Carleton Thoughts

[SoBristol]

Thanks General. GREAT stuff as always! Disappointed to hear this about Roberson. Perhaps it was opening game jitters. Hopefully he gets it going because we will need him. Even if it is just for mostly rebounding or else a team like Texas will slaughter us the boards if we happen to play them.

It looks like Roberson is a year away -- needs to get stronger, round out his skills, and figure out his role. The other revelation, though, was that Gbinije is the much better all-around player. He was strong on the defensive boards, better at defending, and a big plus in ball-handling on the offensive end.

 

[jordoo]

I suppose anyone who has read any of my old posts already knows I'm a basketball nerd. I'm into things like strategy, floor spacing, mid range jump shots, pick and rolls, and double teams, and I have to say that because of these things this year's team makes me happy.

They come equipped with lots of quirks and tricks. Things like, point forwards, centers and power forwards beating their man off the dribble, and mid range jump shots. Think of them as the basketball version of a veteran left handed pitcher who can only throw the ball 87 miles a hour but has an artillery of off speed pitches with which he can trick hitters. There is no star on this team, but there are four, five, maybe even six guys who should be able to put up double figures regularly.

This is not a typical Syracuse team in many ways, they have a lot of holes, and probably a ceiling of 4th or 5th place in the ACC, but they are tons of fun to watch from a basketball nerd standpoint, and they should be able to run a bunch of quirky plays, and score in a lot of different ways. All in all I had more fun watching this exhibition game than I have had watching any SU team in a long time.

Onto the game, I think we learned a few things today (which is rare for an exhibition). Syracuse was down 9 at halftime, and played the second half to win. This means we got a glimpse of their true rotation, which is this . . .

Joseph, Cooney, Gbinije, McCullough, Christmas are our best line up and will play the majority of the minutes. Patterson and Roberson will get regular game time. Johnson looks like the odd man out, and Obokoh is a question mark.

The reason Obokoh is a question mark is because Christmas played the entire second half. Obviously he can't play all game every game and somebody is going to need to be the back up center. Its either going to be McCullough or Obokoh, and I'm not at all sure that Boeheim knows who is best suited for that role yet. McCullough is skinny for a center and will get pushed around, but, he will also be able to take opposing centers away from the basket on offense, and beat them in transition. Translation, we will get worse defensively and better offensively with McCullough at center. Obokoh is young and raw, and worse than Christmas in every way so Syracuse gets worse overall with Obokoh on the court, but perhaps he can learn to take over Christmas's defensive duties and the rest of the team can worry about carrying the offensive load. Only time will tell at this point.

People overstate how good Carleton is. They have beat a lot of great teams recently , but that is because they play all year long, most of their players are 5th year guys, and they get those great teams in August when they are not ready to compete. Carleton has middle of the road mid-major talent and nothing more. Still, that makes for one of the most difficult exhibition games a D1 team can get.

The good news is, Syracuse won, and looked pretty good doing it. The bad news is they were terrible on the boards. With Christmas, McCullough, and Roberson Syracuse should be a good rebounding team, and quite frankly, they will need to be. In this game Syracuse was dominated on the boards mostly due to the fact that neither McCullough or Roberson were ever in the places they should have been. Gbinije was outstanding on the boards, but he had no help.

After a first half where Syracuse played a deep bench, and basically looked like a team in an exhibition game, they were down by 10-15 points until Joseph sparked a late rally taking Carleton's halftime lead down to 9. In the second half Syracuse came out looking to win, and pretty much ruled the game. The line up that did the most damage was notable for how different and fun it was . . . Patterson, Cooney, Gbinije, McCullough, Christmas. It was fun because Gbinije played forward on defense and point guard on offense. Patterson and Cooney (and even McCullough who can shoot) gave the offense great spacing, allowing Syracuse to dump the ball inside to Christmas who had tons of room to either score over Carleton's useless center or pass to the open man when the inevitable double team came. You've got to love a perfectly spaced offense were all five players are looking to take their man off the dribble, or find the open man. Its how basketball should look.

