Syracuse suffered its worst conference loss since it joined the ACC, getting routed by North Carolina, 103-67, on Saturday.

Here are the key takeaways from the loss.

This Syracuse team is not going to the NCAA Tournament. Any high-quality opponent they have faced with a full roster has had their way with them. Tennessee, 17 points. Gonzaga, 19 points. Virginia, 22 points. Duke, 20 points. North Carolina, 36 points.

Oregon had seven available scholarship players when they lost to the Orange and LSU came into Saturday rated #83 by Ken Pomeroy, seven slots behind SU. Pitt is the best opponent Syracuse has defeated this season. While the ACC is going through another down year, there are only a couple games remaining where the Orange look like the clearly superior team.

Those aforementioned losses are so bad, SU has outscored their opponents to this point of the season by 58 points.

49 of those 58 points are from beating D-II opponent Chaminade in the Maui Invitational.

The 2-3 zone is done. It was good in the past because SU played it exclusively. That was the point.

(I hear you saying, “but the last few years”, to which I respond, “if you’re going to ignore most of the preceding couple decades, don’t forget to wipe multiple Final Fours and the 2003 championship from your memory.”)

The zone has rarely been effective all season when deployed against opponent baseline inbounds opportunities (when everyone knows that it is part of your defensive scheme, they prepare accordingly). It was not effective when deployed in normal situations in the second half against the Tar Heels.

The lack of effective perimeter shooting and size on this team were evident from the jump on Saturday.

The former multiplies the level of difficulty the Orange face when trying to get out of a substantial hole.

Adding their 4-of-19 effort against North Carolina to their previous work makes them 22-of-93 (23.7 percent) in ACC games.

Chris Bell hit all three of his attempts from long range, which may leave you wondering why the offense did not shift toward trying to create more shots for him, as he finished with five field goal attempts (and four foul shots from shooting fouls).

Game as he is, Maliq Brown was overmatched inside by North Carolina’s Armando Bacot. The rest of the team did not offer much resistance, either, as the Tar Heels’ first seven baskets were classified as lay-ups and they had a 28-12 advantage in points in the paint in the first half alone.

North Carolina only had two of their 19 offensive rebounds in the first 15 minutes of play. Syracuse was down 25 points when they gave up the third one.

That, when combined with the 29-13 second half rebounding margin with 15 offensive boards tells you exactly what you are already likely thinking about Syracuse’s effort.

Syracuse (11-5, 2-3 ACC) will wrap their two-game road trip on Tuesday when they travel to Pittsburgh for a rematch with the Panthers (10-6, 1-4). The Orange closed the 2023 calendar year with an 81-73 home win over Pitt by getting a massive effort from their bench as Quadir Copeland led the team with 22 points while Maliq Brown and Benny Williams each added 15.

The Panthers, who are off this weekend, have lost three of four games, starting with their first matchup with SU. Carlton Carrington, who led Pittsburgh in the first meeting with 17 points, is second on the team in scoring (14.3 pts/game) and rebounding (5.2/game) while handing out a team-high 4.8 assists per game. Top scorer Blake Hinson, who averages 18.4 points per contest, had only 11 in the first meeting with the Orange.

Tuesday night’s action between Syracuse and Pitt will commence at 7:00pm Eastern with ESPN2 handling the television duties.

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