PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Adrian Autry didn’t like the way his Syracuse Orange basketball team was defending in the first half. Syracuse, holding a narrow 37-32 halftime edge over Drexel, was giving up 50% shooting and getting out-rebounded 19-9. The Orange has been intentional on that end of the floor this year, and it was unable to record a particular stat it has deemed important.
“We didn’t have any kills in the first half I don’t think,” Nate Kingz said.
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In Xfinity Mobile Arena, home of the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers, Syracuse got away from “hunting” on defense. Drexel put Syracuse in rotation and diced the defense for easy looks. At the half Autry set out to to light a fire under his team.
“Coach Red came in here and kind of got on us a little bit at halftime,” Kiyan Anthony said from the team locker room.
Syracuse forced ten turnovers in the first half but was giving up too many open looks to the Dragons in the halfcourt. Autry needed to motivate his team.
“What changed is really coach challenging us at halftime,” Nait George said. “He kind of got that fire back under our feet and got us going to do what we do — and that’s defend and play at that fast pace that we do.”
Syracuse was moved to pick up the intensity with full-court pressure. The Orange aggressively trapped the first pass in the corner and had success right away. Drexel turned it over on two straight possessions early in the second half. On that third defensive sequence Syracuse nearly forced a five second violation before Drexel head coach Zach Spiker called timeout.
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Following the game Spiker noted the difficulty of breaking the full court pressure due to the versatility and length of Syracuse’s personnel. The Dragons couldn’t use its center as a pressure release.
“Traditionally, the five can be a safety valve,” Spiker said. “And I think with the athleticism of Donnie Freeman and William Kyle they would jump up and guard you and move. But that’s not as easy an outlet to kind of relieve the pressure.”
Kyle makes all the difference for Syracuse defensively. A tremendous athlete at 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, Kyle is capable of defending both on the interior against bigs and on the perimeter against smaller, quicker players. His versatility makes him a good option for Autry in either full-court press of half-court man-to-man. Kyle embraces the defensive side of the ball.
“That’s my role. I feel like that’s what I do elite and that’s what I do on a nightly basis. So it definitely is really important for me to go out there and do those little things like play defense, block shots and rebound,” William Kyle said.
After a porous defensive showing in the first half, Autry wanted his team to get back to what it worked on in the summer sessions. He wanted Syracuse to get back to its identity.
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“Our energy. Being aggressive. Hunting. I thought we did that the second half. I thought the first half we had a couple of dips in it but the second half we just strung it together,” Autry said. “I thought that was the difference.”
Drexel turned the ball over 18 times on the game. Syracuse manufactured those miscues into 20 points.
“Just making the adjustment of limiting them to one shot and picking up full-court,” Anthony said of Autry’s coaching adjustment. “I feel like once we did that — once we started showing them different looks within the trap, within the full-court man — they started turning it over.”
Syracuse also struggled to rebound the ball on Saturday. While there weren’t many defensive rebounds to be had in the first half as Drexel made the shots it took, Syracuse was minus-ten on the boards. On one possession Syracuse gave up three consecutive offensive rebounds. With the Orange defense stepping up to the challenge in the second half, the team narrowed the rebounding gap to mins-three (plus-seven in the second half). Kyle and Kingz combined for 19 of Syracuse’s 36 rebounds.
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“Coach just really emphasized that we need to be going to the glass. We were struggling on that in the first half. They were getting a lot of second chance points,” said Kingz, who finished with nine rebounds.
Syracuse limited Drexel to just 18 second half points and 7-35 shooting (20%). Inside the locker room with Villanova branding, Autry found a way to motivate his team. Whichever coaching tactics Autry employed on Saturday, they worked.
“He really got onto us,” Luke Fennel said, “and I think that just sparked a fire.”
