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Syracuse trailed by six points with seven minutes remaining after back-to-back Jesse Edwards dunks. Then, it flipped on the press.

It was a curious move, given SU’s lack of success with the full-court trap this year. The press worked against Notre Dame, when desperation turned the Irish’s 20-point lead into a miraculous comeback. But that was the aberration. For most of the season, Syracuse’s press has been ineffective, and head coach Jim Boeheim has reiterated that. Duke, Rutgers and Virginia each carved it up. But Boeheim felt it was time to give it a try Saturday against Georgia Tech.

“When you have to, you have to,” Boeheim said postgame of the press.

At the time of Edwards’ dunk, Georgia Tech’s win probability was at 84.3%, per ESPN. Two minutes and three Yellow Jacket slam dunks later, GT’s lead was 12.

Interior defense and turnovers sunk Syracuse (13-8, 7-7 Atlantic Coast) in Atlanta. Georgia Tech (13-8, 9-6) dominated inside, scoring 54 of its 84 points in the paint, often converting Syracuse mistakes into dunks. But when SU broke the “in case of emergency” glass with the press, that too failed it.

The press was eerily similar to the Virginia game, when the Cavaliers repeatedly created runout dunks. Like Virginia, Georgia Tech has smart, crafty guards who can handle the ball. And like Duke, GT has explosive athletes who turn press breaks into jams.

When pressing, Syracuse tries to deny the inbounds pass, then immediately trap the ball on the catch. If the offense can beat that trap, SU needs to recover and rotate through the middle.

Moses Wright dunks over Alan Griffin as Syracuse’s press fails. Courtesy of Hyosub Shin | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Tech beat Syracuse’s defense in a variety of ways. Sometimes, it threw long inbounds passes into the frontcourt to a forward coming back to the ball. Other times, guards sent cross-court passes or dribbled through soft doubles. GT rarely looked flustered.

“When we press, they’re going to get some easy baskets,” Boeheim said. “They’re a good team, they’re a smart team, they’ve got good ball-handlers.”

The first possession with the press came out of a Georgia Tech 30-second timeout, so Syracuse had a chance to set it up. It was a sideline inbound, which is typically an uncomfortable situation for teams trying to break a press.

But GT didn’t have any issues handling the scheme. The inbounder, Jordan Usher, bounced a deep pass down the right sideline to Khalid Moore, creating a two-on-one chance for the Yellow Jackets. Moore dished a bounce pass to Moses Wright (31 points, 16 rebounds), who pump-faked and slammed home a two-handed dunk.

The next time GT faced the press off a dead ball, point guard Jose Alvarado caught the inbounds pass and quickly split the double team. Quincy Guerrier, guarding the inbounder, was a step late to the trap.

Two possessions later, Marek Dolezaj nearly intercepted a pass near the sideline, but it bounced off his arm and trickled out of bounds. GT was sped up, but only briefly. Michael Devoe later caught a long inbound, leaking out ahead of the ball denial and wrapping a pass around to Wright inside for another flush. Usher followed that up with a soaring jam of his own off a Kadary Richmond gaffe.

Against Notre Dame, SU repeatedly turned over the Irish, which led to a 40-12 run. Even against Duke, SU had some immediate success with the press by forcing turnovers, but it struggled to convert the mistakes into points. On Saturday, Syracuse had been pressing for over three minutes before its first forced turnover. Robert Braswell forced Alvarado to cough it up, which led to a Buddy Boeheim transition 3.

That’s the result Syracuse looks for with the press. It just didn’t happen nearly enough.

Three of GT’s nine dunks came during Syracuse’s desperate press. Syracuse started it down six points and never got closer than that.

“We forced a couple turnovers, but they’re going to get layups,” Boeheim said. “They’re going to get dunks at the other end. That’s why we don’t press. It’s a desperation measure. We’re not a good pressing team. But when you have to, you have to. That’s the bottom line.”

Published on February 27, 2021 at 5:04 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman