Five Takeaways: Boston College 80 Syracuse 75

What to make of the Orange's loss to the Eagles.

Syracuse basketball suffered a tough loss Tuesday night to Boston College, snapping an 11 game winning streak against the Eagles. Here are five takeaways from the set back. 

1. Rough Stretch

From the 5 minute mark of the first half to the 18 minutes mark of the second half, Boston College went on a 21-0 run. That proved to be the difference in the game. Syracuse outscored the Eagles 75-59 the rest of the game. The Orange controlled 75% of the game and still lost, which has to be frustrating for the coaches, players and fans. It is one thing to give up a run to the other team. It is another to have it be to that level. A 21-0 run cannot happen and you will not win a lot of games in which you allow such a spurt. 

2. Ups and Downs of the Defense

The positive from a defensive standpoint is that Syracuse forced 21 BC turnovers. The negative is that the Orange allowed the Eagles to shoot 60% from the floor and 50% from the three point line. They allowed too many open looks on the outside, specifically to Claudell Harris. Harris had five of BC's 10 three pointers on the night. Four of those threes came after halftime, all in a three and a half minute stretch from the 7:55 mark to 4:18 left in the game. During that time, the lead grew from three to 13. In addition, there was no resistance at the rim when BC attacked the basket. Offensively, even though it was not perfect, Syracuse scored 75 points and shot 47% from the floor. That should have been good enough to win this game. 

3. Maliq Brown

A positive from the loss was the play of Maliq Brown. Brown scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out two assists and had two steals with one block. He was the best player on the floor for stretches of the game. It is no coincidence that when he got into foul trouble in the first half, Boston College started its 21-0 run. The bad news for the Orange is that without Naheem McLeod, the options behind Brown are limited. Peter Carey has shown some positive signs, but I do not think he is ready to play significant minutes game in and game out. Still, Brown was really good in this one. 

4. Free Throws

Syracuse was just 7-14 from the free throw line and missed several front ends of one and ones. It was a significant contributing factor to the loss. Judah Mintz was 0-2 from the line and Maliq Brown was 0-4. The Orange lost by five. Brutal. This was also not a one game occurrence. Syracuse shot 62.5% from the charity stripe against NC State and 66.7% against Florida State and Miami. That is a four game stretch of subpar free throw shooting. If Syracuse is going to win games down the stretch of the season, that has to get better.

5. Blow to the Resume

Right now, the loss to Boston College is a quad two loss. That is not horrible, but has the potential to drop to quad three which could be a big blow to Syracuse's NCAA Tournament resume. BC still has games remaining against Florida State (twice), Duke, Miami (twice), NC State and Virginia. That is seven tough games, perhaps none of which BC will be favored. If they lose all seven, the chances are strong BC drops enough in the NET rankings to move this to a quad three. Without a winning streak from Florida State to bump them up to quad two, that gives Syracuse two quad three losses. It is tough to overcome that without a couple of marquee wins to offset them. That means Syracuse may have to beat North Carolina and/or knock off Wake Forest or Clemson on the road to get back into the mix. This loss really hurts as a result, but there are still 10 games remaining. 

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