Starling, who is seven inches shorter, easily scored over him. Midway through the second half, with the game already starting to veer out of control for Syracuse, Carr worked from the left block and Starling as a switch defender. Carr just towered over Starling with the ball and scored to make the score 55-38.

But it wasn’t just against starting bigs like Carr. The Orange were even falling for switches against backups. As Hunter Sallis held the ball near the top of the key, he drew Starling and Maliq Brown — who initially was defending backup center Matthew Marsh.

With Brown now on Sallis, Marsh shuffled down low and leaped to catch a pass under the hoop. Justin Taylor and Chris Bell were both a step behind and hit each other while trying to deflect the pass. This left Marsh all alone for the easy layup to put the Demon Deacons up by double digits.

Carr said Wake Forest, who ended up scoring 57 points in the second half, got into a rhythm with its ball screen motions. He constantly came off screens and took advantage of mismatches. Carr used his combination of ball handling and size to hurt SU no matter who guarded him.

“In the first half they didn’t really know what they wanted to do, whether they were gonna switch when I set ball screens or not,” Carr said. “And then in the second half, they were switching a lot of things.”

While Carr offered a more detailed account of the Xs and Os, Autry on the other hand was much more blunt in his assessment of his team’s play. Autry was the most upset he had been all season in a postgame press conference, adding that the loss was the second time this season that the Orange didn’t “play well, respond well, play together and compete.”

When asked about the mismatches, Autry said his defense “didn’t play any defense at all.”

“We didn’t press the ball, we didn’t fight to get in front,” Autry said. “We didn’t do anything.”

SU’s double team switches showed what Autry was talking about in the postgame. With the score at 49-32 just over two minutes into the second half, Kevin Miller curled around the 3-point arc receiving a pass from Efton Reid, who set him a screen. The pick caused Brown and Judah Mintz to vacate the left side. Miller used his speed to draw the double team near the foul line before throwing a perfect pass to a wide open Sallis, who drilled a 3.

Sallis was just as proficient as his teammates in taking advantage of the switches off screen. But on Syracuse’s side, Brown usually was the one falling victim to the Demon Deacons’ forced mismatches. Brown said that the Orange struggled in stopping Wake Forest’s transition offense, but there were still more times throughout the game where the mismatches got to him.

Brown stood up at the top of the key when he and three fellow SU defenders tried to contain Reid. But with the switching defenders, Miller received the ball and blew by Brown and banked in another layup.

The Demon Deacons’ top two scorers on the night — Miller and Sallis — were frequently the beneficiaries as the game wore on. But a dejected Starling noted that it really was anyone wearing white, black and gold.

“They just moved the ball and found the hot hand or whoever was filling up at the time when they had the mismatch,” Starling said.

With Wake Forest having the hot hand in this respect, Starling, Mintz, Autry or anybody on SU’s sidelines had no answer for the mismatches. As Autry sat down for the postgame presser, he responded to every question with the clear intent to let everyone in Syracuse know that his team’s effort and performance were terrible.

In this sense, this made Syracuse’s loss inevitable. The back-breaking mismatches just made it a whole lot worse.

Published on February 4, 2024 at 12:32 am

Contact Henry: [email protected]