Individual performers

Joseph - Looked fantastic, scoring 19 points, in only 26 minutes, while only missing two shots. His best sequence came in the second half when he beat his man off the dribble for a lay up, then faked doing the same thing on the next possession, jab stepped and buried a mid range jumper. There is no defense for that. Joseph is a ton of fun to watch and is going to be a fan favorite. I just hope he's not get too good too soon, because I want him to stay at least three years. The down side to Joseph's game is he's bad defensively, but that is normal for a freshman. It was impossible to not be impressed at how good he looked this early in his career. Most freshman point guards are shaky in exhibition against worse competition.

Cooney - Had a bad game shooting. He is going to have his good and his bad days from behind the arc, but his defense was good (and is almost always good) and he hit his free throws.

Roberson - I honestly don't think Roberson is all that good of a basketball player right now. Offensively he can't handle the ball with enough skill to drive to the basket successfully and he's also a reluctant (and mediocre) jump shooter, so he does not offer much offensively. Defensively he's got the tools but not the mind. He made way too many mistakes today, and got pushed around on the boards to boot. I am expecting him to be this year's token starter, making way early and often for Gbinije, who is simply a better player. Where Roberson can help us this year is on the boards. He needs to clean up everything defensively and learn to get the garbage baskets offensively.

McCullough - The guy is lightning quick for a 6'10 player, and he's got springs. He's too young, and too weak to be a superstar, but he's good already, maybe the best player we have, and I expect him to leave for the NBA after this season. Its his versatility I like most. One minute blocking a shot, the next scoring in transition. One minute hitting a three, the next posting a player up. He can pretty much do it all. He was absolutely terrible defensively in this game, but, like with Joseph you have to expect that from a freshman.

Christmas - He basically sat the bench the whole first half because of fouls and still managed to be our best player. At this point Syracuse looks decent defensively with Christmas in the game protecting the rim as well as barking orders to his teammates, but everything falls apart when Christmas goes to the bench. This is a major worry. Christmas went up against a 6'6 guy a lot of the time in this game so he was double teamed every time he touched the ball. When he wasn't, he scored 100% of the time. He had some nice post moves, and also 3 or 4 times when he took his smaller (should have been quicker but wasn't) defender off the dribble to score. It took Christmas a while to learn how to pass out of the double team (lets face it the guy's never been double teamed in his life) but he eventually figured it out. There are signs that Christmas is making the kind of leap Rick Jackson did his senior year. Lets hope this is true because there can be no doubt that Christmas is our most important player. We don't really have a good back up option.

Gbinije - Remember last year when Gbinije struggled to bring the ball up the court, much less run the team as the point guard? Well those days are over. Gbinije looked like a whole new player, handling the ball confidently and doing a great job running the offense. He played the forward position all game long defensively and never played guard, which I think tells you a lot about who is more ready to contribute between Johnson and Patterson. Gbinije was also the only good defensive forward, and the only good rebounder. He offered a lot in this game, and is going to be an invaluable contributor. One of the most underrated aspects of his game . . . when Gbinije gets a rebound (which will be often if he plays forward full time like it looks like he will) its off to the races. He can lead the transition break as well as any forward we have ever had.

Patterson - Scored 15 huge points, that included hitting his first four threes. We know three point shooting is something that comes and goes, and we know Patterson is not going to hit four threes every game. Heck, he might never do it again, but he does pose a threat that will allow Syracuse to space the court properly on offense, and, his extra long arms make him a fantastic defender at the top of the zone. So long as he keeps that defense up he is going to play, whether the threes are falling or not.

Johnson - BJ has a great skill set; he's tall, athletic, he can handle the ball and he can shoot. Before its all said and done he is going to be a star here, but its not going to be this year. Right now, Johnson is just too skinny. Ive really never seen anything like it; it boarders on frail. He's got to put on muscle before he can bang with the likes of Carleton, much less the big dogs of the ACC.

Obokoh - He looks a little short. He also looks lost and inadequate on both offense and defense. He's not ready yet, but I am sure Boeheim and crew will be working with him around the clock. We will see what happens. It sure would be nice to know he's able come off the bench and play 15 minutes of solid defense.

Thanks for taking the time! Glad to see you are back. I am going to disagree with you on a few things for once although they are more of an I think its too early to say 100% on some of these things. Possibly more orange tinted glasses and preferring to see the future potential than the actual now.

