Syracuse-Marquette is hideous offensively

It’s a real barn-burner between Syracuse and Marquette, but, like, maybe not in the good way?

On the one hand, Marquette is being absolutely stifled by Syracuse’s 2-3 zone. Right now — with about 12 minutes left in the game — they’re 9-for-34, and they’re being forced into taking a lot of threes. That isn’t good, since they’re one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country. They’re just 1-for-15 from deep, and two of those have been blocked, so it’s not like they’re even getting great looks.

They also have 11 turnovers, so they’re in that dangerous situation where (turnovers) > (made field goals). They had some success getting the ball into the high post in the first half, but that hasn’t been working since the break.

And Syracuse? Well, they’re getting stops, but they’re having trouble clearing the ball. Marquette has eight offensive boards — not overly impressive, considering the amount of shots they’ve missed, but still — and the Golden Eagles have forced several turnovers in the backcourt. When they do get the ball across the time line, they haven’t been particularly efficient either — just 14-for-36 — but its still worlds better than Marquette.

Syracuse leads 37-25, but in a matchup like this, someone hitting one or two threes can change the entire course of the game.

On the one hand, it’s really interesting to see Syracuse play vicious defense, but, hey... points?

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