NCAA Weekly, Vol. 3.2: Analyzing all 19 of Colgate's threes against Syracuse

talk to your children and loved ones about what Matt Langel is cooking

Last week, something fairly remarkable happened that got overshadowed by some much bigger games: Colgate beat Syracuse for the second year in a row. “But Will,” you say, “why does this matter when Kentucky lost twice in a week?” My response is that both can be worth your attention. And also that Kentucky losing twice (to very good teams, let’s note) is extremely funny and I can’t get enough of it ANYWAY.

Colgate beating Syracuse, even if it’s for the second year in a row, is a massive deal. Colgate beat them last year for the first time since 1962 after an astounding 54 losses in a row. There’s not really a comparison quite like it that I can think of; maybe it would be like when Navy finally beat Notre Dame in football or something. What was huge about the 2021 upset was how pedestrian Colgate made Syracuse’s zone defense look. They dropped 100 points, hit 18 threes (tying the second-highest mark ever allowed by Syracuse), and looked like the better, more well-prepared team. They were.

2022 was going to be a test of two things: how well Colgate could sustain that success, and if Syracuse had adjusted at all. Syracuse adjusted, alright; they did some things on defense I’ve very rarely seen them do in this game. It did not matter. Colgate noted those adjustments, came prepared for them, and shredded the Syracuse defense with ease. Matt Langel completely outclassed Jim Boeheim, a legend of the coaching game. It was so notable that the only way I knew to analyze it would be to show you all 19 threes Colgate hit, a number that ties the most Syracuse has ever given up in a single game. (Yes, this means Colgate is responsible for two of Syracuse’s four-worst deep-shooting games ever allowed.)

All 19 will have videos to correspond, but to avoid triggering the email size limit, 14 will be linked. I’ve picked the five GIFs that were most key to driving this mini-upset to show off in the post.

BELOW THE LINE ($): the zone is dead

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