I do agree that it will be a very interesting team to watch that can certainly do a lot of things that we wish we could have last year. There are a lot of interesting parts with different skill sets but most importantly a bunch of guys who can shoot and can drive. I'm not sure that we won't have some stars on this team though. Superstars probably not but Rak, Joseph and Chris can all certainly be star players this year. I'm also not ready to say our ACC ceiling is 4th or 5th simply because Kaleb, Chris and Tyler have only played one exhibition and its hard to say where they will be in 2 months. I also expect all three of them to improve on defense as the season goes along.

I agree about Carlton not being as good as they are touted but conversely they have played together for a very long time and are allowed to practice and scrimmage/exhibition as much as they want. They have a good coach who had a great game plan against our zone and its young wings. He pulled them up on the overload and then tossed it down to the corner for open 3's. Then he started his guys driving on the close out while sending a cutter from the opposite baseline. Carlton had some excellent interior passing and they didn't hesitate at all at the rim instead going right up quickly. That combined with Rakeem getting into foul trouble is how they got their big lead. Still Carlton in the ACC season when all the teams have had their OOC would struggle and get worn down and be in the bottom of the standings although they probably would pull of a couple major upsets on nights when they had 3 guys shooting well from beyond the ark which is something they are capable of. A great first exhibition where as you mentioned we had to play to win in the second half. The next exhibition will likely be much different and I doubt we will see Kaleb, Trevor, Mike, Chris, Rak lineup for long stretches at all.

Agreed mostly on all the player evaluations other than a couple of nitpicks. You did mention that Kaleb and Chris where bad on D and I agree but I would like to see you expand on that a bit. I felt they both tried but were simply lost more than anything. How much better do you think they can get on defense and how long do you think it will take until they are at least adequate.

Obokoh is a downgrade from Rakeem so even if he plays well for himself he will have limited minutes. I am not throwing in the towel but seeing Chris and Tyler at the 5 in the first half is not a good sign at all for where the staff feels he is at right now.

Is Tyler one of those players who really shows it in practice but can't quite pull it off in the game? You can see the gears turning when he gets the ball on offense in fact the one time he didn't think he made a tough little fall away 12 footer. He's not playing bball on offense and it looks like he's trying to think about his next chess move. I was very surprised to see how poor he played defensively after being here all last year. I want to believe that this kid is starting because he just needs to get into the flow and play but he has yet to show us any real proof that this is the case when he has played. Call me concerned.

I though BJ played better defense on the back line than Chris or Tyler. He strangely didn't look to shoot or score much having just the one drive that started out nice and finished a bit out of control. We should see much more of him in the next game.

 

[SoBristol]

Jordoo -- I expect that line-up (Chris, Rak, MG, Cooney, Joseph) is the real deal. Will be the base line-up in prime time. It works because MG becomes the second ball-handler, and is a decent defender in the back of the zone.

Roberson & BJ are in developmental mode -- still a season away from playing in prime time, although Roberson will start, get the quick hook, and return if there is foul trouble, or enough of a lead that JB will give him more opportunities. He can sub in for Chris, or for Rak, with Chris moving to the middle.

Patterson -- might be the most intriguing player. Can rotate in for either Cooney or Joseph and I hope we see him a lot when Cooney is not finding his spots.

 

[jordoo]

Jordoo -- I expect that line-up (Chris, Rak, MG, Cooney, Joseph) is the real deal. Will be the base line-up in prime time. It works because MG becomes the second ball-handler, and is a decent defender in the back of the zone.

Roberson & BJ are in developmental mode -- still a season away from playing in prime time, although Roberson will start, get the quick hook, and return if there is foul trouble, or enough of a lead that JB will give him more opportunities. He can sub in for Chris, or for Rak, with Chris moving to the middle.

Patterson -- might be the most intriguing player. Can rotate in for either Cooney or Joseph and I hope we see him a lot when Cooney is not finding his spots.

On the first note I agree 100% but my point was that the next exhibition game will be against pretty poor D3 team and we will play it much more like an exhibition and will not need to put our best lineup out there for long stretches because we need to win. We will see that line up all the time in the real season however.

I think Tyler has to come along fast because we need another front line guy who can bang around especially if Chris is the backup 5.

Ron is pretty intriguing and as I mentioned in the other thread with Mike's ability to play the 3 on D and the 1 on O Ron can get in there in the backcourt even when Kaleb sits.

