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Syracuse hasn't been consistent at many things this season. It's displayed an up-and-down defense along with a mediocre offense, leading to a 4-4 record. SU's one constant throughout nonconference play? Its abysmal 3-point shooting.
In their 69-64 loss to Notre Dame Saturday, the Orange went 0-for-9 from 3-point range while the Fighting Irish hit eight triples. It was the first time the Orange failed to make a 3 since Nov. 28, 2014, against Holy Cross. In that contest, Syracuse went 0-for-14 from beyond the arc but still won 72-48. The stakes were slightly higher Saturday in SU's Atlantic Coast Conference opener, and the lack of threat from distance proved costly.
Syracuse's horrid perimeter shooting isn't new. The Orange are connecting on just 26% of their 3-point attempts, which ranks 352nd in the country, per KenPom. Only 11 teams connect on 3s at a worse rate, and none are Power Four programs. Among the six players who've attempted at least 10 triples this season, only Elijah Moore is shooting greater than 30%.
The Division I average for 3-point shooting is 33.2%. The Orange have reached that mark in just two games this season, both of which ended in wins. The first came against Colgate on Nov. 12, where Syracuse went 8-for-23 (34.8%) from 3-point range. On Nov. 27, SU hit five of its 13 looks against Cornell. But those numbers are misleading.
Statistically, that was Syracuse's best shooting performance of the year. Moore was the only player to hit a 3, though. The rest of the team went 0-for-8. The same could be said about SU's 26-point road loss to Tennessee. The Orange drained six 3s, but Moore accounted for half of them.
The freshman has been the lone bright spot for SU, knocking down a team-high 40% of his looks from beyond the arc. The next best 3-point shooter is J.J. Starling -- who's out indefinitely with a broken hand -- at just 29%.
"The only one that's really shooting the ball well is Elijah from the perimeter right now. And teams are taking notice of that," Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said.
Autry's tone is in stark contrast to two weeks prior. In two games against Texas and Texas Tech at the Empire Classic, the Orange chucked up 42 3s and only hit 11, a 26% clip. Autry didn't want to lambast his team for their poor shooting effort.
"Shooting is always a touchy subject. Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you don't," Autry said. "The guys that we think can make shots are the guys shooting the basketball. That's the thing as a coach you want to do."
The bottom line is Autry doesn't have a lot of players who can consistently knock down shots. Starling, Syracuse's leading scorer at 19.8 points per game, operates mainly from mid-range and is a streaky outside shooter.
Chris Bell, SU's best shooter last year (42%), has been ice cold. The junior is hitting just 27% of his shots from deep. Last season, Bell accounted for 38% of SU's 3-point makes, yet through eight games this season, he has made up just 28%.
"He's just not in a good place right now. It's clear," Autry said of Bell after SU's loss to Notre Dame.
Outside of Starling, Bell and Moore, there isn't much else from Syracuse on the perimeter. Guards Jaquan Carlos and Lucas Taylor have hit three triples on 21 attempts. Donnie Freeman, the only other player with at least 10 shots from deep (19), has connected on three.
These problems have carried over from last season. In 2023-24, Bell, Starling, Judah Mintz and Justin Taylor attempted 504 of SU's 651 3-point shots. They shot a combined 35%; if you take Bell out of the equation, that number decreases to about 30%.
Through the first eight games of 2024, Syracuse has relied on a few players to carry its perimeter shooting. Moore, Bell and Starling have put up 97 of Syracuse's 150 total 3s, with Moore being the only consistent shooter as of now.
"It's a surprise to us that they're not going in," Starling said after SU's loss to Texas, where it shot 5-of-21 from 3. "We're getting open shots, but we know they're going to fall in these upcoming games."
So far, Starling's assumption is wrong. In Syracuse's three games since its trip to Brooklyn, it's shooting 26.8% from 3-point range. However, it has attempted way fewer triples in those contests.
Through five games, Syracuse averaged 21.8 3-pointers, a decrease from its 23.2 attempts last season. In its last three games, that number is down to 14, highlighted by a season-low nine attempts against Notre Dame.
As a result, Syracuse attacked down low against the Fighting Irish. It scored 40 points in the paint but found itself down 67-64 with under 10 seconds remaining. For most of its possessions, SU tossed the ball around the perimeter without anyone putting up a 3. The idea at the end was to get a quick 2, Autry said postgame, but the Orange wasted too much time. Taylor ended up tossing a desperation floater with seven seconds left, which missed and sealed Syracuse's fate.
"I feel like our focus was getting the ball inside, and we weren't really focused on getting a lot of 3s up," Moore said. "I think mentally we just were so focused on getting the ball inside that we didn't realize we weren't taking any shots."
At this point, the Orange's shooting can't get much worse. Saturday was rock bottom for what's already been a dreadful shooting stretch. Though, like any shooting slump, there aren't many solutions other than to try and shoot out of it.
"We got good shooters. They're going to keep shooting for the rest of the season. That's what they're here to do," Carlos said. "So we got the utmost confidence for those guys shooting the ball, and we encourage them to keep shooting."