Syracuse hosts Monmouth with a fresh motive: to kill

Syracuse men’s basketball (3-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) has been burning through its early mid-major opponents. The Orange have sauntered off the court with their foes clamped to 50 points or less in all three games. SU hasn’t done that since 1949.

The next squad in Syracuse’s way is Monmouth (1-2, 0-0 Coastal Athletic Association). The Hawks cruised by their first opponent, Caldwell, with a 30-point win but ride a two game losing streak into the Dome on Tuesday. Syracuse, like its previous three games, are the hefty favorites.

SU has earned its average win margin of 36 points through this season's heightened focus on defense, more specifically, “kills”: a new advanced defensive metric coined by defensive coach Dan Engelstad and head coach Adrian Autry.

A “kill” represents three defensive stops in a row, and SU’s goal is to earn eight of them a game. Autry’s introduction of kills is part of a larger restructuring of Syracuse's defense. Last season, the unit was 152nd in the country in defensive rating and 275th in effective field goal percentage allowed, per KenPom. The Orange let opponents drop almost 80 points on them per game. That was the second most in the ACC. This season, Autry needed change.

“Mentality, disruptive, hunting. Those are the words that we describe how we play. We don't want anyone to be comfortable. We want to get after people and we're going to give up some stuff. That's fine. But everything is contested, whether it's a jump shot, at the rim, anything. That's what we worked on this summer.”

Through three games, Syracuse sits atop of America with 46.7 points allowed per game. Additionally, against the Orange, opponents shoot 28.6% from the field and 16% from deep – also the best defensive marks in the nation. SU's rather soft early schedule gives it ample time to apply this new defensive mindset before schedule strength ramps up around Thanksgiving. The Orange are meeting their eight kills-per-game mark; they average 10 through three outings.

Coach Autry wants to make it plenty clear that kills are here to stay. The JMA Wireless Dome jumbotron shows giant red “Xs” to indicate how many consecutive stops Syracuse has. On the third stop, that’s a kill. Big bold letters paint the scoreboard queuing the fans to lose it.

“I would like the crowd to go crazy because that’s very hard to do, to get three stops in a row,” Autry said.

‘Cuse Center William Kyle is a big reason Syracuse’s defense has been off to its deadly start. The UCLA transfer already has ten rejections, the second most in the ACC.

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Monmouth scores just 71 points per game so penetrating this Syracuse defense is a tall order. But the Orange have done more than just defend. Offensively, some big shoes have been filled early on.

In SU's 85-47 win over Binghamton to open the season, last year's leading scorer JJ Starling was plan A. But after the guard left the game with an injury just 2 minutes in, it was time for plan B: Kiyan Anthony.

Anthony rose to the occasion off the bench and put up 15 points in Starling’s place.

“I was in here for hours early, getting all the nerves out, getting a lot of shots up and it paid off,” Anthony said. “When my number was called, I was ready.”

In the two games that followed, Anthony started and combined for an efficient 37 points. The guard sits second on the roster in percentage from the field (63.6%) and from three-point range (44.4%). Head coach Adrian Autry has been impressed with the freshman’s early display.

“He’s a basketball player first of all… I know people want to keep saying he’s a three level scorer, he’s a really good basketball player. He can pass, he can score, he can make plays.”

Anthony has smoothly filled in Starling's usual starting spot. Though coach Autry says Starling is almost ready to hit the hardwood again.

“I think he's really close. I expect him back pretty soon… He's a big part of what we're doing. He's our captain, he's our leader. For our team to be whole, for this program to be where we think we can be, he's a big part of it and we need him.”

But as Starling inches closer to the green light, SU has a new injury on its hands in forward Tyler Betsey. On Saturday against Drexel, Betsey sparked a quick five points off the bench then was diffused after rolling his ankle with about nine-and-a-half minutes left before halftime.

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"I think it was his ankle, so I think he might've twisted it or rolled it. You know, I'll find out more when we get back in the next day or two. But it doesn't seem like it was that serious," said Autry.

Betsey was one of 11 new SU recruits and has been a key off the Orange bench or the “juicing station” as coach Autry calls it. In his 12.7 minutes, Betsey posts 7.3 points and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 43.8% from the field. If Starling and Betsey are marked absent, it could cause Syracuse to dig deeper into its juicing station, good for the solid Monmouth defense.

The Hawks keep their paint clean swatting back over 8 shots per game, the most in the CAA. This interior presence holds Monmouth's opponents to around 70 points per game, a top 3 mark in its conference. The main contributor to the rim protection lies in forward Jason Rivera-Torres. The junior averages over 5 stocks per game (2.3 steals, 2.7 blocks). He stands second in the CAA in both categories.

But Torres is also a leader with the basketball.

The forward cashes in the most points on Monmouth’s roster, 15, and does it productively. He sinks almost 50% of his shots from the field and is 5-10 from three across his 3 starts. Additionally, Torres keeps the glass clean with a team high 7.7 rebounds per game and is second on the roster in assists with over three per outing.

Torres is the Hawks’ everyman. Slowing him down will pay dividends for the Orange.

Monmouth marks Syracuse’s final opportunity to iron out any kinks before Power-five play begins in the Players Era Tournament next week in Las Vegas.

Catch all our coverage between Syracuse and Monmouth starting with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Tipoff at 8:30 for a 9 p.m. start time.