 

[SoBeCuse]

It looks like Roberson is a year away -- needs to get stronger, round out his skills, and figure out his role. The other revelation, though, was that Gbinije is the much better all-around player. He was strong on the defensive boards, better at defending, and a big plus in ball-handling on the offensive end.

Yes, definitely a good thing re: Gbinjie.

 

[GoCuse14]

Great post. I still see a poor passing team that will struggle if they can't rebound or get steals. A lot of one on on one moves which I wasn't to pleased with but it was very nice to see them find a way to work Rak into the offense. Joesph was confident and very good...like to see how he reacts to failure/struggle. Cooney is the same player he was last year and hopefully Patterson or Gbinije will fill the void when SU has flat Cooney. Roberson looked like he wanted to force his game instead of letting it come to him and there is no doubt he will be Boeheims guy to scream at this year.

A lot of US schools are missing a chance to get a helluva coach and should grab this Carlton guy. Schools like Iowa St or Rutgers would be wise to do so.

Iowa State? They have a fantastic coach and are possibly a final 4 team this season.

 

[SmilinBob]

Iowa State? They have a fantastic coach and are possibly a final 4 team this season.

I just tried to put down some schools that don't typically recruit 5 star guys...as you can see I don't keep up with college basketball!

 

[Toga]

It looks like Roberson is a year away -- needs to get stronger, round out his skills, and figure out his role. The other revelation, though, was that Gbinije is the much better all-around player. He was strong on the defensive boards, better at defending, and a big plus in ball-handling on the offensive end.

G = Glue Guy

 

[GoCuse14]

I just tried to put down some schools that don't typically recruit 5 star guys...as you can see I don't keep up with college basketball!

ok gotcha. I get where you are coming from.

 

[NorSyr66]

Thank you General for your first of hopefully many reports throughout the season. You provided much, much more than the "lite" newspaper reports regarding the game for those of us far from Syracuse. Keep up the excellent analysis.

Bit concerned about the performances of Roberson, BJ and Obokoh but it was only the first outing of the year. Seems to me that the teams that gave Christmas the most problems over the past couple of years have been the shorter front lines. I also agree with others that he seems to get the short end of several 50/50 calls.

I am glad to get some real game insight rather than the glowing flow of words from practices. Sounds like Jimmy has a challenge this year to get this team ready for the ACC.

 

[SmilinBob]

ok gotcha. I get where you are coming from.

Kind of funny though now that I look at it...I couldn't have mentioned a more extreme example of success and ineptitude.

 

[General20]

Great post. I still see a poor passing team that will struggle if they can't rebound or get steals. A lot of one on on one moves which I wasn't to pleased with but it was very nice to see them find a way to work Rak into the offense. Joesph was confident and very good...like to see how he reacts to failure/struggle. Cooney is the same player he was last year and hopefully Patterson or Gbinije will fill the void when SU has flat Cooney. Roberson looked like he wanted to force his game instead of letting it come to him and there is no doubt he will be Boeheims guy to scream at this year.

A lot of US schools are missing a chance to get a helluva coach and should grab this Carlton guy. Schools like Iowa St or Rutgers would be wise to do so.

I'd be careful about judging Syracuse's passing ability on this one game. Carelton's D had a lot to do with how Syracuse passed the ball. Carleton plays a strange defense that works well in Canada and in pre-season games, but you will never see a major D1 conference team play (because it would never work). Basically Carleton swarms the ball, cutting off all driving lanes to the basket and all passing lanes. To do this, they completely neglect to cover outside shots. If you noticed, Syracuse either got or could have gotten an open three point shot on each possession. This is reflected in Syarcuse's 3 point percentage in the game (40%) which is atypically high for a preseason game contrasted with Syracuse's free throw percentage (64%) which is as low as is typically usual in these early pre-season games.

Now, maybe you are right, and maybe Syracuse will rely on one-on-one moves all year, but maybe not. Carleton's defense certainly encourages, if not down right forces, such one-on-one play.

Speaking of passing, the thing I found interesting is that Gbinije filled Grant's role on defense, and Joseph filled Ennis's role on defense, but on offense they switched. Gbinije looked like the pass first point guard that Ennis was, and Joseph looked like the slasher that Grant was. I have no idea if this will continue throughout the season, but its an intriguing wrinkle I will keep my eye on.

 

[SmilinBob]

I hope you're right about the passing General but I still a lot of similarities regarding movement off the ball offensively. SU will also face stronger quicker teams this season so it could be a wash but we'll see.

