Mark Morano’s first night in a Syracuse uniform looked exactly like the kind of jolt the Orange needed.
After sitting out the first exhibition while his hamstring healed, the freshman from Slovenia got his long-awaited run Sunday in Albany and made it count in Syracuse’s 81-76 win over Siena. He played 23 minutes and 51 seconds, scored 18 points, and shot 6-of-9 overall with a 4-of-6 mark from 3-point range.
Morano said the injury no longer bothered him.
By Sunday, he had “no pain” at all.
For Syracuse, that was the best news of the day. Gerry McNamara has been waiting for a perimeter shooter to stretch the floor, and with Aiden Tobiason sidelined for perhaps as long as a few weeks, Morano suddenly looks like the team’s lone pure shooting threat.
McNamara has been building him up for weeks, and he didn’t back off after seeing the freshman deliver.
“I don’t lie in that regard. He’s one of them ones,” McNamara said.
“He’s got the high release point, picture perfect. And we need it.
We need it, like, bad. You saw the UConn game the other night where that first group that we’re starting right now, there’s not a whole lot of shooting on the floor.”
That was obvious in the numbers. Syracuse went just 4-of-19 from 3-point range without Morano and (largely) Tobiason in the UConn game. Against Siena, the Orange finished 11-of-36, with Morano responsible for four of those makes.
The first unofficial basket of his Syracuse career came the way McNamara probably drew it up: a 3-pointer that dropped cleanly.
The rest of the first half was more uneven. Morano turned it over, and McNamara said he was getting looks he didn’t take. That led to a blunt halftime message.
“I yelled at him quite a bit in here in the locker room,” McNamara said.
Morano said the rough opening had more to do with being rusty than with nerves.
He had missed about 10 days of practice because of the hamstring, and he hadn’t played in a meaningful game for several months.
“I just kinda had to get a feel for the game,” he said.
McNamara said he ran three plays for Morano in the first half, and the coach wanted more aggressiveness. Morano took that message to heart after the break.
“He was saying, just take the open shot, get my eyes to the rim always,” Morano said. “He’s saying, like, every time I catch the ball, the first thing I should look for is a shot.”
The second half showed the version Syracuse has been waiting for. Morano was steadier, more decisive, and far more comfortable letting the game come to him. He knocked down one deep 3 from the top and then turned heads with a baseline spin and dunk.
“I just kinda felt like there was a shorter guy on me, a smaller guy,” Morano said. “We didn’t have any real other advantage (at that point), so I just kinda took him in the post. And, yeah.”
Ryan Moesch noticed the burst too.
“I mean, he’s sneaky athletic,” SU point guard Ryan Moesch said. “He definitely can jump.
But he’s a good player. I’m glad he’s back and healthy.”
Morano was asked after the game what stood out most about his first college action.
“The pace is kind of faster,” Morano said. “Everything else is just basketball, I think.”
For Syracuse, that was enough to make his debut feel like a big one.
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