Adrian Autry has turned to Naheem McLeod in Syracuse’s last two games; despite the team’s struggles, the 7-foot-4 center has stepped in with alacrity.
Naheem McLeod has taken advantage of his late-season opportunity for playing time in the last two games. The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team (10-13, 4-8) suffered a dreadful drubbing to the Blue Devils on Wednesday night, falling by 29 points. There were very few bright spots in the game for the Orange.
McLeod, though, made the most of his opportunity by scoring a season-high 10 points on 4-4 shooting in 22 minutes. The 7-foot-4 center was 2-2 from the free throw line and grabbed a pair of rebounds. His height and length was the only Orange alternative to match Duke’s 7-foot-2 behemoth Khaman Maluach. It was the most minutes he’s logged in a Syracuse uniform.
“I feel like I’ve been picking it up since we got back from Christmas break,” McLeod said. “Just to keep that mindset to keep going.”
McLeod, who returned to Syracuse fully healthy this summer after having surgery to repair his right foot, has played sparingly this season. He’s appeared in just eight games after opening the season as the team’s starting center in 2023-24.
Syracuse’s offense against Duke was largely a struggle on Wednesday night. The Orange shot just 38% from the floor against the Blue Devils, the No. 2 team in the country in KenPom defensive efficiency. With Duke switching one through four on screens and placing emphasis on slowing Syracuse’s perimeter players, McLeod was the beneficiary on two rolls for buckets. On his first score of the game he positioned himself on the left block and finished over Maluach with a left-hook.
“I try to get down, make my way to that little left side (of the paint) and go up with the left hand,” McLeod said. “It’s a glory for them to find me on that side.”
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After finishing off another left-handed finish for McLeod’s second field goal of the game — the feed came from JJ Starling — Duke head coach Jon Scheyer called timeout. Starting center Eddie Lampkin was fired up for his frontcourt counterpart. He jumped off the bench to celebrate McLeod’s success.
“He’s been playing good right now,” Lampkin said. “I really cheer him on the whole game because that’s my teammate. He cheers me on when he wasn’t playing. Just being able to have somebody behind you that’s playing good, that’s all that matters. That’s my teammate. That’s my brother.”
McLeod has primarily been used as a defensive center this year, anchoring the 2-3 zone when Adrian Autry sparingly deploys the old defense that his predecessor built the program around. When Autry first inserted McLeod into the game the head coach moved from man-to-man to the 2-3 zone. The zone, though, was a failed effort as Duke connected on three consecutive threes.
That’s all it took to finalize the zone experiment against the Blue Devils.
“That was my call. I thought our zone was really good against Cal. I thought at that moment, you know, they got a couple downhill pick and rolls in the middle [against man],” Autry said. “We (were) coming out of a timeout. We were right there. They hadn’t shot it as well up until that point.
“Sometimes those things work. Sometimes they don’t. That’s on me.”
Autry went back to man-to-man but stuck with McLeod at center. Although guarding on the perimeter can be a challenge against smaller, quicker players for big men, McLeod isn’t totally partial to one defense or another.
“I grew up playing man so I’m leaning toward that. But the zone’s not bad for me either,” McLeod said.
With McLeod taking advantage of his playing time in the last two games that’s given Lampkin a slight reprieve. It’s one that Lampkin speaks on with goodwill, perhaps unsurprising considering the two showed a playful relationship going back to the beginning of the season. Lampkin was happy to see his center complement step up.
“When I came here he (brought) me in and he believed in me and I believed in him,” Lampkin said. “Just being able to have him as a brother, that’s all that matters to me. It doesn’t really matter who’s scoring the ball.”