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Five Thoughts: James Southerland, Louisville’s struggles, Vegas in March?

James Southerland

Syracuse’s James Southerland shoots over St. John’s Phil Greene during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Syracuse, N.Y., Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. Syracuse won 77-58. (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)

AP

James Southerland’s impact: One of the reasons that the Syracuse offense bogged down while James Southerland was dealing with clearing up his academic issues was that they suddenly lacked perimeter shooting. The Orange don’t have much in the way of an interior presence offensively, which puts an emphasis on penetration for them, especially with a player like Michael Carter-Williams. Having a sharp-shooter on the perimeter only helps to create space. You want proof? Southerland is by far the favorite target of MCW.

But what makes Southerland so important -- and why he changes Syracuse so much as a team -- is that he’s not just a jump shooter. He also happens to be a rangy, 6-foot-9 athlete that has just about the same affect in Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone as a guy like CJ Fair or Jerami Grant. He’s the perfect player to put on the wing. With Southerland out, Syracuse was forced to use Trevor Cooney if they wanted to upgrade their shooting, and that meant that either Brandon Triche or MCW would have to slide to the back-line of their zone. For a defense predicated on length and athleticism, that’s a massive blow.

With Louisville struggling, Syracuse with Southerland back in the mix looks like the favorite to win the Big East.

Speaking of Louisville: The loss to Notre Dame was just a microcosm of an issue that has been plaguing the Cardinals this season: they simply cannot execute down the stretch, and it’s largely the result of an inability to play in the half court. Everyone of their losses can be attributed to awful offense in end-game situations. There were the two turnovers in the final 30 seconds against Syracuse. There were the passes that went through Chane Behanan’s hands in the loss at Villanova. Louisville played horribly offensively all game long in their loss to Georgetown, but they had two chances at the end of the game to tie it and on both possessions, ended up with long, contested pull-up two-pointers. And that’s not even counting the ugly possessions that Louisville had late in some of the games that they actually won.

Against Notre Dame, Louisville seemingly had a chance to win at the end of each period and blew it. If Louisville can’t turn you over, they can’t score. It’s a serious issue for Rick Pitino’s team.

Indiana’s most impressive performance of the season: The Hoosiers looked as good as they have looked all season long in Sunday’s win at Ohio State. Victor Oladipo had a career-high. Cody Zeller played as aggressive as he has since Big Ten play started. The threes fell, the defense was tenacious and the Hoosiers won a grinder convincingly.

The last six words in that paragraph -- “the Hoosiers won a grinder convincingly” -- are the most important. The Hoosiers have built a rep for jumping out to big leads and spending the rest of the game trying to protect those leads. They haven’t been the kind of ‘closer’ that you want to see out of a national title contender. But the win over Ohio State had nothing to do with big runs or quick starters. The Hoosiers simply executed on every possession at both ends of the floor slowly but surely pushing their lead out to as much as 16 points.

Alex Oriakhi’s, instigator: I can’t condone the way that Oriakhi behaved this past week. In Tuesday’s loss to Texas A&M, there was one possession where he got tangled up with Fabyon Harris on a rebound and tossed him to the ground. In the win over Ole Miss on Saturday, he nearly started a full-on brawl when he intentionally tripped Reginald Buckner and then squared up to box Murphy Holloway.

You simply cannot do those things.

Missouri needs leadership. They need someone to light a fire under them emotionally. They need someone to carry them in road games. While I realize that Oriakhi may be trying to play that role -- and is probably frustrated by the way that his team has performed this season -- he’s going to need to find a different way to channel that intensity.

Vegas for Championship Week. Who’s down?: Over the course of an 11 day stretch in March, the Mountain West, the Pac-12, the WCC and the WAC will be hosting their conference tournaments in the City of Sin. I’ve already pitched my bosses, but I’m not sure that I would survive those 11 days.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.