All at once, the Louisville press began to leak past half-court and flood Syracuse’s game plan. With every pass, an Orange player was instantly hounded by a pack of Cardinals.

It wasn’t that the press was unexpected – believing that a Cardinals team desperate for a high-caliber win wouldn’t exhaust every effort it could would be foolish. But it was the last thing Syracuse needed Sunday afternoon.

‘We wanted to keep them in check,’ Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said. ‘We wanted the score to be low, we wanted to play them like we played them last year, except without an overtime.’

With a Syracuse offense already hesitant around the basket, Louisville’s defense provided the extra push that would eventually knock No. 2 Syracuse (24-2, 11-2 Big East) off its 11-game winning streak. The 66-60 loss at the Carrier Dome in front of 31,053 spectators showcased a Syracuse team void of its normal game plan. The Cardinals’ defense forced it off balance, while the Orange attack couldn’t respond.

Shots weren’t falling, drives to the hoop were nonexistent. The rapid-fire Orange offense that had averaged 81.6 points per game heading into the game could not seem to find the basket.

‘Our defense didn’t cost us the game,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Our offense just wasn’t good enough – really not good enough at all. That’s not good enough. We’re not a good enough defensive team to overcome those numbers.’

With a 10-2 run to start the game, it seemed as though the Orange was effectively dealing with the Cardinals’ (16-9, 7-5) defensive strategy. Pitino said the goal was to locate Andy Rautins and Wes Johnson and make sure they wouldn’t have a clear look at the basket.

In turn, Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson would do what they did for the first seven minutes of the game: get positioning down low, take inlet passes and post up for easy points.

But as the first half progressed, the Cardinals’ defense began to crank up the pressure and increase the game speed. It started by extending their 3-2 matchup zone past the perimeter and up to half-court. Orange point guards Brandon Triche and Scoop Jardine didn’t have the luxury of easing passes into the frontcourt anymore.

‘For a guard, I always have to see what they’re in because they pressure, back off then to matchup zone, zone, man-to-man, and you never know with a team like that because they pressure so much,’ Jardine said. ‘Guys keep coming in and out of the game and keep pressuring.’

What they needed to solve the pressure issue, though, never came. The backbone of Syracuse’s offense, it turns out, is the ability some of its players have at playing a strong one-on-one game – taking defenders off the dribble and driving to the basket.

Unfortunately for Syracuse, Johnson, who led the Orange with 14 points and eight rebounds, was still bogged down by injuries. In the days leading up to Louisville, his hand ballooned to resemble a small boxing glove. Dribbling on his right side was almost totally out of the question.

Kris Joseph, another slasher, said he just couldn’t find holes in the Cardinals’ defense. In situations where he’d normally breeze past a defender and finish strong, he pulled up or dished the ball to someone else.

‘We were just holding it, we were just standing there and nobody was moving around,’ Jardine said. ‘We’re standing, we’re doing a lot of standing right now. We did a terrible job in the second half with their press because we weren’t getting open, we weren’t attacking the press. You can’t be laid-back in a press, you’ve got to attack it.’

Once it became apparent that SU was struggling with the pressure, Louisville took it one step further to the daunting press. In the end, Syracuse shot 11 percent below its regular-season average from the field and from 3-point range.

And in the locker room following the game, the mood resembled the bleak statistics. An awkward performance brought forth a glaring set of issues to a team thought to be invincible.

Something had to eventually give.

Said Joseph: ‘We haven’t been playing Syracuse basketball for 40 minutes in the last couple games.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on February 14, 2010 at 12:00 pm