Syracuse (1-0) opened up its 2017-18 season with a resounding 77-45 win over Cornell (0-1) on Friday night in the Carrier Dome. An offseason highlighted by the departure of four of its five starters from last season and six new players coming in officially ended with the game’s opening tip. Now, with the season underway, some questions about the team can begin to be answered.

Mixed bag as Moyer makes debut

Midway through the second half, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim pulled Matthew Moyer aside coming into a timeout and pointed under the basket. He wanted his starting forward to find a player to body when Cornell shot because, on Friday night when the Big Red shot 25 percent, that usually meant a rebound was coming.

“A couple times,” Boeheim said, “he didn’t block out and he came out quickly. He can’t do that, he’s got to make those plays. … He’s got to rebound and play defense.”

In 28 minutes against Cornell, Moyer displayed the scrappy play that teammates said he needed to provide this season while pulling down 10 boards, snagging two steals and hitting two of his five shots. He had measured closeouts. He had one of the dunks of the night. If the ball came near him, he either got a hand on it or jostled the Big Red player who ended up with it.

Syracuse has its center spot locked down with Paschal Chukwu and Bourama Sidibe, but Moyer understands that the power forward spot, outside the Orange’s three-guard lineup, seems to be a competition between just him and freshman Marek Dolezaj.

“I consider myself the leader of the forward’s group, especially on the defensive end,” Moyer said. “When we don’t do our job on the defensive end, as you saw in the first half, we get scored on and we’re losing. … It’s just awesome to finally go out there.”

SU experiments with three-guard lineup

Even though SU lost a lot of its contributors from a year ago, its guard rotation seems set. Tyus Battle is the lone returning starter from a year ago, improving on his game in his sophomore season. Next to him is junior point guard Frank Howard who has contributed just a minor role in each of the last two seasons.

Additionally, the one graduate transfer that SU brought in this year is combo guard Geno Thorpe. Three of the Orange’s four guards are veteran players, while four of the five frontcourt members just finished playing their first game.

On media day, Boeheim said that Battle was probably the best rebounder from the small forward spot anyway. Boeheim was happy with the results after tonight’s game but still think that unit has a way to go.

“We’re looking at that to play the three guards some of the time,” Boeheim said. “Geno, he’s just behind where he should be or we would’ve seen more of that. We need to get him going and let him get in there and get comfortable. That lineup, we will use that lineup this year for sure at times.”

For the most part, when those three played together, they were flanked by Marek Dolezaj at power forward and Bourama Sidibe inside. Boeheim said he was happy with how Dolezaj played in that lineup.

“He has a knack for finding that open space and getting those 3s and I think when he can make that shot, that’s a big play,” Boeheim said. “And he’s really good on defense.”

Tyus Battle clearly leads Syracuse’s offense

At ACC media day two weeks ago, Howard said that this team has an identity early in the season that it lacked last year. He said the team knew its offense would run through Battle.

Battle showed as much on Friday night, attacking relentlessly for a Syracuse team and dominating possession. The Orange offense was fairly stagnant with or without him on the court, but he was on he was there to score for SU.

On SU’s first possession of the game he got the ball by the left corner in front of Cornell’s bench. Battle took a hard dribble toward the baseline then stepped back and knocked down a jumper. Later, he came off a Paschal Chukwu screen and pulled up from the free throw line, hitting another jumper.

“He’s got a swagger to him, a confidence,” Cornell head coach Brian Earl said. “He can make a lot of shots in a lot of different ways.”

Battle knocked down two of his five 3-point attempts on the day. He got fouled on two more of them, earning him six attempts at the free throw line.

Even when his shots weren’t going in, he was playing well. On two separate occasions, Battle blew by his defenders but had layups rattle out. On both occasions, Sidibe was there to clean it up.

The most clear example of SU’s reliance on its second-year scorer was when it got in a jam. The Orange got stuck with the shot clock winding down. With four seconds left, Thorpe swung the ball back to Battle to make a play.

“I mean four seconds, you’ve gotta make something happen,” Battle said. “So as soon as I saw that ball in the air I knew I was pulling it up.”

Boeheim said postgame that he was happy with Battle’s aggressiveness in the game. Battle has never been an aggressive scorer before, but he’ll need to be for the Orange. On Friday night, he was.

Published on November 10, 2017 at 11:54 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer