Poor shot selection, missed layups, no reliable big man in the middle, a suddenly ineffective defense, boos from the home crowd.
Other than that, everything's just fine at Syracuse these days.
The headaches, indeed, are mounting for Jim Boeheim in his 35th year as head coach at Syracuse. His stumbling Orange are preparing for a three-game road trip with a lot of negativity swirling.
Three straight losses - two in a row at home - have fans around here actually wondering if the Orange (18-3, 5-3 Big East) might have trouble making the NCAA tournament.
''I thought we would have more fight than this,'' senior forward Rick Jackson said. ''Teams are not going to be afraid of us anymore. Right now, it's just about pride.''
The losses likely mean that Syracuse, tied for ninth in The Associated Press poll with once-beaten BYU, will drop out of the top 10 for the first time this season when the new poll is released Monday. Granted, two of the defeats were to top-10 Big East teams, at Pittsburgh and vs. Villanova. But on Tuesday night, lowly Seton Hall trounced Syracuse 90-68 in a lackluster performance, making it three losses in nine days.
The Orange, who play at Marquette (13-8, 4-4) on Saturday and then travel to No. 5 Connecticut and South Florida, have sputtered offensively during the slide. Syracuse thrives off its defense to create offensive opportunities in transition, and Boeheim's signature 2-3 zone has been exploited inside and out.
In the three losses, the Syracuse defense allowed opponents to make just over half their shots (85 of 167), and the Wildcats and Pirates combined to make 18 of 30 (60 percent) from beyond the arc. Not much chance of a fast break the other way with that kind of shooting.
After the embarrassing loss to the Pirates, the worst shooting team in the Big East, Boeheim took a moment in his postgame comments to remind everyone of last season, when the Orange won 30 games and went from unranked in the preseason to No. 1 in the nation. They did so behind a trio of veteran stars - Andy Rautins patrolling the top of the zone getting steals or forcing 3-point shooters to pass, Arinze Onuaku guarding the lane, and Wes Johnson regularly draining 3s, blocking shots and snaring big rebounds.
All three are gone.
''We lost three great players,'' Boeheim said. ''Not good college players, we lost three great college players. We lost those three guys and we replaced them with three freshmen. Freshmen do not do well in this league. They've never done well in this league, and they're not doing well in this league as we speak.''
The Orange have four freshmen - small forward C.J. Fair, guard Dion Waiters, and centers Fab Melo and Baye Moussa Keita. All have had fleeting moments of success, but have struggled mightily the past two games.
Fair had 16 points and nine rebounds in 36 minutes against Pitt, but against Villanova and Seton Hall, he had just seven points in 34 minutes. Waiters didn't make a shot vs. the Pirates, and wasn't too happy after Boeheim spoke with him on the bench.
The 7-foot Melo and 6-10 Keita are much rawer talents being forced to learn on the fly, and they've mostly been non-factors in Big East play. Melo, who started the first 20 games, has 13 points, 15 rebounds, four blocks, six turnovers and no assists in 57 minutes across eight conference games, while Keita has nine points, 15 boards, 10 blocks, two turnovers and one assist in 90 minutes.
Against Seton Hall, they combined to play only 11 minutes, which means they had a bird's-eye view from the bench as Jeremy Hazell and the Pirates went 10 of 17 from beyond the arc.
''I don't know what it is. He's (Melo) worked in practice, but he is tired in a minute,'' Boeheim said. ''Whether it's just the fact that he hasn't done enough running over the last three or four years or played enough basketball, I don't know. When he can get there, he can make plays. But he cannot get there at the pace that these games are played at.''
Boeheim said the 244-pound Melo would return to the starting lineup against Marquette, but seemed resigned to just hoping his prized recruit would be able to adjust eventually.
That's good news for Jackson, who's averaging 13 points and nearly 12 rebounds. He's played 156 of the past 160 minutes, but only went to the free throw line four times in the three losses.
In each defeat, Syracuse has fallen behind early. Syracuse trailed Pitt 19-0 and was behind by double digits at halftime against both Villanova (40-29) and Seton Hall (43-30), the only teams this season to score at least 40 points by the break vs. the Orange.
Syracuse began the week shooting nearly 48 percent, but in the three-game slide the Orange have shot 39.4 (78 of 198), including a season-low 36.1 vs. the Pirates.
Point guard Scoop Jardine orchestrates much of the offense and has taken the brunt of the criticism. Jardine, often settling for ill-advised jump shots, has 25 points on 9-of-31 shooting (5 of 12 on 3s) to go with nine assists, seven turnovers and four steals in the losses.
''We stopped believing in the zone. We're not playing our spots,'' Jardine said. ''We're pressing a little bit. We've got to get back to playing the way we need to play, and it starts on the defensive end.''
Perhaps that begins on this trip.