Interesting point about the roles. Makes sense to use their strengths or not force them to play their own weakness. Hopefully both will develop to do both well.

 

[MCC]

I think Roberson will perform MUCH better in games against D1 / US teams. Carleton's (a) experience as a unit allows them to play "above their pay grade" and (b) unusual defense encouraged some long jumpers, several by Roberson. I suspect against a more conventional D he'll shine. He does appear to be a "binary event": if something isn't quite right for him on the floor (v. Carelton it was scoring opportunities), it stymies the rest of his game. He should always be one of the better rebounders on the floor and we didn't really see that v. Carleton.

Bear in mind also that several of our guys got to play against Carleton last year and were perhaps more prepared for their style - Roberson was of course not yet cleared and thus naive to the Carleton antigens.

 

[realorange]

I think the other part if the story with Roberson was JB getting in his grill about defense. Between that and pushing himself to make shots I think he caved himself in.
JB commented that one of the biggest problems was Roberson and CM learning how to play the wings on defense.

 

[iommi]

I think the other part if the story with Roberson was JB getting in his grill about defense. Between that and pushing himself to make shots I think he caved himself in.
JB commented that one of the biggest problems was Roberson and CM learning how to play the wings on defense.

I think a possible solution for Roberson's shooting woes would be to perhaps position him in the high post. When he's on the wing he has a tendecy to jack a lof of deep shots. He might be more comfortable in the paint, where he can get off a short jumper off one or two dribbles.

 

[jordoo]

I think the other part if the story with Roberson was JB getting in his grill about defense. Between that and pushing himself to make shots I think he caved himself in.
JB commented that one of the biggest problems was Roberson and CM learning how to play the wings on defense.

Yep and Roberson was here last year so he was target #1 for JB about the defense. I would have to say that as far as wing defenders from the forward spot they went in this order. Mike, BJ, Tyler, Chris. BJ doesn't rebound as well as Chris or Tyler but position wise and recovering to the corner or back to the paint he was more solid IMO. Its an area of concern but then again not many teams will be able to do what Carlton did to us.

 

[tee1222]

I think a possible solution for Roberson's shooting woes would be to perhaps position him in the high post. When he's on the wing he has a tendecy to jack a lof of deep shots. He might be more comfortable in the paint, where he can get off a short jumper off one or two dribbles.

I would like him to get easy looks inside the paint, work outward from there. They won't respect his 15 footer if he's still yipped. Lay the ball off the glass or play above the rim. Just not ready for the shot selection he made yesterday.

 

[jordoo]

Tyler needs to worry about playing 4min without a glaring defensive mistake before he worries about anything else IMO. Cover the right spots, rebound the ball and all will be fine.

 

[SoBristol]

...

I am glad to get some real game insight rather than the glowing flow of words from practices. Sounds like Jimmy has a challenge this year to get this team ready for the ACC.

JB has a better hand than I had expected --some ingredients that will get better into February-March. Joseph is better with the ball in his hands than I had expected; Chris McC is better inside than I had expected. We can put a good five on the court. The questions for me is whether Patterson can emerge to be consistent as a supplemental scorer off the bench; and whether Rak can avoid foul trouble.

 

[tee1222]

Tyler needs to worry about playing 4min without a glaring defensive mistake before he worries about anything else IMO. Cover the right spots, rebound the ball and all will be fine.

Truth.

 

[SBU72]

I suppose anyone who has read any of my old posts already knows I'm a basketball nerd. I'm into things like strategy, floor spacing, mid range jump shots, pick and rolls, and double teams, and I have to say that because of these things this year's team makes me happy.

They come equipped with lots of quirks and tricks. Things like, point forwards, centers and power forwards beating their man off the dribble, and mid range jump shots. Think of them as the basketball version of a veteran left handed pitcher who can only throw the ball 87 miles a hour but has an artillery of off speed pitches with which he can trick hitters. There is no star on this team, but there are four, five, maybe even six guys who should be able to put up double figures regularly.

This is not a typical Syracuse team in many ways, they have a lot of holes, and probably a ceiling of 4th or 5th place in the ACC, but they are tons of fun to watch from a basketball nerd standpoint, and they should be able to run a bunch of quirky plays, and score in a lot of different ways. All in all I had more fun watching this exhibition game than I have had watching any SU team in a long time.

