Five Takeaways: Syracuse Dominates #16 Virginia Tech

What to make of the Orange's best win of the season.

Syracuse topped #16 Virginia Tech 78-60 Saturday afternoon in their biggest win of the season. Here are five takeaways from the victory. 

1. OPPONENTS BETTER HAVE BIGS

Syracuse's weakness this season has been well documented. It does not have an answer for big, strong, physical post players. It cost them games against North Carolina and Pittsburgh. That said, if a team does not have that, Syracuse is a bad matchup for them. Syracuse has a bit of everything offensively in those matchups. Guerrier can play in the post. Dolezaj can create for himself or others. Richmond comes off the bench and can take players off the dribble. Even Buddy Boeheim has shown the ability to drive and score in the lane. That doesn't even consider Alan Griffin, who can score from all three levels. Without a legitimate interior presence, Syracuse has a lot of weapons to utilize. 

That played out against Virginia Tech. Guerrier had 20 points. Dolezaj had 18 while Griffin added 15. Richmond came off the bench to score 13. Buddy and Joe only combined for 12 in this one, and yet Syracuse still scored 78 points while shooting 50.9% from the floor. The Orange dominated the paint for a 46-24 advantage, and even won the rebounding battle. This was a great matchup for Syracuse and it took advantage. 

2. DEFENSE SHOWED SIGNS

Virginia Tech may not have a big, physical presence inside, but it has several really good offensive players. The Hokies were averaging over 74 points per game coming in and shooting 46% from the floor. Syracuse held them to just 60 points, the second fewest they have scored all season, and 32.8% shooting. Virginia Tech started the game 6-13 from three, but were just 2-16 the rest of the way. Virginia Tech's best player, Keve Aluma, scored just two points on 1-10 shooting. He was scoring nearly 15 points per game coming in. 

The Hokies best shooter, Hunter Cattoor, was shooting over 48% from the outside prior to facing Syracuse. He was just 1-5 from three on Saturday. Guard Jalen Cone was averaging nearly 12 points per game entering Saturday. He was 1-9 from the floor including 1-8 from beyond the arc and had just three points. 

Syracuse had eight blocks in this game, forced 10 turnovers, and frustrated a very good offensive team throughout. This was a giant step forward defensively. 

3. EFFICIENT GAME FROM GRIFFIN

Alan Griffin played perhaps his best all around game of the season. He was efficient offensively with 15 points on 7-11 shooting but also had 10 rebounds. Griffin was also fantastic defensively with seven blocks and two steals. It is important to note that Griffin transferred in this season and is still learning the nuances of the zone. He seems to be coming into that, and today was an important step for him. 

Griffin is an aggressive defensive player, and he has had a tendency to run out too fast against shooters, leaving him vulnerable to a pump fake and drive. He was more under control Saturday afternoon, and was excellent in help defense as evidenced by his blocks and steals. Offensively, Griffin did not force anything but instead played sound basketball. He took good shots and made a high percentage of them. He is an extremely talented player who may have turned a corner. 

4. STILL NEED BETTER SHOOTING FROM BUDDY & JOE

The lone downside to a blowout win over a top 20 team was that Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard still struggled to shoot from the outside. Girard was 0-2 from three while Buddy was 1-5. They were able to overcome that in this one due to their dominance inside, but they need more efficient shooting from those two going forward. 

To both of their credits, however, they found other ways to impact the game. Girard had five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Buddy had three rebounds, three assists and two steals. 

5. THIS IS A HUGE WIN

In beating a top-20 team, Syracuse, which improved to 9-4 (3-3), greatly improved its tournament resume with its win Saturday. As bad as the two Pitt losses were for the Orange, their worst loss of the season looks like it'll end up being Rutgers, which is now 7-6 (3-6) and seems to be in a downward spiral. Pittsburgh is tied for second in the ACC. The part that stings for Syracuse is if it held on to an 18-point lead in the first matchup with the Panthers, it likely would've been ranked this coming week after beating Virginia Tech.

Despite that, Syracuse has some momentum after two straight convincing wins. The Orange has a tough matchup Monday night at ACC leading Virginia, but the next six after that are games against teams with which they matchup pretty well. They have two against NC State, two against Louisville, one against Clemson and one against Boston College. If Syracuse can win four or five of that group, they will be in good shape. They needed Saturday's win to give themselves that opportunity.