Ennis Down the Stretch

Twenty one games into the season, and the Orange are 21-0.  Syracuse fans have gone through their share of nail biter games, and Syracuse's exciting 91-89 overtime win against Duke was no exception.

I think the Orange faithful have gotten to the point that we feel the Orange will win any close game down the stretch. It surely seems that way, and of course, they have so far this year.  We feel like Tyler Ennis is Superman down the stretch.  Again, the evidence of the wins would suggest that is correct.

ESPN has some stats about how well Ennis has done the stretch this year. As good as he has seemed to be, the statistics indicate he is even better than that.  Against Duke yesterday, starting with 5:00 minutes left in the second half, Ennis had 3 assists, 0 turnovers, and scored 8 points on shooting one from one from the floor and 6-6 from the free throw line. 

One the season, during the last five minutes of the game, Ennis is shoots 50% from the floor, has 17 assists and 0 turnovers.  To make those statistics even more impressive, you should realize that Ennis only plays the last five minutes of close games; so those stats are during crunch time. When the game is under control, Ennis typically would not be on the court at that time.

Furthermore, ESPN points out that if you took Ennis' production from the last five minutes of the game, and projected it to a 40 minute game, he would average 28.3 points per game, with 7.5 assists per game, and the Orange would have a scoring margin of +23.5.

Five games this season, Syracuse has been trailing at the last five minute mark of the game.  In those five games, they have outscored their opponent by 37 points (7.4 per game).

I know that Ennis is a freshman, and he will make mistakes.  Nobody is perfect.  But so far, he is playing close to it during crunch time.