MBB | Size inside helps SU outplays smaller Dolphin man defense

By: Michael Bonner

Posted: 11/17/08

As Syracuse walked onto the court, it clearly had a distinct advantage. Arinze Onuaku, Paul Harris and even Kristof Ongenaet dwarfed their defenders.

When the undersized Le Moyne squad opened in man-to-man, Harris' eyes lit up.

"Oh, when they went man, that was like a blessing, honestly." Harris said.

The Orange beat the Dolphins, 85-51, by storming out of the gates to a 13-0 run over the first 4:33. Midway through the first half, SU extended the lead to 21-6.

Onuaku is listed at 6-foot-9, 275 pounds. Harris, 6-foot-4, 230, and Ongenaet, starting at power forward, is 6-foot-8, 215. All three starters outweighed the Dolphins' biggest player, who measures at 6-foot-7, 210.

"Obviously, playing man-to-man, we were able to get the ball right inside quick," head coach Jim Boeheim said. "And we got a couple, two or three easy baskets. You know they're not big and strong enough to play us in a man-to-man."

Two of the first five trips down the floor ended with Le Moyne hacking Onuaku. He didn't get on the board until the 10:57 mark of the first half, but his presence alone in the post created offense for the Orange.

In the man defense, once the ball was thrown into Onuaku, Le Moyne had to collapse down. This usually left someone on the Orange open.

"They can't hang with Arinze down there, they're going to have to double team him every time," said SU guard Andy Rautins, who finished with a career-high nine assists.
"And you know a double team leads to a kick out and a wide-open 3. We just did a great job of exploiting their defense tonight."

It's how the game started. Harris went up for a layup and was stripped. As the Le Moyne defenders collapsed down low, Eric Devendorf hit a 3-pointer to give the Orange a 3-0 lead.

The Orange was getting open looks from beyond the arc, but it wasn't executing. Syracuse shot 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) from long range. But the misfires led to points. Eight of the Orange's first 19 points came as a result of missed 3-point shots that were followed up by SU. Syracuse finished the game with 20 second-chance points on 19 offensive rebounds. By comparison, the Dolphins finished with 20 defensive boards.
SU finished the half scoring 26 of its 34 points in the paint. After Devendorf's 3-pointer to begin the game, the Orange reeled off 22 consecutive points in the paint.

"It was kind of surprising, an undersized team, I definitely thought they would be in a zone," said SU point guard Jonny Flynn, who finished with a game-high 17 points.
"But you know when a team is used to playing man-to-man all the time, they're not going to switch up their principles for everybody."

The domination inside forced the Dolphins to switch to zone, but the Orange still found ways to score.

The size of the Orange allowed it to excel with its man-to-man defense. Yes, man-to-man defense. Surprising, considering Boeheim's propensity to use the zone.

Onuaku and Rick Jackson swatted three shots apiece. In the backcourt, Flynn and Rautins both picked the offense's pocket four times. Many times the deflections, whether shots or passes, led to quick easy points.

"Getting up into defenders, creating havoc, you know, getting in the passing lanes, denying the ball, everything with us starts with defense," Flynn said, "A lot of our first points were off of transition things, steals, deflections, quick rebounding and outlets and things like that. If we could play like that, that's fun basketball right there."

What isn't fun is when the home team has a 30-point cushion. But still, the Orange can take lessons from the game. Although undersized, Le Moyne's defense gave SU a good tune-up for future defenses.

"You look at a team like Villanova, they play man-to-man versus everybody no matter how small their lineup is out there," Flynn said. "It's good to play against undersized teams like that, because it will get us ready for teams like Villanova, Marquette and teams in our league that are really good."

mibonner@syr.edu