Onto the game, I think we learned a few things today (which is rare for an exhibition). Syracuse was down 9 at halftime, and played the second half to win. This means we got a glimpse of their true rotation, which is this . . .

Joseph, Cooney, Gbinije, McCullough, Christmas are our best line up and will play the majority of the minutes. Patterson and Roberson will get regular game time. Johnson looks like the odd man out, and Obokoh is a question mark.

The reason Obokoh is a question mark is because Christmas played the entire second half. Obviously he can't play all game every game and somebody is going to need to be the back up center. Its either going to be McCullough or Obokoh, and I'm not at all sure that Boeheim knows who is best suited for that role yet. McCullough is skinny for a center and will get pushed around, but, he will also be able to take opposing centers away from the basket on offense, and beat them in transition. Translation, we will get worse defensively and better offensively with McCullough at center. Obokoh is young and raw, and worse than Christmas in every way so Syracuse gets worse overall with Obokoh on the court, but perhaps he can learn to take over Christmas's defensive duties and the rest of the team can worry about carrying the offensive load. Only time will tell at this point.

People overstate how good Carleton is. They have beat a lot of great teams recently , but that is because they play all year long, most of their players are 5th year guys, and they get those great teams in August when they are not ready to compete. Carleton has middle of the road mid-major talent and nothing more. Still, that makes for one of the most difficult exhibition games a D1 team can get.

The good news is, Syracuse won, and looked pretty good doing it. The bad news is they were terrible on the boards. With Christmas, McCullough, and Roberson Syracuse should be a good rebounding team, and quite frankly, they will need to be. In this game Syracuse was dominated on the boards mostly due to the fact that neither McCullough or Roberson were ever in the places they should have been. Gbinije was outstanding on the boards, but he had no help.

After a first half where Syracuse played a deep bench, and basically looked like a team in an exhibition game, they were down by 10-15 points until Joseph sparked a late rally taking Carleton's halftime lead down to 9. In the second half Syracuse came out looking to win, and pretty much ruled the game. The line up that did the most damage was notable for how different and fun it was . . . Patterson, Cooney, Gbinije, McCullough, Christmas. It was fun because Gbinije played forward on defense and point guard on offense. Patterson and Cooney (and even McCullough who can shoot) gave the offense great spacing, allowing Syracuse to dump the ball inside to Christmas who had tons of room to either score over Carleton's useless center or pass to the open man when the inevitable double team came. You've got to love a perfectly spaced offense were all five players are looking to take their man off the dribble, or find the open man. Its how basketball should look.

Individual performers

Joseph - Looked fantastic, scoring 19 points, in only 26 minutes, while only missing two shots. His best sequence came in the second half when he beat his man off the dribble for a lay up, then faked doing the same thing on the next possession, jab stepped and buried a mid range jumper. There is no defense for that. Joseph is a ton of fun to watch and is going to be a fan favorite. I just hope he's not get too good too soon, because I want him to stay at least three years. The down side to Joseph's game is he's bad defensively, but that is normal for a freshman. It was impossible to not be impressed at how good he looked this early in his career. Most freshman point guards are shaky in exhibition against worse competition.

Cooney - Had a bad game shooting. He is going to have his good and his bad days from behind the arc, but his defense was good (and is almost always good) and he hit his free throws.

Roberson - I honestly don't think Roberson is all that good of a basketball player right now. Offensively he can't handle the ball with enough skill to drive to the basket successfully and he's also a reluctant (and mediocre) jump shooter, so he does not offer much offensively. Defensively he's got the tools but not the mind. He made way too many mistakes today, and got pushed around on the boards to boot. I am expecting him to be this year's token starter, making way early and often for Gbinije, who is simply a better player. Where Roberson can help us this year is on the boards. He needs to clean up everything defensively and learn to get the garbage baskets offensively.

McCullough - The guy is lightning quick for a 6'10 player, and he's got springs. He's too young, and too weak to be a superstar, but he's good already, maybe the best player we have, and I expect him to leave for the NBA after this season. Its his versatility I like most. One minute blocking a shot, the next scoring in transition. One minute hitting a three, the next posting a player up. He can pretty much do it all. He was absolutely terrible defensively in this game, but, like with Joseph you have to expect that from a freshman.

