Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse University men’s basketball team picked a bad day to have a bad day.
The Orange ran out of its own toes to stub on Saturday in Chestnut Hill, committing 18 turnovers that led directly to 22 points for the Eagles in an 81-73 loss to Boston College in overtime.
“You can’t win and beat anybody with 18 turnovers,” Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said. “The turnovers led to points. I thought that was the difference. We’re better than that. We have to take care of the ball. Eighteen turnovers is insane.”
Sports are not scripted, but SU could ill afford to go off the page on Saturday.
Saturday’s loss did more than damage the metrics that are taken into consideration by the NCAA selection committee.
This was an image loss after failing to beat the last-place team in the conference in front of a bipartisan crowd on the road.
The Orange had won six of its prior seven games and three straight overall.
It had to bank a seventh in eight games and fourth straight overall against a bad BC squad before the schedule starts to ramp up and the margin for error gets razor thin.
That’s what teams that play meaningful games in March do.
BC had a NET ranking of 182 entering Saturday’s game, which logs a Quad 3 loss for Syracuse.
Saturday’s game was a Bachman–Turner Overdrive special for the Orange, and it failed to take care of business.
Instead, SU worked at nothing all day.
SU’s North Star, Donnie Freeman, had seven turnovers, which, at least you can offset with the 19 points and 14 rebounds he added to the box score.
It’s a little tougher to excuse point guard Naithan George tossing away seven turnovers while collecting just two assists.
To his credit, George owned it after the game.
“I’m trying my hardest not to turn the ball over,” George said. “And you know, when you put it in your head too much, it actually becomes a thing. So I gotta just let my mind free and play free.”
George was coming off a terrific two-game stretch where he had 24 assists to just 10 turnovers.
He’s been there and done that having run the show at Georgia Tech, so he knows mama said there’d be days like Saturday.
It’s also a reminder that Syracuse brought in and is paying George to guide it through the ACC ringer better than that.
As for Autry, he didn’t do much on Saturday to reassure SU fans he should be guiding the Orange past this season if it fails to make the NCAA Tournament.
His hockey line substitution patterns are often momentum killers.
Even the players he did sub put up a measly two points compared to 20 bench points for the Eagles.
Autry should have clearly fouled at the end of regulation with the Orange up three on the Eagles (64-61).
Instead BC’s Donald Hand Jr. hit a 3-pointer in the closing seconds to tie the game at 64 before the Eagles punked SU in overtime.
SU’s offensive identity is still a, err, *shoulder shrug*.
Bottomline, how much do you trust Autry as a tactician to outwit, outplay and outlast an opposing coach these days?
SU’s schedule only tightens up from here, starting with Virginia Tech on Wednesday at the JMA Wireless Dome (9 p.m.; ACC Network)
The Hokies have a NET ranking (as of this writing) of 54, making that a Quad 2 opportunity for SU.
The rest of the month has a visit from Miami (31), a trip to N.C. State and a visit from Notre Dame (73).
If Miami gets to 30 or higher in the NET, that becomes a Quad 1 opportunity for SU. N.C. State (29) is holding firm as a Quad 1 while the Irish (73) should be a Quad 2.
Peeking over the horizon to February, SU’s opponents currently rank in the NET as follows:
North Carolina (twice)—30
Virginia-14
Cal-68
SMU-32
Duke-3
Wake Forest-59
Right now, that’s seven Quad 1 opportunities left on the schedule.
Win a few of those (and hold your own in the Quad 2 games) and that’s a spoon full of sugar that could help the medicine go down from Saturday’s bad day in Boston.
“We got a lot of great opportunities, and that’s the thing that I told our guys,” Autry said.
We talked about all that and more on Syracuse basketball postgame, presented by Crouse Health.
The full show is available above in the YouTube clip.
Listen to our postgame show on “Syracuse Sports”, available on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and wherever you listen to podcasts.