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Syracuse followed up a mediocre regular season with a strong March run to the Sweet 16. The Orange made the NCAA Tournament as an 11 seed and beat both No. 6 San Diego State and No. 3 West Virginia before losing to No. 2 Houston. SU’s improved 3-point shooting down the stretch along with the SU bench performance helped catalyze its 5-2 March record with four wins against teams who made the Tournament field.

Here’s a closer look at some of the numbers that defined the Orange’s season.

Best free-throw shooting team in Syracuse history

The Orange made 78.2% of their free throws in 2020-21, the best in program history and 16th best in the nation. Syracuse has historically struggled from the line and hasn’t finished in the top 50 of the nation this century.

The main reason for the improvement was the increased percentage of Buddy Boeheim and Quincy Guerrier, while transfer forward Alan Griffin made nearly all of his free throws. Buddy improved from 71.4% to 84.9%. Guerrier improved from 60.6% to 67.3%, and Griffin made 89.7% from the line. Marek Dolezaj made just 59% from the line as a sophomore, and Jim Boeheim said he made some changes to his approach and shot extra to try to improve. He made 85.3% of his attempts this season.

The improved free-throw shooting is part of the reason the Orange finished 7-3 in close games, per Bart Torvik.

What the Orange lose in Kadary Richmond

Kadary Richmond entered the transfer portal on Tuesday and will leave Syracuse after just one season. Richmond was Syracuse’s backup point guard for most of the season and is already attracting offers from multiple high major Division I programs.

Richmond only started three games for SU when Buddy was out for COVID-19 contact tracing protocols. The advanced numbers suggested he outplayed Joe Girard III in their minutes, though. Richmond’s box plus-minus was +6.2, while Girard’s was +2.3. Richmond flashed with his ability to pass, create and defend.

His 26.4% assist rate was highest on the Orange and fourth in the ACC. His steal rate ranked first in the conference and 13th in the nation at 4.5%. Richmond’s 6-foot-5 frame and even longer wingspan helped prevent entry passes into the post and helped him get steals.

The freshman point guard did have a high turnover rate and was prone to questionable turnovers at points of the season, but his loss leaves the Orange with one true point guard on the roster.

Despite a bad end to the season, Alan Griffin shined in year one

It’s not yet clear if Griffin will return for another year in Syracuse, or if 2020-21 was his last. But even if it’s Griffin’s only year at SU, he exceeded the expectations set by many. His stat profile for a forward in the SU 2-3 zone is promising going forward if he remains in the program.

Boeheim questioned Griffin repeatedly throughout the year and said he struggled to understand the defensive rotations in the zone. But Griffin was nationally ranked in both steal and block rate. Griffin’s defensive numbers in blocks and steals made significant improvement this season. His block rate improved from 1.2% to 6.6%, while his steal rate improved from 1.5% to 2.3%.

His rebounding numbers were worse than his last year at Illinois, but he was still the Orange’s third best rebounder by rate. He only trailed Guerrier and Jesse Edwards. Griffin made 36.1% from 3 for the season but shot 41.1% from deep in the conference, which was 11th best in the ACC. His 52.3% effective field goal percentage was 26th best in the ACC as well. By box plus-minus, Griffin was the Orange’s best player this season. By win shares, he was third behind Buddy and Guerrier.

He was also the leading free-throw shooter in the conference. His dribbling and defensive awareness needs improvement if he returns next year, but Griffin’s ability to take over games bailed out Syracuse in multiple games this season.

SU’s unusual free-throw shooting splits

As good as the Orange were from the line this season, Syracuse games this year didn’t feature many free throws. SU’s offense had the lowest free-throw rate (28.3%) since KenPom began tracking the metric in 1997. The Orange just weren’t good at getting to the line and taking advantage of their excellent free-throw percentage. For example, Girard attempted 94 free throws as a freshman and just 50 as a sophomore. Even with four fewer games, that’s a significant dropoff. The Orange ranked 255th offensively at getting to the line, its lowest rank since 2011-12.

At the other end of the court though, the Orange stayed out of foul trouble. They put opponents on the line much more often than usual. Syracuse’s defense ranked 24th in free-throw rate at 24.1%. That’s the highest rank since 2015-16 and the highest rate since KenPom began tracking free-throw rate.

Even without a true shot blocker in the middle, Syracuse maintained a high block rate

The injury to Bourama Sidibe tested if the Orange could remain an elite shot blocking team even without a tall, shot-blocking center in the middle to protect the rim and anchor the 2-3 zone. As it turns out, despite Dolezaj offering little in terms of block rate, the rest of SU’s forwards and Edwards helped make up for the lack of blocks from Dolezaj and kept the Orange in the top 10 defensively in block rate.

Griffin led the Orange in block rate at 6.6%, including a seven block game against Virginia Tech and four block showing against Clemson at home in March. Edwards was second at 5.8%, Guerrier third at 4.1% and Richmond was almost as effective at blocking shots as Dolezaj, just 0.1% behind Dolezaj’s 2.9%.

Syracuse ended up with more of a block by committee approach to compensate for the loss of Sidibe in the middle, after Sidibe’s 7.6% block rate from 2019-20 left the lineup four minutes into the season.

Published on March 30, 2021 at 9:49 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo