Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was upset at his team’s rebounding effort following its 64-61 win over Georgetown on Wednesday night.
SU was outrebounded 52-35, as Georgetown collected 23 offensive rebounds, leading to 13 second-chance points.
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“They got on the boards from the beginning and that’s just a disaster for us,” Boeheim said. “Getting 17 less rebounds, this was a disaster game as far as I’m concerned. I’m very disappointed at this stage of the year to get beat like that on the boards.”
Otto Porter played 40 minutes for the Hoyas and was active on the glass, hauling in 13 rebounds. Hollis Thompson chipped in with 10.
“There is just no excuse the way we are rebounding right now,” Boeheim said. “It’s a team effort; it’s everybody, it’s not one guy. Right now, I don’t think we’re a good basketball team because we can’t rebound.”
The Orange seemed to have solved its rebounding woes against St. John’s, where they had a 42-31 advantage. That came one game after West Virginia dominated SU 36-20 on the glass.
But the game against the Red Storm may prove to be the exception to the rule, as no Syracuse player was in double digits for rebounds, although CJ Fair did come close with nine.
SU has another tough rebounding matchup coming up with Connecticut. The Huskies are 38th in the NCAA in rebounding at 38.3 boards a game. Syracuse averages nearly three fewer a game at 35.8 a game, 109th in the NCAA.
“When you have a team coming in like Connecticut which feeds off of rebounds, we must do better,” SU guard Scoop Jardine said. “We have a lot of athletic guys who can be better on the boards. So I know tomorrow in practice and from here on out, we are going to try to be better with our rebounding.”
Said forward Kris Joseph: “We need to get back. We rebounded well on Saturday. We were outrebounded tonight, and we can’t allow that to happen. Looking down the road, it won’t always turn out this way if we rebound like we did tonight.”
Corey Mallonee contributed to this story with reporting from Syracuse.
