Takeaways from blowout 85-61 Syracuse loss to Louisville

On January 17, 2025By Littum

SYRACUSE, NY — In front of a subdued and sparse crowd inside the JMA Wireless Dome, the Syracuse Orange played to the same level they have all season.

After grabbing 2-0 and 3-2 leads, the Orange never led again, falling 85-61 at home to Louisville. It was the biggest loss inside the Dome since Duke defeated Syracuse 97-72 in 2022.

Here are a few takeaways:

Updating metrics

Wins over Georgia Tech and Boston College lifted Syracuse ten spots in KenPom, up to 114th, but Tuesday night’s blowout loss dropped SU all the way to 128th.

That’s the lowest Syracuse has ranked on KenPom since at least when day-by-day tracking began for the 2010-11 season.

JJ Starling was shut down

After a second half in which JJ Starling scored 20 points and got to the court when he wanted to, Louisville completely shut off the water. The Cardinals limited Starling to just seven field goal attempts in 32 minutes, making him a decision maker with the ball in his hands rather than someone who can attack the basket.

He missed his first three shots in the opening minutes, and didn’t get another shot off until less than four minutes remained in the first half. A couple of his missed shots were chances that he usually converts, but when those shots don’t fall, it sets the Orange back offensively.

It was the first time this season that Starling was held under 12 points, finishing with just four after a scoreless first half. In addition, he turned the ball over six times, which was a career high. Coming off passes and ball screens, additional defensive attention made life difficult for the Orange to execute their actions properly, and SU had to scramble for other answers.

Syracuse couldn’t get to Plan B

After the game, Adrian Autry said Syracuse’s Plan B when Starling struggled was to get the ball in the paint. He also added that SU did not do well enough.

Eddie Lampkin scored just two points in the first half as the Cardinals forced him away from the paint. Because Syracuse couldn’t get into its favorite actions for Starling, Lampkin had to get up higher than he’d like and try to create offense himself, which also hurt SU. When Lampkin got going in the second half, the margin was already up to 20 points.

Syracuse scored just 28 points in the paint, well below its season average of 36.7. The fewest points in the paint Syracuse has scored in a win this season is 30 against Colgate, but SU has scored at least 34 points in the paint in every other win. When Syracuse wins, the team averages 43.5 points. In losses, the figure is down to 30.7. In SU’s last four defeats, the orange have not cracked 30 points in the paint.

Louisville penalized fouls

Good teams will make you pay for mistakes, and Louisville did exactly that. With 90 seconds left in the first half, two Syracuse defenders belatedly dived for a loose ball after it was punted, then James Scott delivered a ground pass to a wide-open Chucky Hepburn in the corner. Hepburn drained his fifth three-pointer in the first half. It was one of many examples of “junk ball” turning into points for the Cardinals.

Many of Louisville’s 12 made threes were generated quickly as Syracuse’s defense didn’t do a good job of limiting quality looks.

On two separate occasions, Hepburn got the ball under the orange basket and he found his way behind the arc for a wide open three. On the first occasion, Starling tried to guard against a pass towards the basket, but it backfired when Aboubacar Traore screened for Hepburn to go to the corner after the inbound James Scott turned into an easy triple.

Louisville ran a similar play in the second half, taking advantage of the Orange’s adjustment trying to take a pass into the lane, screening Starling out of the game after sending a pass to the elbow, and Hepburn drained a wide-open shot.

The Cardinals scored ten points from five BLOB opportunities.

Additionally, Louisville was 11-11 from the foul line.

Other notes

For the second time in the last few weeks, Elijah Moore got the start but only played six minutes.

Chris Bell has scored in double figures in three of his last four games since being moved to the bench.

Jyare Davis scored 10 points in the first half but did not score in the second half.

Petar Majstorovic stayed out of foul trouble and played a season-high 19 minutes. However, the Orange was -13 in those minutes.