Even after his best game of the season, Tyler Roberson wasn’t left out of Jim Boeheim’s postgame rant.

As the head coach vented about the Syracuse’s issues with basic fundamentals, he singled out his sophomore forward and challenged him even after arguably the best game of his young career.

“Tyler’s on the weak side, he’s got position, and then he pushes the guy,” Boeheim said after the game. “… You can’t do those things and win.”

Yet SU (6-3) did, holding off Louisiana Tech (7-3) in the Carrier Dome by a score of 71-69 on Sunday. In a season-high 33 minutes, Roberson sparked the Orange with his first double-double since the season opener, netting 14 points and pulling down 17 rebounds — 11 of which came off of Syracuse misses.

“That’s really what I wanted to do, just get out there and play with energy,” Roberson said. “The rebounds came all from playing with energy.”

Swingman Michael Gbinije sat out the entire second half with a back injury, and neither Chris McCullough nor Rakeem Christmas, SU’s biggest forwards, logged more than 26 minutes Sunday due to foul trouble.

And because of that, a hole opened up in the frontcourt, and Roberson filled it.

He shot 7-of-13, taking the second-most shots on the team. He hit a midrange jumper in the first half, but his biggest contributions of the game stemmed from his work on the offensive boards. Roberson was to thank for 13 of Syracuse’s 16 second-chance points, by either cleaning it up by himself or dishing his rebound to a teammate.

“Tyler stepped up tonight,” Christmas said. “There’s a lot of things that he could’ve done better but … I think that was one of the best games I’ve seen him play.”

“He was going after everything, he was being aggressive and that’s what we need from him. I hope it carries over.”

Even if Sunday’s performance does carry over, Roberson is no exception to Boeheim’s desire to get more out of his entire team.

Thrown into an increased role, Roberson — naturally a power forward — served as SU’s three-man when he was on the floor with McCullough and Christmas.

“At the three he struggles, because he tries to do things like that spin move and throw the ball up from wherever he was,” Boeheim said. “If he were to play the three and not do those things, then he could even be more effective because now he’s going to the boards against a smaller guy.”

Boeheim was referencing a play in which Roberson, playing face-up to the basket from the short corner, took one dribble before spinning away from the baseline and missing a turnaround shot high off the backboard.

The play’s outcome is why Boeheim said Roberson is too far away from the basket when he’s not in his natural position. The solution to that would be getting position closer to the basket — a tough task when Christmas and McCullough need real estate down low, too — or an improvement in Roberson’s ball skills.

As the struggling Gbinije recovers and sophomore small forward B.J. Johnson remains ineffective offensively, an expansion of Roberson’s versatility to build off Sunday’s performance could spark the Orange offense.

“When I’m at the three or the four, I got a good feel for what Coach wants me to do and I just have to continue to build on it,” Roberson said. “Tonight, I played a lot at the four and I think I did a good job there but if I was at the three, I think I could do just as good.”

Published on December 15, 2014 at 5:45 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb