Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Three Wake Forest players surrounded Jimmy Boeheim as he drove toward the right elbow, and when the fourth — Buddy Boeheim’s defender — faded toward him too, he kicked the ball out to his brother in the corner. It was a split-second opening of a shooting window, and sometimes, that’s all Buddy needed to connect. Sometimes, it was all he had. In response to Buddy’s March 2021 eruption, the stretch of games where he topped 25 points in four of seven games, defenses this season have doubled him, face-guarded him, rarely switched away from him and, on three different occasions, bottled him up and limited him to single-digit point totals.

That’s why finding space, any space, to shoot has become a rarity for Buddy. On this second-half possession, though, he had room as Jake Laravia recognized that Buddy’s slide to the corner ran parallel to Jimmy’s drive that he’d been baited toward. Buddy received the ball in front of the Syracuse bench, rose into his shooting form with Laravia’s hand thrust in front of his face and hopped to the right as he watched the ball arc toward the basket, then keep arcing until it missed the rim and backboard entirely. 

It was the 10:30 mark of the second half, and Syracuse trailed the Demon Deacons by four. Buddy still hadn’t made a shot in that frame, only making two throughout the game, and it took him 10 minutes and eight seconds — with three missed shots in between, including the airballed 3 — to finally connect on his first shot of the second half. He finished Syracuse’s 77-74 loss to Wake Forest with a 5-for-20 performance from the field, and paired with fellow guard Joe Girard III to shoot a combined 8-for-32 as consistent guard shooting remained a mystery for the Orange.

Between Buddy and Girard, two of SU’s top three scorers, they’ve reached 20 points individually 11 times this season, but they’ve only done so in the same game once. That came in an overtime victory against Indiana, back when the 112-110, double-overtime victory seemed like a potential turning point following a disappointing run in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. But in the Orange’s recent three-game losing streak that dropped their record beneath .500, they’ve combined to shoot 39% from the field.

“(Buddy’s) the only one that’s getting shots,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said postgame. “If he doesn’t go and get them we’re not getting shots. That’s the problem.”

Neither Buddy nor Girard were made available postgame by SU Athletics at the Zoom press conference, but Jesse Edwards said that “we got a bunch of great shooters and every shooter will have an off game or two. It’s something everybody goes through, I guess.” Girard said on Wednesday that SU relies on Buddy and “he’s gonna be the guy that we look to when tough times happen” — a title he’s “rightfully” acquired, Girard added — but other offensive pieces needed to contribute, too.

Cole Swider needed to be more aggressive offensively, Boeheim said, while Edwards fouling out with nine minutes left hurt Syracuse because “Jesse is a big part of what we can do out there, so we need him in the game for that.”

Against Wake Forest, Jimmy led SU with 21 points. Buddy still finished with 17, with five of his points coming via free throws. He started the game by assisting on Syracuse’s first two baskets, and then missed a pair of jumpers before connecting on a 3-pointer with 13 minutes left in the first half. But between that make and the 4:40 mark, Buddy didn’t convert another shot from the field, though he added three free throws.

Girard, in that span, took over as SU’s primary scorer, as he hit two early 3-pointers, drew a foul on another deep attempt and then hit all three of those free throws. It totaled to nine points in the first eight minutes, but he managed just four across the final 37. 

Buddy didn’t attempt his first shot of the second half until more than six minutes had passed, and he couldn’t sink the look that opened when he kicked the ball out to Edwards before curling around, using Edwards as a screen and elevating for a shot. The airball came three minutes later. And finally, when Girard pushed the ball in transition before sending a pass to Jimmy that ended up in Buddy’s outstretched hands, he connected for his first points of the frame.

“We got Joe a couple of good looks, Buddy got him a good look but somebody has gotta score,” Boeheim said. “I think Buddy feels, and I think he does have to go and try to make plays. You’re gonna miss shots, that’s part of the game.”

When those misses string together though — like when Girard missed a 3-pointer out of a second-half timeout and missed his one shot in overtime, when Buddy couldn’t find the openings needed for taking over a game in its final minutes, when both of their shooting percentages sank — potential outliers turn into concerning trends. 

As the game teetered down the stretch, Buddy used a layup and a 2-point jump shot to help keep SU within striking distance. When the Orange trailed by three points with 13 seconds left in overtime, needing a 3-pointer to tie the game on its last possession, they turned to Buddy there, too. Girard started with the ball and dribbled over toward where Buddy was stationed, before flipping the ball to Buddy for a shot taken well beyond the arc with Laravia positioned in front of him — hand in Buddy’s face, positioned close enough to Buddy that he faded away from the net. 

Buddy’s 3 fell short of the net, as did Swider’s final heave from the corner after an offensive rebound, and SU’s leading scorer untucked his jersey as he walked back toward the bench.

Published on January 8, 2022 at 7:26 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew