SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse Orange men’s basketball improved to 2-0 on Thursday night, handing Central Connecticut State a 102-49 drubbing inside the JMA Wireless Dome. Syracuse dominated from start to finish in the final buy game before the first two high-major matchups of the season.
The Orange played a complete game, generating optimism leading into Monday’s matchup against Indiana in Indianapolis.
Here are some takeaways
Offensive Nirvana
Syracuse scored 102 points in regulation for the first time
since December 2024. But the more impressive number is the 1.52 points per possession, its highest total since 1.59 against Holy Cross in November 2016. The Orange shot 76% from inside the arc, and had a 72 eFG%. That is the highest effective field goal percentage since March 2011 against DePaul.
I thought that Syracuse’s first half – where it shot 58% from the field and scored 47 points – would have a chance to stand as Syracuse’s best offensive half of the season. It wasn’t even the best offensive half of the game.
In the second half, Syracuse scored 55 points on 70% from the field, shooting 6-for-11 from three. The final tally? 1.72 points per possession over the final 20 minutes.
And it was a balanced attack all night as well. Four Syracuse players scored at least 14 points, led by Gavin Doty with 18 points. But four additional SU players chipped in with eight points.
Mark Morano: Nebraska Track 8
The astute Bruce Springsteen fans in the audience have already identified what this is about, but for those of you who aren’t quite as Boss-inclined, I can spell it out. Mark Morano was open all night.
Syracuse has a deep bag of actions that it can run to generate looks for Morano, as he’s the team’s best three-point shooter. We certainly saw a bunch of those actions on Thursday, but what really struck me was how often they resulted in good looks. Morano attempted nine threes, and just about all of them were clean looks. There was even a time when Morano didn’t take a good look – and promptly got screamed at.
“We run a lot of sets for Mark to get shots and you can see why,” Amarri Monroe said. “We’re living with any shot that he takes, no matter how far it is, no matter how close it is.”
CCSU simply didn’t have the bodies to get over screens, and Morano torched the nets, shooting four-for-nine from deep. Through two games, Morano has attempted 17 threes, and made seven of them. He has just one turnover as well.
“Whenever I see him have a sliver of openness,” Ryan Moesch said. “I’m gonna try to get him the ball.”
They looked the part physically
Playing off the idea that CCSU couldn’t fight over screens to guard Morano, Syracuse did a great job most of the night navigating CCSU’s screens. I thought there were multiple possessions where Garwey Dual displayed textbook screen navigation, attaching himself to the offensive player and stepping back in front. The Blue Devils simply couldn’t get to the rim whatsoever. Their average two-point field goal came from 9.7 feet away from the basket – which ranks in the first percentile. More than 50% of their two-point attempts were mid-range shots.
Luke Wilson, Sadiq White, and Amarri Monroe also delivered juice on both ends in the frontcourt. White, who was maligned by McNamara for his rebounding in the exhibitions, had nine rebounds in the first half, putting together his second consecutive double-digit rebounding game. Monroe’s physicality was felt just about every minute that he was on the floor. He had multiple power drives on offense, and a few strong defensive plays.
Wilson didn’t have a big day on the glass, but he bullied the CCSU frontline down low, scoring 14 points on just six field goal attempts.
Indiana presents a different challenge though, as the Hoosiers boast two seven-footers in the frontcourt. White says the Orange will be ready.
“Bring physicality,” he said. “Meet them. We’re not gonna back down from nothing.”
A full 40
After Monday night’s game, McNamara was angry about Syracuse’s poor second half. He had very little to complain about on Thursday. The Orange dominated all aspects of the game for the full 40 minutes.
It’s the first time in five games this year that Syracuse can say that. They had their stretches of strong play – early against UConn, early against Niagara, early against New Haven – but SU hadn’t been able to sustain it until Thursday.
“I thought we played more disciplined for longer stretches,” McNamara said Thursday. “(On Monday) I just feel like we played the score. It means you’re not playing as hard as you should. We didn’t play the score tonight. We played the possession. And that was what I was happy about.”
