One game after Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called starting guard Scoop Jardine’s performance “horrible,” Jardine rebounded with a 23 point effort to lead the way in Syracuse’s 65-59 win over the Wolfpack.
Still, it wasn’t quite the performance that Jardine would’ve wanted. Though he led Syracuse in scoring, he also shot 7-for-21 from the field.
“He’s more of a scorer than a point guard right now,” Boeheim said. “He’s got to find people. He’s got to take 6-7 less shots.”
In fairness to Jardine, not all the blame should be placed on his shoulders. Syracuse is suffering from a lack of options on offense right now. Other than Rick Jackson’s 16 points, no other Orange player was in double figures.
Forward Kris Joseph, who had come in scoring more than 18 points a game over his past four contests was non-existant, scoring eight points on 3-for-12 shooting, and 0-for-4 from downtown. Fellow backcourt mate Brandon Triche had another rough game, scoring just five points on 2-for-8 shooting.
That left Jardine to create most of the offense on his own.
“Scoop is taking a couple because he sees we’re not scoring and he is probably trying to force that action a little bit,” Boeheim said.
Still, those were kinder words for Jardine than after his 0-for-5, 0-point performance against Cornell. On the season, Jardine is shooting just 32 percent from the field, and 28 percent from downtown.
Coming into the game, Jardine had connected on just nine of his last 42 shots.
Afterwards, Jardine acknowledged that Syracuse had some improving to do.
“We’re not locating shooters and hitting threes and we need to put two halves together,” Jardine said. “We have to keep playing games and grind them out.”
Wesley Cheng is the Editor in Chief for SuJuiceOnline.com.
