Syracuse’s exhibition opener offered a little bit of everything the Orange need to sort out fast: a frontcourt that got bullied, a point guard rotation that spun out of shape early, and one clear bright spot in Sadiq White, who looked like the most advanced player on the floor for stretches.
UConn handled Syracuse 72-52 on Tuesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., with the Orange hanging around long enough to tie it at 26 late in the first half before the Huskies closed the frame with the final five points and then settled into a second half that stayed comfortably in double digits. Syracuse never really found clean offense after that.
White led the Orange with 17 points and was the only Syracuse player to reach double figures. Amarri Monroe added nine. For UConn, Seton Hall transfer Najai Hines posted 17 points and eight rebounds, and Duke transfer Nik Khamenia was one of the game’s top players alongside him for much of the night.
The first major swing came almost immediately. Less than two minutes in, Temple transfer Aiden Tobiason pulled up limping and grabbing his hamstring, and Syracuse’s offense never looked fully organized after that. Gerry McNamara didn’t have an update on Tobiason after the game.
“He knows multiple positions for us,” McNamara said. “A constant threat.
A guy to push the ball in the open court, a guy to knock down an open shot, a guy to isolate, a guy to use a pick-and-roll. He’s a pretty talented player.”
That’s the kind of player Syracuse can ill afford to lose. Tobiason is the roster’s best bet for high-end shot creation, and McNamara built this team knowing there wasn’t much of that lying around elsewhere. He has the kind of length and off-the-dribble skill that could tilt games.
With Tobiason out, Kiyan Anthony took over and had a rough sophomore debut. With his father watching courtside, Anthony shot 2-for-11 and finished with six points.
He also went 2-for-5 at the line. If Tobiason’s injury lingers, Syracuse will need a much stronger version of Anthony.
The point guard minutes got messy, too. Garwey Dual picked up his second foul within the first five minutes after a reach-in on Silas Demary Jr. following a turnover, and McNamara parked him for the rest of the half. That opened the door for freshman Ryan Moesch, who played 30 lively minutes even while shooting just 1-for-10.
Moesch didn’t play cautiously. He pushed tempo, attacked whenever he saw a sliver and kept running the floor. The shot wasn’t there yet, but he still found a way to contribute with seven rebounds and five assists.
Dual, meanwhile, logged just 10 minutes total. McNamara made clear that the issue went beyond the foul trouble.
“I’m very demanding of my point guards,” McNamara said. “One of the non-negotiables is we gotta know everything from every possession.
What every person is supposed to be doing. So there apparently was a miscommunication in terms of which action that was needed to run, and then the one that was run was run the wrong way, so I was very upset with that.
And then it was riding out the feel of the game.”
“I thought (Ryan) changed the game for us offensively,” McNamara said. “So I went with him.”
Up front, Syracuse tried a few different looks, but the battle mostly went UConn’s way. Tasman Goodrick started at center, which caught some people off guard, but he played only 11 minutes, didn’t score and had two rebounds.
Luke Wilson, though, was the one big who gave Syracuse some traction. He scored on a spin move over Hines in the first half and finished with eight points and nine rebounds.
“I just tried to rebound, block shots, be a real presence in the paint,” Wilson said. “I know I didn’t start the game off, but to me, that don’t really matter. Why don’t you come in and make an impact, that’s what really matters.”
McNamara liked what he saw.
“I thought Luke was terrific,” McNamara said. “I thought Like impacted the game, to be quite honest, the most, with how he rebounded. He altered a few shots, I thought he played a really good game.”
Still, Syracuse didn’t win the glass battle, and UConn’s size controlled that part of the game. The Orange also got a brief look at 7-footer Abdramane Siby, who played seven minutes and looked raw. He never really got comfortable looking at the rim.
“Siby has a really high upside,” McNamara said. “I think it’s gonna take him a minute to figure out the speed, especially the physicality in a game like this. I feel like when he picks it up, he’s gonna be a big time shot blocker.”
The night also left Gavin Doty frustrated. The Siena transfer finished with five points on 2-for-7 shooting and couldn’t get much going with his spin move or his fallaway jumper.
“I’m pretty pissed right now,” he said. “Obviously, we lost, and I didn’t do what I needed to do to help us win. So I’m a little frustrated, but I’ll turn it around, put my best efforts forward in the next game.”
“Probably one of the worst games I had in my college career,” Doty said. “But you know, move past it, goldfish memory.”
White, though, was the one Orange player who consistently looked like he could bend the game. He opened Syracuse’s scoring by drawing a foul and making free throws, then got the team’s first field goal in transition. Later, he drilled two threes late in the first half as Syracuse briefly pulled level, and he added a baseline cut for an alley-oop from Moesch in the second half.
His shot doesn’t need to be flawless to matter, but it does need to be respected. If it is, the rest of Syracuse’s offense should breathe easier. White liked enough of his own night to call out the part that bothered him most.
“Ultimately,” White said. “I can’t go out there and have one rebound. That’s unacceptable on my behalf.”
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