DURHAM, N.C. — Jim Boeheim walked past Tyler Lydon in the Syracuse locker room and patted the freshman on the back while he iced his left knee. The Orange was fresh off a 64-62 win over No. 20 Duke and Lydon’s nine rebounds were integral in neutralizing Blue Devils center Marshall Plumlee.

“How you doing big boy,” Syracuse’s head coach asked.

Just four games prior, Boeheim said Lydon wasn’t physically ready to do “some things.”

The freshman’s rebounding total against Duke tied for his fifth highest in 20 games and his six offensive boards were the most he’s grabbed this season. Monday, if anything, provided a glimpse into the inside presence Lydon can be. He’s strung together improved performances from the field by not hesitating to shoot. Now, Syracuse’s already thin frontcourt will reap the benefits against Anthony Gill and Virginia on Sunday if Lydon can do the same on the interior.

“There’s obviously a lot I got to learn and I feel I’m still in that process,” Lydon said, “so it’s definitely a good learning experience for me.”

Seconds after Lydon entered for the first time against Duke, the physicality occasionally lacking was felt with a thud. Blue Devils point guard Derryck Thornton tightly guarded Michael Gbinije as he brought the ball up the court. Gbinije created slight separation and Lydon’s ball screen at midcourt blindsided Thornton, sending him flailing to his back.

Lydon asserted himself on the low block, too, where a couple of Syracuse’s 3-point attempts stemmed from. They started with offensive rebounds, which Syracuse grabbed a whopping 26 of. The fingertips of Tyler Roberson or Lydon were often the only thing refreshing SU possessions, and that was the Orange’s best formula — albeit not intentional — to get open looks from beyond the arc.

“The offensive rebounding and throwing it back out is where I think we got two or three 3s,” Boeheim said. “And that, again, Roberson and Lydon just did an awesome job on the offensive glass, 26 offensive rebounds against a pretty good team is unheard of. Unheard of.”

Before Monday, Lydon had grabbed six rebounds in just over half of Syracuse’s games. Matching that total on the offensive glass alone against the Blue Devils injects promise into a Syracuse team facing a second consecutive ranked opponent, this one a Cavaliers team whose opponents have the 331st-ranked offensive rebounding percentage, according to Kenpom.com, out of 351 Division I teams.

In Virginia’s 59-47 win over Syracuse on March 3, 2015, the Cavaliers outrebounded SU by 22. UVA had only four less offensive rebounds than Syracuse did total ones. No Virginia player had double-digit numbers on the boards, and Gill tied for the team lead with nine. Like last year, Virginia has a balanced rebounding corps again, with none of the eight rotation players averaging more than 6.1 rebounds.

“We’re playing against tough bigs all the time in the ACC,” Lydon said. “It’s just something I’ve got to take advantage of every time I’m out there.”

Against Duke, Lydon’s performance on the interior went relatively unnoticed with Roberson making history at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Twenty rebounds was a record for a visiting player there. But Lydon’s nine, especially if he continues to be SU’s second best on the glass, isn’t a bad reinforcement.

Published on January 20, 2016 at 9:37 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman