Pitarresi: SU game plan works to perfection

I don’t often think of game plans when it comes to basketball.

 

Stupid me.

 

Jim Boeheim had one today and his Syracuse University Orange executed it very well on the way to an important Big East basketball victory over Notre Dame.

 

You could say the game came down to shooting. SU shot very well. Notre Dame didn’t. The Orange won, 93-74.

 

But that scenario was set up in part by the way the plan was laid out – attack Irish star Luke Harangody and 3-point shooting star Kyle McAlarney, too, and make them work very hard on defense with the idea it would take away from their offense. It might not have worked so well with McAlarney – a better all-around player in the flesh than the one you see on television – since he made 7 of 14 3-pointers - but it did with Harangody.

 

Harangody is a great offensive player. Boeheim said that over and over again after the game, and he’s right. He can score and he can rebound. He isn’t a great defensive player – not that there are too many of those in college basketball anyway – and the Orange tried to wear him out at that end. Arinze Onuaku did that by backing him down to the basket and scoring 12 first-half points, then forcing him out of his pet spots when he was on offense, making him take shots he doesn’t normally take and maybe force a few that he shouldn’t have taken.

 

Harangody, who chewed up the SU forwards in his last trip to the Carrier Dome in 2007, did haul in 16 rebounds and did have six assists. He also hit his average with 25 points, but it took him 28 shots to do that. The Orange did a lot of things right in this game, but that was the most important.

 

The win was extremely important for SU, not just because the Orange now are 5-1 in the Big East, but also in terms of confidence. This was a big game on a big stage – 30,021 fans – on national television. And it’s a great recovery after an ugly loss to Georgetown Wednesday. If it isn’t SU’s biggest win in the last three years, it’s close.