Syracuse (18-8, 8-5 Atlantic Coast) won its eighth game in its last nine contests on Sunday by defeating Boston College 75-61. On Monday, Orange head coach Jim Boeheim went on the ACC coaches teleconference to talk about his team before SU travels to face No. 18 Louisville (19-6, 8-4) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Here are three things he touched on.

Bye Bye

With Boeheim’s team surging up from the doldrums of the conference standings, the possibility of getting one bye, if not two, in the ACC tournament has increased. The Orange is just one game behind Notre Dame, the team that currently holds the No. 4 spot in the ACC. The top four teams won’t play until March 10, and will receive two byes.

“We’ve lost the last two times we’ve had the double bye,” Boeheim said. “I think that when you sit there for two days, and somebody plays and they’re a good team, it’s a problem. If you have a double bye and you happen to catch somebody who isn’t very good — but that isn’t going to happen. I think it was when we played in the first year in the league, we had a double bye and we got N.C. State. They were playing good and we just never got going in the game.

“I’ve never liked the double byes. I don’t even like the single byes when you’re playing a good team.”

If the season ended Monday, Syracuse would be the No. 7 seed and have a single bye.

Boarding School

After struggling as a rebounding team for the much of the first part of the season, Syracuse has outrebounded opponents in eight of its past 10 games. SU was beat on the glass by 26 to Wisconsin in early December, but has since righted the ship in that department.

“I try not to think about it to tell you the truth,” Boeheim said. “I’m thinking the same way as I was when we were getting outrebounded. … It’s certainly helped our record that we have rebounded better. But exactly why, I’m not really (sure). We’ve got the same. We’ve improved a little bit defensively and rebounding-wise. … Obviously that’s a big contributor to winning.

“We’ve gotten better on offense a little too, so I think it’s just a gradual improvement in those areas. Not that we necessarily did some extra work on something and that’s why it’s better. That’s not the case.”

Finding his shot

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino discussed Syracuse’s Tyler Lydon at length by during his time on the teleconference. And with the stretch forward/center coming off a career-high 20 points on Sunday, the SU head coach also had some things to say about the freshman.

“He got off to a big start in the Bahamas,” Boeheim said. “I think they didn’t know who he was. I’m not sure we did either. But I know they didn’t. They left him open … When we came back, they started to guard him a little bit better obviously. He hesitated a little bit … He was wide open in the Bahamas, and I think he felt like he needed to be wide open to shoot for a while there.

“But once he’s gotten more comfortable. He’s shooting the ball when he’s open. But he doesn’t have be wide open now.”

Published on February 15, 2016 at 1:29 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3