It’s crazy to think about for Scoop Jardine.

Four first halves to start the season where Syracuse is shooting 32.6 percent from the field concerns the veteran guard. Even if it may not concern others to the same degree.

‘I don’t know, it’s crazy,’ Jardine said. ‘We are really playing one half of basketball. We gotta pick it up.’

Unlike Jardine, Kris Joseph sees it the same way as SU head coach Jim Boeheim. Eventually, Syracuse will start to make shots in the first half, coasting into the intermission up by more than a possession.

It’s going to come. But even if player and coach have confidence that the Orange’s first half struggles aren’t a pressing issue, through three games it perhaps has been the most pressing issue.

Once again Sunday, Syracuse struggled in the first half against an inferior opponent. The Orange shot 34.5 percent from the field in the game’s first 20 minutes — a number and performance much in the same mold as the year.

‘I think the same thing (as Boeheim)’ Joseph said. ‘We are going to end up making shots. It is not a confidence thing.’

But despite the similar first half statistics, the 20 minutes against William & Mary were different than the other first halves. Boeheim felt the shots were there against the Tribe’s 3-2 matchup-zone. It was just a matter of them going in. And not having the SU offense halt its progression.

‘We just stopped. Offensively, we didn’t do anything,’ Boeheim said. ‘Sooner or later, that is going to catch up with you.’

The numbers were the same, but Jardine said there were different lessons learned from the first half Sunday. Jardine and Syracuse were soon greeted by a 3-2 matchup zone that did two things. One: it dared them to shoot 3s and settle for quick shots. Two: it occasionally switch to a man-to-man, making Jardine and Joseph think the Tribe was merely bluffing while still in the matchup-zone.

Every time down the court it was the same thing from the Tribe and for the Orange. In the first half, Jardine believes SU let the matchup-zone dictate SU’s offensive attack. A testament to the youth of the team as a whole. Shots were chucked. The veteran guard said he realized quick releases weren’t the answer against an underdog that was happy to hold the ball for 30 seconds before shooting.

‘They slowed the game down,’ Jardine said. ‘We only made them play defense for five seconds. That’s not good. A team like that, we have got to limit them to one shot and get on the glass and beat them in transition. That’s how we got back into the game.’

Getting back into the game for the Orange didn’t come via the scoreboard, as SU led for the entire first half. Rather, it came with regards to success in attacking the matchup zone. A spark that ignited that success was Dion Waiters. The heralded freshman guard shot 3-of-3 in ten first half minutes.

The showing was a fresh feel for Waiters after the guard struggled to find a rhythm in the Orange’s first three games. He shot 29 percent from the field in those three games. But the matchup zone that was giving SU’s starters fits was the ideal scenario for Waiters. From the bench he saw the gaps that needed to be opened up. Holes that would appear thanks to baseline drives. He opened them.

‘I’m on the bench looking like, ‘I can go to that spot and that spot to get my shot,” Waiters said. ‘And in the first half I was fortunate to do that. When I am on the bench I just watch.’

Waiters prevented further crazy thoughts from Jardine ensuing. His slashing down the baseline kept SU up by 32-20. After the intermission, the Orange played perhaps its worst second half of the season, only edging the Tribe by three.

But, as always — and as has been the case all season — it started with the first half Sunday.

And sooner or later, much like the same sooner or later mindset Joseph and Boeheim have about the first half shots, Jardine feels SU needs to mature past 32.6 percent.

Said Jardine: ‘We have got to grow, we are young. …We’ve got to grow up fast.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on November 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm