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On Tuesday night, Louisville announced they would be without starting point guard Chris Jones for Wednesday night’s game against Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Jones has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules, and he will miss at least one game.
Louisville G Chris Jones has been suspended from the Cardinals’ basketball team & will not travel to Syracuse for Wednesday’s game #L1C4
— Kenny Klein (@KKcards) February 18, 2015
Without Jones, Syracuse has an opportunity to pick up their first win over a ranked opponent this season. Syracuse is coming off a home loss against Duke, a game where the Orange put together a brilliant performance but still came up short. Jim Boeheim believed his team played about as well as they could play in their loss against the Blue Devils.
Louisville loses their leading assist man and third leading scorer in Jones. Even with Jones, Louisville has struggled against zone defense this year. The senior guard has the ability to penetrate the gaps and find open teammates against zone defense.
Call it a hunch, but I believe Boeheim will play 40 minutes of 2-3 zone on Wednesday night.
Traditionally, 2-3 zone forces teams to shoot long distance jump shots. For Louisville to be effective, they will have to penetrate the zone and find Montrezl Harrell inside. It’s vital that the Cardinals don’t settle for contested three pointers, something the Syracuse 2-3 cajoles teams into doing. As a team, Louisville shoots 30.5 percent from three — shooting is not the Cardinals’ forte. Terry Rozier is Louisville’s lone shooting threat, yet even he shoots a pedestrian 34.3 percent from long range. Make no mistake, Rozier is one of the elite guards in America — he could be a late first round pick in this summer’s NBA draft and will have an immense impact in this game.
In Jones’ absence, Rick Pitino will play sophomore guard Anton Gill, as well as freshmen guards Shaqquan Aaron and Quentin Snider. The troika of underclassmen guards only combine to average 6.4 points per game for Louisville. One of them will need to step up and replace one of the better guards in the ACC.
Without Jones, Louisville will be less effective attacking the 2-3 zone and will be forced to take jump shots, a weakness of the Cardinals.
Note: Wednesday night’s game between Syracuse and Louisville will feature the first Onuaku to play in the Carrier Dome since Mar. 2, 2010. Chinanu Onuaku is a freshman on Louisville and is the younger brother of former Syracuse center Arinze Onuaku.
James Szuba is a college basketball writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesSzuba.
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