Five Takeaways: UNC 72 Syracuse 68

What to make of the Orange's loss to the Tar Heels.

Syracuse basketball lost a heartbreaker to North Carolina in the Dome Tuesday night 72-68. Here are five takeaways from the loss. 

1. Another Missed Opportunity

Syracuse has had multiple golden opportunities for a signature win that could give the Orange momentum to go on a run and get back into the NCAA Tournament conversation. Each time it is has let that opportunity slip through its fingers. Whether it was an overtime loss against St. John's on a neutral court where it controlled most of the game, a close loss to Virginia in which the 23 point hole it dug was too much to overcome or the loss at Miami in which it led for basically the entire game until the final moments. Tuesday night's game was more of that. Syracuse rallied to take a two point lead with 1:23 left after Joe Girard's three pointer. After getting a defensive stop, Judah Mintz's shot rimmed out. Then the Orange failed to cover a cutting Pete Nance along the baseline. Then Syracuse failed to get the rebound on the free throw miss. Then Girard tried to save the ball by tossing it across his own basket which led to a wide open game winning layup for Nance. Girard should know better than to save across his own basket like that, especially as a senior with four years of playing experience. Even with that, Syracuse was down one but Mintz was out of control trying to score a go ahead bucket in the last 15 seconds. Gut wrenching to say the least. 

2. Free Throws

Syracuse shot just three free throws all night compared to North Carolina's 23. This despite Syracuse having more points in the paint (38 to 34) than the Tar Heels. That is hard to justify. Judah Mintz has a major gripe as he was fouled multiple times on his drives and mid-range jumpers but only received two free throws. Mintz took 18 shots, only one of which was an outside shot, and had just two attempts at the charity stripe. Caleb Love, who took five of his seven shots beyond the arc, had six free throw attempts, for example. Then you have the mess of how the end of the game was officiated. First, on the rebound on the missed Nance free throw, Mounir Hima had position on Armando Bacot right in front of the basket. Bacot used his forearm to shove Hima out of the way and prevent him from being involved in the rebound. A foul was not called. Mintz was subsequently rightly called for a charge as he was out of control going to the basket. However, it was reviewed and deemed a flagrant one because his elbow contacted RJ Davis. The explanation was that he led with his elbow, which video proves was not the case. The officials reviewed that very video but still made that determination. Mintz was charging towards the hoop and brought his elbow over as part of a normal basketball play trying to get an open look near the basket. That should not have been a flagrant. After UNC made one of two flagrant free throws, it retained possession up two. On the inbounds pass, Caleb Love shoves Mintz to the ground but Mintz is called for the foul. Instead of it being Syracuse ball down two, Love hits two free throws to ice the game. Bad all around. In the first half, North Carolina had two free throws and Syracuse had none as the officials largely let both teams play. Something changed in the second half as the Tar Heels had 21 second half free throws. 

3. Turnovers

While Syracuse has gripes with the way the whistle went, it also has itself to blame for how the game turned out. Syracuse turned it over 17 times compared to just 10 for North Carolina. That led to a 21 to 14 points off turnover advantage for the Tar Heels, which was significant in a close game decided by just four points but was even closer than that in the final minutes. The biggest Culprits for Syracuse were Joe Girard (6), Jesse Edwards (4) and Judah Mintz (4). Those three combined for 14 of Syracuse's 17 turnovers. They have to take better care of the basketball in games like this against good teams in order to get that still missing signature win. 

4. Rebounding

Syracuse rebounded well for nearly the entire night. In fact, the Orange won the rebounding battle 35 to 30 and held North Carolina to just six offensive rebounds with only two second chance points. That was against the best offensive rebounding team in the ACC. However, when Syracuse needed it it the most, it failed to secure the rebound. That was on the aforementioned Nance missed free throw. While there is a legitimate gripe regarding Bacot pushing Hima, Maliq Brown missed a box out of Leaky Black. If Brown boxes out Black, the ball goes right to Girard with no one around him. Instead, the ball is deflected, Girard dives to save it and it goes right to Nance for the game winning layup. Overall, an encouraging effort on the boards, but still frustrating that one could not be secured in the biggest moment. It also begs the question, where has this type of rebounding effort been all season?

5. What Now?

The frustrating part from a Syracuse perspective is it feels like the Orange is a vastly improved team from earlier in the season. Syracuse looks the part of a tournament type team, but its resume is severely lacking because of failures at the end of games. Think about how much different this team is viewed if it just holds on against Miami and North Carolina. Syracuse would be 15-6 (8-2), towards the top of the conference standings, have two potential quad one wins and would be back in the NCAA Tournament discussion. Instead, it finds itself way off the bubble with no margin of error moving forward. What does that mean, exactly? If Syracuse wants to make a run at the NCAA Tournament, it cannot lose games at Boston College, at Florida State or to Georgia Tech at home. On top of that, it has opportunities on the road at Virginia Tech, at Clemson and at Pittsburgh to earn quad one wins. There are home opportunities against Virginia, Duke and NC State to earn quad one or two wins. Syracuse probably needs four of those six to give itself any shot. That is a tough task for a team still searching for one.  

SUPPORT ALL SYRACUSE

SUBSCRIBE TO ALLSYRACUSE.COM NOW TO GET ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE INSIDER CONTENT

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE ALL SYRACUSE NEWSLETTER TO GET THE LATEST ORANGE UPDATES SENT TO YOUR INBOX

JOIN THE ALL SYRACUSE FORUMS FOR FREE AND DISCUSS THE ORANGE WITH OTHER FANS AND OUR STAFF