NEW YORK – Tyler Lydon sat inches from Trevor Cooney in Syracuse’s locker room, his chair partially engulfed in the semi-circle of reporters around the senior. A couple feet to the left was Malachi Richardson, isolated in a corner while reporters asked about his dismal shooting day in SU’s 12-point loss to St. John’s. Lydon occasionally glanced to his right, able to clearly hear each question asked to Cooney, cameras only in the freshman’s face about 10 minutes into the Orange’s open locker room period.

Like the 40 minutes prior, Richardson and Cooney got more attention.

Thirty-two total shots. Seven makes. Nineteen from behind the arc. A lone ball to go through the hoop. Lydon only took six shots inside the arc and two 3-pointers against the Red Storm, making half of each. Through 10 games, he’s shooting 50 percent from 3 and 51.4 percent on two-pointers, both second on the team behind Michael Gbinije. Yet Lydon has only taken 11 percent of Syracuse’s shots behind the arc and 12 percent of the ones inside it.

Mike Hopkins said Syracuse will live and die by the 3-pointer and it was the latter on Saturday. But to diversify an offense that’s already one-dimensional, Lydon should get the ball more.

“I thought Malachi and Trevor, we got some good looks we just didn’t knock them down,” Hopkins, SU’s interim head coach, said after Saturday’s loss, “and that’s kind of been the storyline of this season.”

 

Against St. John’s, Lydon played 34 minutes, even with Cooney’s 34 and Richardson’s 35. His lack of touches wasn’t abnormal. Through 10 games, he’s only been used on 13.7 percent of the possessions he’s been on the court for, according to KenPom. A player is “used” on a possession if their actions end a possession, including making a shot, missing one that’s rebounded by the defense or turning the ball over. Lydon’s percentage is eighth-highest on a team where just six players see more than 20 percent of a game’s minutes on average.

Syracuse has proven scorers in Gbinije and Cooney. The ball should be in Gbinije’s hands as much as it is since he’s been SU’s only consistent offensive game-changer. But Cooney and Richardson, two players who’ve taken at least 25 more 3-pointers than 2-point shots this season, are forcing SU to depend too much on the deep ball when both have shown an ability to convert at the rim.

Gbinije said after Saturday’s loss that Syracuse needs to attack the rim more if shots aren’t falling. Lydon is the only one of four SU players who takes a substantial amount of 3s to have taken more shots inside the arc than outside. He’s also the team’s best foul shooter. Yet, against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden, others insisted on taking more bombs from beyond the NBA 3-point line.

“The one thing that’s great about Malachi and Trevor,” Hopkins said, “is that when they’re missing shots they think they’re making the next ones.”

But Richardson never made the next one. And neither did Cooney. Lydon’s only long ball gave Syracuse a 25-24 lead with 5:09 left in the first half. It was SU’s last lead of the game.

Lydon is playing 32.5 minutes per game and has taken over Coleman’s duties at center. That isn’t likely to change. Per KenPom, Lydon is playing as Syracuse’s center 55.4 percent of the time over the past five games.

Still, the versatile big man takes only 14.5 percent of SU’s shots when he’s in. That too ranks eighth on Syracuse, last of all the players who’ve seen sufficient time to qualify for the category.

It’s fun when Syracuse jacks up around 30 3s in a game, but it’s not fun for Syracuse when only five go in. The Orange doesn’t have a low-post threat like Rakeem Christmas, so the only other option is to create from inside the arc but outside of post-ups. Lydon has been the most efficient at doing so of the SU players who most often have the ball in their hands in the area.

He’s also proven to be a close second behind Gbinije as Syracuse’s most versatile offensive weapon. But the ball wasn’t in his hands as Syracuse’s offense flat-lined on Saturday. It needs to be if the Orange doesn’t want that again.

Published on December 16, 2015 at 12:13 pm