When will Bourama Sidibe return to help Syracuse in the middle? - syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. – On Saturday evening in the Carrier Dome, 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward Josh Mballa scored 27 points in 32 minutes off the bench for Buffalo.

Jeenathan Williams, UB’s wiry, athletic guard, scored 19 in 28 minutes, mostly by breaching the SU zone and living in the lane. (He also made two corner 3-pointers.) Buffalo scored 58 of its 97 points against Syracuse in the soft middle of the Orange defense.

The Bulls beat SU with passes and lobs to the baseline. They infiltrated the painted area with their dribbles.

“Obviously, they had an advantage in there,” SU coach Jim Boeheim said. “And they hurt us in there a little bit.”

Opponents traditionally take a lot of 3-point shots against SU and its 2-3 zone. That continues this season, too. But Syracuse had hoped to shore up the middle on defense, mostly by stationing a bigger, stronger, wiser Bourama Sidibe in there to contain big, active scorers inside.

Mballa, a Texas Tech transfer whose plantar fasciitis issues have limited him to three games thus far, was averaging 7 points per game coming into the Dome. He is a preseason All-MAC second-team selection easing back into action.

SU will face an array of talented big men over the course of its ACC season. It will need to figure out how to better defend in the middle. SU was scheduled to play Notre Dame Tuesday, but that game was postponed because of a positive Tier 1 test Sunday in the Buffalo program.

When the Orange does face Notre Dame it will contend with Nate Laszewski (6-10, 227), who will play some minutes at center when the Irish trend smaller. Laszewski – a .526 3-point shooter -- is not as big or bruising as Juwan Durham, who goes 6-11, 231 and can block shots. Notre Dame also deploys both bigs at the same time. (Whether the Orange and the Irish meet this season is another question. Tuesday’s game was the only time the ACC teams were scheduled to play this year.)

Immediately down the road, SU will play North Carolina, which starts two towers in Garrison Brooks (6-10, 240) and Armando Bacot (6-9, 240), then Florida State, which has the immovable Balsa Koprivica (7-1, 240) in the middle. Florida State in general is a big team with 6-9 Scottie Barnes and 6-8 Raiquan Gray in the lineup.

Later, SU will need to contend with Clemson’s Aamir Simms (6-8, 245), Miami’s Nysier Brooks (7-0, 240), Virginia Tech’s Keve Aluma (6-9, 235) and Georgia Tech’s Moses Wright (6-9, 233). Pittsburgh’s Justin Champagnie is 6-6, 200 pounds, but has been a scoring and rebounding machine this season.

Without Sidibe, who is recovering from meniscus surgery, SU has used Marek Dolezaj at center since its first game this year. And while Dolezaj provides more versatility and more production from an offensive perspective, he is 6-10 and weighs 200 pounds.

“I think it’s important that we get through this next game and hope that Bourama can come back. We’re hoping the end of the month, but we don’t know,” Boeheim said after the Buffalo win. “But we do need some more physicality there. I do think Marek really gives us an advantage on the offensive end. They ended up having to take their big guy out to go with a smaller lineup to try to contend with him because he was going by people and making plays. He’s a hard guy to cover.

“But again, we need more of a presence out there. John (Bol Ajak) wasn’t able to do that in the first half. We’re looking at Bourama, we’re looking at Frank (Anselem) maybe to come in and help us a little bit. But that’s stuff we gotta work through. We still have a lot of work to do to get there.”

Donna Ditota is a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and Syracuse.com. Got a comment or idea for a story? Reach her at dditota@syracuse.com.

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