Observations from SU’s exhibition: Edwards explodes, lack of early long ball

To support student journalism and the content you love, become a member of The Daily Orange today.

Jim Boeheim continuously reiterated the same thing: Syracuse is going to learn a lot from the second half against Southern New Hampshire. The Orange had hiccups in their second exhibition game against the Penmen, namely a nearly seven minute stretch to open the second half without a field goal, but the final outcome was never in doubt. Syracuse took care of SNHU on Tuesday night with a 72-58 win.

“We didn’t win because we overpowered them,” Boeheim said. “We just won because we were better, but we didn’t overpower anybody for sure.”

Jesse Edwards flashed his length and skill grabbing rebounds, while Mounir Hima emerged as a dynamic backup center. Quadir Copeland and Symir Torrence played fast, yet with some glaring offensive mistakes, and the Orange have yet to find a 3-point shooter to complement Joe Girard III.

Here are some takeaways from Syracuse’s exhibition win over the Penmen.

Jesse takes over

Copeland and Torrence headlined a good chunk of the first half. Hima was taken out after four minutes, in which he scored a layup, grabbed a rebound and blocked a shot. John Bol Ajak and Peter Carey manned down the paint but had a difficult time controlling their dribble or finding enough space to make a layup. Through four minutes each, they garnered a total of two rebounds and two points.

Boeheim said that both Copeland and Girard made terrible mistakes, specifically driving into the lane and having nowhere to go. He said that while the game will naturally have more turnovers with 11 players playing, there’s no reason to have that many mistakes.

Torrence and Copeland drove quickly to the basket, but only Torrence managed one field goal. They tried to pass down low like they’d seen Judah Mintz do to Edwards, but ended the first half with a combined three turnovers. Against a better shooting team, those turnovers might have led to more than 23 first half points.

Copeland had just flipped over a pass inside to Carey as he looked to drive in on his man. Instead, Carey pulled up and airballed a one-handed floater attempt from the baseline. Boeheim had seen enough. Torrence sprinted everywhere on defense, forcing contested shots and ill-advised passes from the Penmen, but couldn’t do enough to keep himself in when he airballed a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Copeland, Torrence lead fast, but sloppy backups

Southern New Hampshire’s lineup featured Ryan Layman and Preston Santos, who were its tallest players, both standing at 6-foot-7. Edwards easily showed off his length and ability to grab errand rebounds off of missed shots, but got beat a few times going over the top of some of the smaller SNHU players, drawing fouls that frustrated Boeheim.

“Just stay down a little bit more. And that’s the way it’s supposed to go,” Edwards said. “If they make it, they make it. It’s a tough shot.”

With 12:25 left in the first half, Girard took the ball up off of a missed three pointer from the Penmen. Edwards jogged alongside him, then quickly broke inside when he saw the mismatch of Layman between him and the basket. As he broke, Girard stopped his dribble and dumped the ball down to Edwards, who finished off the sequence with a dunk, hardly contested by Layman.

Boeheim said his charts from practice show Edwards is shooting about 24% from the field when he wants to pull up instead of going to the hoop. Edwards hardly did that last year and did so only sparingly against the Penmen.

Syracuse only began scoring two minutes and 42 seconds into the second half. It maintained its lead, however, as Edwards on the defensive side continued to stand tall down low. Within the first three and a half minutes, he’d blocked two layup attempts and — with his 6-foot-11 body outstretched above the SNHU ball handler — interrupted two other potential shots.

Can Mounir Hima be a center stop-gap?

Hima grabbed 58 boards and blocked 21 shots in limited playing time last year, but only saw a few minutes of playing time in his first exhibition game with Syracuse.

Boeheim described him as active. Ajak said that he’s a great guy behind Edwards to be able to dump the ball down to in the paint. But Hima had three over the back calls and racked up five fouls in eight minutes. Boeheim said that Hima needs to know the smaller teams like SNHU are going to block him out and he can’t go over the top.

“He’s active. He can block a shot,” Boeheim said.

Hima played more minutes than Ajak and Carey, grabbed one fewer rebound than Edwards and blocked two shots through 12 minutes. During Hima’s first segment of playing time, he got too eager on a block and drew a goaltending call. Boeheim cautioned him to slow down from the sidelines. On the ensuing defensive possession, Hima jumped a hair earlier and lunged toward the ball slightly more, earning a block with less than a minute left in the first half.

3-point shooting struggles early

Girard has a career 35.5% from deep, but he’s slid over to the shooting guard spot with the addition of Mintz. After the first half against the Penmen, the Orange had hit just 3-of-10 three pointers, many of which were tightly contested.

Girard’s usual catch-and-shoot from the point guard was tightly contested a number of times, though he did manage to finish 2-for-4. Everyone but Chris Bell missed their sole 3-point attempts in the first half.

Torrence said Syracuse isn’t a three-point shooting team. It can make threes if necessary, and did at a 30% clip on Tuesday night, but that’s not who the Orange are going to be this year. He doesn’t believe that the Orange will be as cold from deep this season as they were Tuesday — though Boeheim recognized that multiple shooters can get cold at the same time.

“Our offense was why they caught up. It had nothing to do with our defense,” Boeheim said. “Our offense was horrendous, awful.”

The Penmen started to pressure the Orange, playing tight man defense on Williams and Mintz even as they were a few feet back from the three-point arc. Matt Becht got handsy with Mintz at the top of the key, forcing him to get rid of the ball as quickly as he got it. Then following a steal by Edwards down low, Williams received the kick out pass and left the shot short on a wide open attempt.

The zone lives another day

The patented 2-3 Syracuse zone might be in the twilight of its life with the Orange. But Boeheim isn’t going to trash it completely. He mentioned that the personnel Syracuse has this year lends itself to playing a more man-to-man defense. But the zone, because of the relative ease it takes to teach, would still be in use. The Orange successfully showcased it against Southern New Hampshire.

“I don’t think there’s any decision that’s been made on that. It’s a work in progress, both defenses,” Boeheim said.

Playing the zone at times also allowed Edwards to keep one foot near the paint and still guard a possible 3-pointer. When SNHU would check down to a guard in the corner like Kamba, Edwards could bleed out and stick his hand in his face. Meanwhile, Bell or Williams would slide in to helm the basket for Edwards.