South Florida Postgame Breakdown and Tempo Analysis

Syracuse beat South Florida 89-77 Saturday at the Dome behind the strong efforts of the entire starting five once again.

Donte Green finished with a team high 21 points and has eclipsed the 20 point mark in his first two Big East games. Paul Harris and Arinze Onuaku finished with double-doubles; Harris with 20 and 13 and Onuaku with 16 and 12.

Syracuse again only got 24 minutes off the bench. Rick Jackson and Kristof! Ongenaet both were out on the court for 12 minutes, the Belgian Baller managed to foul out in those 12 minutes. This is a cause for concern because Kristof! has been picking up fouls faster than he changes his hair. If one of the starters gets into foul trouble, Kristof! can't be coming into the game in the second half also in foul trouble.

Syracuse's depth reminds me of a darkhorse for the National Championship. Texas faces the same problem Syracuse does. The Longhorns have an incredible starting, maybe the best in the nation, but lack depth. Their lack of depth cost them in their losses against two Big Ten schools Michigan St. and Wisconsin. All five starters play 3o minutes a game like Syracuse and they only go about eight deep overall. The three players off their bench see about 25 minutes a game between them.

Texas stays fresh by slowing the tempo of the game and limiting turnovers. Typically turnovers speed up the game as most transition opportunities are the result of turnovers. Texas also plays a type of defense similar to Pitt's. They do not force a lot of turnovers which would speed up the game, but instead force team's to use the entire shot clock and force their opponents into bad shots.

So I ask the question: What does Syracuse do at this point? Their lack of depth will cost them key games down the road and I don't know if there's ever been a team that has a national championship playing just seven men. Should they continue their up tempo play or slow things down and manufacture points out of the half court and buckle down on defense?

Slow it Down:
Advantages: If Syracuse slows it down they will benefit at the end of the game because they will be fresher. Last year we saw Syracuse make many late game surges due to a slightly slower pace and the 2-3 zone. The zone requires less energy to play than man to man. If Syracuse slows things down, the 2-3 zone will be key to their success. If they can play an active 2-3 zone and extend it like they did against Virginia this year, the slow pace of the game will benefit Syracuse greatly. Several of Syracuse's best defensive performances came in their four slowest paced games.

Disadvantages: Syracuse can't score when they slow things down. That's pretty plain and simple. It's been on this team's problems for awhile. They have trouble putting teams away because they slow things down trying to take time off the clock and they can't score. They let leads slip away last year numerous times, two games come to mind from last year- Depaul and Cincinnati. Saturday against South Florida, the offense struggled again when they slowed things down. The second half they still scored 42 points, but 10 of those came late on free throws and poor full court defense in the last minute plus. During the majority of the second half, Syracuse tried executing their offense out of the half court instead of getting out and running.

It was pretty obvious they were really struggling at times to score. Late in the second half, the Orange went almost five minutes without scoring. This team lacks the ability to be efficient in the half court and needs to run to be successful.

Keep running:
Disadvantages: Frankly, there is one and only one disadvantage to playing an up-tempo game is their depth. With only two scholarship players able to come off the bench and hang in the game with Big East caliber players, these guys will get tired during a game in which each team gets the ball 80 times and each member of the starting five has to play 35 minutes. Having to play 35 minutes a game won't take its toll as the season increases until the Big East tournament when they have to play on consecutive days. They always have plenty of days to rest up as they only play twice in three days once the rest of the year. Playing 36 minutes instead of 32 every game isn't collectively going to tire them out.

Advantages: Most teams can't hang with Syracuse when the Orange decide they are going to run up and down the court and force you into their tempo. More often then not, Syracuse has forced their game on their opponent. Most teams can't play at the insane level of efficiency Syracuse does when they get to run. The team is at an elite group of teams is six different offensive categories. They also lead the Big East in scoring. Their defense is slowing getting better as the year progresses. In their last nine games, they've only had a defensive efficiency above 100 twice which is a benchmark for good defense. In the first six games, their D.E. was above 100 four times including a 132 in the loss against UMASS.

My recommendations: Keep running and improving as a team. Luke Winn for Sports Illustrated broke down contenders by their efficiency, saying teams need to be somewhere around 25th or better in both offensive and defensive efficiency to be serious title contenders. Syracuse is already there offensively and probably will only improve as the season progresses as these guys gel together. They are currently ranked 73rd in defense. Not terrible, but not great either, but it is good. If this team can really learn how to play the 2-3 zone and limit the offensive rebounds teams get, a key weakness of the zone this team could creep into the top 50.