West Virginia the Latest Tournament Victim of Syracuse’s Zone Defense

2021 is not the first year the Syracuse men’s basketball team has gone into the NCAA tournament with a high seed and won a couple of games. The Orange made it to the Final Four in 2016 as a No. 10 seed, the Sweet Sixteen in 2018 as a No. 11 seed and they are back to the Sweet Sixteen this year, again as a No. 11 seed.

Even so, it will still be considered a major upset when Syracuse defeated No. 3 seed West Virginia 75-72 Sunday afternoon.

The narrative around SU come tournament time is usually that the quick turnaround between games in the tournament setting plays into the Orange’s hands, as teams have very little time to prepare for coach Jim Boeheim’s famous 2-3 zone defense. With only one day of preparation for the zone following their first-round win on Friday, that certainly played a factor in WVU’s loss.

“It was tough,” junior guard Sean McNeil said after the game. “These quick-turnaround games like this are difficult to figure out and adjust to. Syracuse’s zone bothered us a little bit more than we probably expected, we struggled in the first half, didn’t get a lot of good looks.”

West Virginia started out ice-cold against the zone, starting just 2 of 10 from the floor and committing 11 first-half turnovers. The Mountaineers’ play initially was to run their offense through the high post, using juniors Derek Culver and Emmitt Matthews Jr.

The problem, however, was that neither Culver or Matthews had played in the high post much this season prior to Sunday and they struggled in that role. Culver (1 for 7) and Matthews (2 for 7) shot 3 of 14 from the floor in the first half, scoring just 11 combined points.

“I think we ran what we needed to run, we just didn’t score it,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “We couldn’t score it in there. We didn’t do a very good job of playing inside-out, we made bad decisions with the ball.”

Things changed in the second half as WVU’s offense shifted to focus more on the perimeter. McNeil scored 17 second-half points on 6 of 12 shooting with five 3-pointers and WVU fought back from 14 points down to close the gap late.

WVU took a 53-52 lead with less than 10 minutes to play, but the Orange made enough shots to hold off the comeback attempt and win 75-72.

After finishing the regular season with a 15-8 record, Syracuse was thought to be a bubble team for the NCAA tournament with many people surprised they made the field at all. However, for Huggins, who has known Boeheim for several decades at this point, the Orange putting together this kind of run is no surprise at all.

“[Boeheim’s] got good players, it just took some time for them to gel together, it took some time for them to understand what he was asking them to do,” Huggins said. “You don’t just roll out of bed and play 2-3 zone the way they do. He’s the best that’s ever coached the 2-3 zone and they’re the best to ever play it…He did a terrific job.”

Now, the Mountaineers will return to Morgantown to get a start on the offseason while Syracuse advances to the Sweet Sixteen to play No. 2 seed Houston on Saturday.