Pitarresi: SU needs more maturity

Where do you start with the Syracuse University basketball team?

 

There a lot of familiar elements went into today’s loss at Villanova. Poor defense. Poor shooting. Poor decision making. Poor rebounding

 

Plus, and I’m sure Jim Boeheim would shoot a withering sidelong glance and then roll his eyes at me for saying it, there also is a lack of mental discipline. That’s what it looks like, anyway. Too much woofing. Too much complaining. Too much chest pounding. Not enough focus. These are very talented players, but they need to be more business-like. Someone has to become the leader. Point guard Jonny Flynn is the natural choice, but he is playing with too much emotion. And, believe me, there is such a thing.

 

More than anything else, the team needs more maturity. With it, the other things will take care of themselves.

 

Mostly.

 

I’m not sure any degree of maturity will help the defense. After being almost air-tight through most of the victory over West Virginia Wednesday, the 2-3 zone was extremely leaky against the Wildcats. Or maybe it was something else. There is no doubt the zone was extremely active and aggressive against WVU, but the Mountaineers didn’t do much to break it down, either. The Wildcats did. They flashed to the post, rotated through, got the ball in and out, moving it very quickly. They made SU work hard, got the Orange chasing and moving faster than they wanted to, and found a lot of holes. Really, they ate the zone alive.

 

Boeheim switched to man-to-man in the second half. If you’d like to know why he didn’t make the switch sooner, he had a ready answer. Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson, he said, could not guard Villanova center Dante Cunningham. That makes sense, I guess, but Cunningham was doing whatever he wanted against the zone from the first minute.

 

Again, it’s not really about defenses or whatever. SU has lost five of its last seven games, and maturity has a lot to do with that. The Orange are facing a lot of adversity – and play at No. 1 UConn Wednesday - and it will take a grown-up attitude to get through it.