SU's 65-59 victory over (unranked) North Carolina State, was hardly a victory. The Orange had it so close that the 5 free-throws they made in the last 2 minutes actually bought them the win. These kinds of games should *not* be happening to the "number 8/7" team in the country. Syracuse is playing, and barely winning, against teams like William and Mary, Michigan and North Carolina State which makes me wonder how Syracuse can hold up against any team in the Big East once conference play starts. The University of Connecticut (UConn) is playing extremely well, beating top ranked teams, while we struggle against teams that we should be beating by huge margins.
As we go into a very important game against Michigan State, the number 2 ranked team in the country, I can't help but wonder if we can come together as a team and play the game well enough to win against an actual opponent. Don't get me wrong, I think that William and Mary, as well as all the other opponents we've played, played a great game and should be commended for their efforts, but countless points were because of mistakes that the Orange made. That shouldn't happen against teams like William and Mary.
What I think Syracuse needs to do is begin playing as themselves. What I can see is Kris Joseph (3-12 from inside and 0-4 from outside) trying to replace Weseley Johnson, and Jardine (2-8 from outside tonight) trying to take the place of Andy Routins on the outside. What the team needs to understand is that this Syracuse team is completely different from that of the team last year, and we shouldn't try to play like we did last year, nor can we. The Orange need to tailor how they play to this team, not try and play as they did in 2009-2010. To me, it seems like they feel that they know what to do, but aren't playing instinctively. They're playing as though they're a broken machine, some parts are working fine, others can't manage to do a thing. Each game, a different part of that machine is broken. How Boeheim can make this machine work together, and begin to work well, he'll need to convince his players to play as themselves, and not try to replace Johnson or Routins.
