Syracuse reverts back to its patented zone defense in 94-92 win over Louisville

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When Adrian Autry was first introduced as Syracuse men’s basketball’s head coach, he was asked whether or not his team would be a zone or man-to-man team. In his response, Autry promised the Orange would be “versatile” and play whatever defense they needed to play at that moment.

In SU’s (15-8, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) thrilling 94-92 win over Louisville (7-16, 2-10 ACC), Autry’s team reverted back to the zone for nearly the entirety of the night. The Orange played the zone primarily to stop the Cardinals near the basket. But in turn, they allowed their opponent to shoot 44% from 3, a concerning mark considering Louisville was the 313th-best 3-point team in the country heading into the contest.

There were varying degrees of experience with the zone among the six players who primarily took part in the contest. But there was consensus that it must improve with matchups against dynamic offenses like Clemson and No. 3 North Carolina in the near future.

“It was the first time that we played this much zone the whole year. So the zone wasn’t up to par,” Autry said postgame. “We worked on it (for) a couple of days. We worked on it every day. But to play it this much, that was the first time we did it all year and so we have to get better at that.”

SU immediately started the game showing a mix of a 2-3 and 3-2 zone. And almost immediately, it seemed as though the defense famously used for 47 years by Jim Boeheim was going to cause headaches. The Cardinals jumped out to a 9-2 lead, with six of those points coming off dunks and layups.

Autry said Louisville “puts pressure in the paint” and added that that style would be how it would play for all 40 minutes. Indeed, the Cardinals force their way inside. According to KenPom, 53% of Louisville’s points come from 2-pointers, a mark that ranks fifth in the ACC. Furthermore, 23.4% of its points come from free throws, which ranks 22nd in the nation.

To counter this tendency to go inside, the Orange relied primarily on six guys: the starting five (Judah Mintz, J.J. Starling, Chris Bell, Justin Taylor, Maliq Brown) and Quadir Copeland off the bench. Autry said the heavy reliance on those six players did not impact the team’s decision to play a 2-3 zone defense and was insistent that it was just a coaching decision.

“Louisville is a big, physical, strong team,” Autry said. “They get the ball inside and they are playing some of the best basketball in this last five or six game stretch.”

Autry, Copeland and Starling all said they wanted Louisville to shoot from deep. But the head coach wasn’t kidding about the Cardinals playing their best ball of the year as they shot the lights out from beyond the arc.

Guard Skyy Clark thrived as he and his teammates slashed through the 2-3 zone to find open looks in the corners. Clark hit a critical triple in the second half from the corner to give Louisville a 76-72 lead with 7:21 to go. On another 3-point shot in the first half, Clark had Copeland right in his face in the zone. It didn’t matter and Clark swished the shot.

Copeland said although he is in his second year at Syracuse, he didn’t get much playing time last year in the zone so he still is learning it. Starling, coming from Notre Dame, held a similar sentiment.

“It was definitely different but (it was) something we practiced,” Starling said. “Obviously we play man majority of the time but we know it can be a good tool for us.”

There were some moments where the Orange decided to play some man defense. That didn’t change the defensive outcome, though.

Louisville inbounded the ball from midcourt with 12 seconds left and SU came out in man defense. But after a hard screen from Kaleb Glenn, Clark, the ball handler, had some open space and the guard nailed his fourth 3-pointer of the night, tying the game at 89.

With the game taking the form of an offensive shootout, there was one adjustment that eventually did make the difference.

Starling added that once Louisville started to make more shots, SU decided to go over on the opposing team’s ball screens instead of staying under the screen. While this defensive change didn’t entirely stop the Cardinals, it did on the last possession.

After Copeland scored on a goaltending call to put the Orange up 94-92 with 3.8 seconds remaining, Clark ran up the floor with the ball and received a screen at center court from Brandon Huntley-Hatfield. While this screen tripped up Mintz, Brown, who was guarding the zone where Huntley-Hatfield was, decided to move up and over the screen in order to play the ball-handler instead.

With Brown in his face, Clark threw up one final shot that didn’t even hit the rim and Syracuse escaped with the narrow victory. Copeland admitted that there were some aspects of the defense the team had to improve on, like playing quicker in the zone and stopping from becoming fatigued. It was part of completing playing together as a team.

“That’s really what it was all about because our team got each other’s backs,” Copeland said. “We got to stay together in moments like this.”