Tyler Lydon doesn’t remember much from Syracuse’s home loss to North Carolina earlier this season. It was nearly two months ago. The Orange has won nine conference games since, and it’s a little easier to think about those wins.

But when defending the Tar Heels’ vaunted frontcourt came up — specifically in the high post and short corner — Lydon recalled one specific thing about the Jan. 9 game.

In the final 8 minutes and 15 seconds, North Carolina shot 12-of-13 from the field and made 10 shots in the paint. A handful of those in-paint buckets came on one high-low play. A pass to Brice Johnson in the high post, a quick dump down to Isaiah Hicks in the short corner, and a dunk.

Johnson, Hicks, dunk.

Tic, tac, toe.

“Yeah, we’re really going to look at that play and try to improve in how we defended it,” Lydon said after Syracuse beat N.C. State on Saturday. “I mean we have to look at that.”

The Orange (19-10, 9-7 Atlantic Coast) will take on No. 7 North Carolina (23-6, 12-4) at the Dean E. Smith Center at 7 p.m. on Monday, and the backline of its zone will again face its toughest test of the season. While it is UNC’s frontcourt — made up of Johnson, Hicks, Kennedy Meeks and Joel James — that makes it one of the country’s top teams, it’s the Tar Heels’ offensive diversity that can dizzy the zone.

Because of perimeter threats like point guard Marcus Paige, Justin Jackson and Joel Berry, the wings of the 2-3 have to manage shooters on the wings and lurking big men in the short corners at the same time. When Johnson gets the ball in the high post, it’s nearly impossible to defend all three options of either shooting himself, skipping a pass to the wing or bouncing a pass into the post.

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And even if Syracuse doesn’t need to beat UNC for an NCAA Tournament bid, an upset over the Tar Heels could all but guarantee one. The chances of SU doing that rest in how well it can defend North Carolina’s multi-pronged attack.

“Look, the ball is going to get into the high post. We know that, they know that,” SU shooting guard Trevor Cooney said Saturday. “When it does get there we just need to be active. Guards have to get out to shooters, the center has to press up on the high post and the wings need to drop. It’s not simple maybe, but we know what we have to do.”

As Cooney pointed to, there is a formula to defending teams that score all over the court. But there a lot of moving parts: The guards have to go from denying the ball into the high post to locating shooters. The wings have to go from pressing up on those shooters to clogging passing lanes to the short corner. The center has to defend the high post, especially if the player is a threat to shoot like Johnson, but not go too early and leave the paint wide open.

After losing at Virginia on Jan. 24, SU head coach Jim Boeheim said his team’s interior defense was “non-existent.” The Cavaliers, which beat the Tar Heels in Charlottesville this past Saturday, worked the Orange inside and out despite having less offensive talent than the Tar Heels.

Fifteen days earlier, when UNC beat SU, Hicks came off the bench to lead UNC with 21 points, Johnson had 16 and doubled a previous career-high with eight assists, and Meeks, starting at center, made his return from injury to score an efficient eight points in 14 minutes. North Carolina finished with 46 points in the paint. And that was all while Paige, UNC’s top-scoring guard, finished with three points.

The Tar Heels can beat the Syracuse zone in all kinds of ways, and Lydon and his teammates are hell-bent on it not being that same high-low play. The slim possibility of an upset depends on that. The margin for error will be minuscule.

“It’s all about the wings and I think we’ll improve there,” Lydon said. “We have to focus on shooters but then make sure we are quick to drop down and defend that pass. We have to always be moving. I think that’s it, always moving.”

Published on February 28, 2016 at 10:00 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse