Syracuse men’s basketball (4-2, 0-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference) heads down south to Knoxville for the first time since 2002 to match up with 3rd-ranked Tennessee (7-0, 0-0 in Southeastern Conference). Over 20 years ago, the Volunteers took home a 66-62 victory over SU, and there may be one similarity between that game and Tuesday night… a low-scoring affair. The Vols have the second-best scoring defense in the nation and both squads merely scrape the top 100 of Division I scoring offenses.
Last year’s matchup between Syracuse and Tennessee somewhat resembled a defense-centric game. The Volunteers knocked off the Orange 73-56 in Maui, and SU was held to just 35% shooting from the field along with a 30% clip from deep.
Head Coach Adrian Autry after the game recognized his offense wasn’t playing up to standard when he said, “I think offensively we struggled a little bit. We missed some shots that we don't normally miss, you know we didn’t shoot the ball as well.”
LISTEN: @Cuse_MBB fell for the first time this season in the opening round of the Maul Invitational to No. 7 @Vol_Hoops 73-56. @JoePuccio_ and @Jackgordon10_ had the call from Honolulu. pic.twitter.com/XVAgpV708w
— WAER Sports (@WAERSports) November 20, 2023
That three-point percentage is very similar to SU’s rate this year. The Orange shoot just 32% on triples this year. The path for Syracuse’s tre-ball isn’t much easier against Tennessee. The Volunteers’ three-point percentage allowed ranks 20th in the country. Opposing teams shoot just 26% from beyond the arc.
However, recent games have shown potential remedies for that. Mainly, freshman Elijah Moore who made five threes in SU’s most recent game against Cornell. Coach Autry addressed the ups and downs of Syracuse’s shooting and simultaneously praised the guard after playing the Big Red. “We’re not shooting the ball well. He came in… he had five threes that were big.”
Moore was one of two freshmen that showed out against Cornell. Forward Donnie Freeman exploded for a season-high 23-point double-double. The freshman also shot 50% from the field against the Big Red. Prior to Cornell, Freeman registered just 14 points across two games. The former four-star prospect, according to ESPN, shot 1-7 from the field against Texas Tech. He also notched just one of six different three-point attempts in both contests. However, Freeman alongside Moore slayed the bear on Wednesday night. The young duo merged for over half of the Orange’s points in that game.
It's been common as of late for @Cuse_MBB to play tight games with mid-major foes.
— WAER Sports Talk (@WAERSportsTalk) November 30, 2024
Our host @IanNicholasTV thinks there's a solution to this: expand the roles of the freshmen.
📻: https://t.co/rgSgQL2ISS
💻: https://t.co/lY6EqitskE pic.twitter.com/0iyKITAJLs
Over to Tennessee, the undefeated Volunteers come off some of their best performances of the season. UTK triumphed in the Baha Mar Championship with victories over Virginia and 17th-ranked Baylor. Both of those wins were by 15+ points, and they included 25+ tally performances by team-leading scorer Chaz Lanier. The fifth-year guard averages nearly 18 points per game while shooting almost 50% from the field.
The Orange will have a large target to monitor prior to the matchup with the Volunteers. Syracuse faces off against Tennessee on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. WAER’s Countdown to Tipoff hits the airwaves at 7:00 p.m.