Christmas - He basically sat the bench the whole first half because of fouls and still managed to be our best player. At this point Syracuse looks decent defensively with Christmas in the game protecting the rim as well as barking orders to his teammates, but everything falls apart when Christmas goes to the bench. This is a major worry. Christmas went up against a 6'6 guy a lot of the time in this game so he was double teamed every time he touched the ball. When he wasn't, he scored 100% of the time. He had some nice post moves, and also 3 or 4 times when he took his smaller (should have been quicker but wasn't) defender off the dribble to score. It took Christmas a while to learn how to pass out of the double team (lets face it the guy's never been double teamed in his life) but he eventually figured it out. There are signs that Christmas is making the kind of leap Rick Jackson did his senior year. Lets hope this is true because there can be no doubt that Christmas is our most important player. We don't really have a good back up option.

Gbinije - Remember last year when Gbinije struggled to bring the ball up the court, much less run the team as the point guard? Well those days are over. Gbinije looked like a whole new player, handling the ball confidently and doing a great job running the offense. He played the forward position all game long defensively and never played guard, which I think tells you a lot about who is more ready to contribute between Johnson and Patterson. Gbinije was also the only good defensive forward, and the only good rebounder. He offered a lot in this game, and is going to be an invaluable contributor. One of the most underrated aspects of his game . . . when Gbinije gets a rebound (which will be often if he plays forward full time like it looks like he will) its off to the races. He can lead the transition break as well as any forward we have ever had.

Patterson - Scored 15 huge points, that included hitting his first four threes. We know three point shooting is something that comes and goes, and we know Patterson is not going to hit four threes every game. Heck, he might never do it again, but he does pose a threat that will allow Syracuse to space the court properly on offense, and, his extra long arms make him a fantastic defender at the top of the zone. So long as he keeps that defense up he is going to play, whether the threes are falling or not.

Johnson - BJ has a great skill set; he's tall, athletic, he can handle the ball and he can shoot. Before its all said and done he is going to be a star here, but its not going to be this year. Right now, Johnson is just too skinny. Ive really never seen anything like it; it boarders on frail. He's got to put on muscle before he can bang with the likes of Carleton, much less the big dogs of the ACC.

Obokoh - He looks a little short. He also looks lost and inadequate on both offense and defense. He's not ready yet, but I am sure Boeheim and crew will be working with him around the clock. We will see what happens. It sure would be nice to know he's able come off the bench and play 15 minutes of solid defense.

Sorry to say that I can't see Johnson being better than a 7th man

 

[Garbs]

One thing to remember is that BJ is the youngest player on the team. If he can get some time this month and next and get some confidence, hopefully he can contribute.

Roberson is going to need to play, maybe they should let him play the middle more, he did play there his senior year at RC, and maybe he will feel more comfortable there.

 

[CaptainJ]

Sorry to say that I can't see Johnson being better than a 7th man

There is a decent chance that will be the case, at least this season, or the early part of it. However, that is not a knock on BJ at all. The kid probably has a higher ceiling than many have realized, and likely will be an Orange favorite before all is said and done. The question for me is when that will take place. #BJFTW

 

[reedny]

Great to hear from you -- you're truly the "OG" of the BB board. Interesting to hear your take on MG -- I felt the same. Amazing swiss army knife out there -- playing one spot on D and another on O and doing both pretty well, not to mention tied for team-high rebounds. The kid can play the piano and drums at the same time!

I have to say, we've had some amazing freshmen on this team in the last few years. MCW, TE and now KJ and CM. Both frosh this year are talented kids on the offensive end for sure -- but matadors on D. I can't help but think of Pearl when I watch Joseph handle the ball -- it looks like its glued to his hands, the shot is smooth and that CROSSOVER!! McCullough is also a big-time talent .. I hope he starts figuring out the zone and taking pride in erasing shots. He's got NBA written all over him.

One more pleasant surprise in the second half -- this is one of only a few games i've seen in several years, maybe since AO and Rick were plying the paint circa 2010, that I felt like we reached an inside/outside equilibrium. It was exhilarating to see points coming from the 4 and 5 instead of long-range jumpshots. The spacing was good ... and once Carlton started doubling Rak, the perimeter opened up and Patterson started banging threes. If Rak maintains his level of play and CM's back-to-the basket game progresses .. we could have low block scorers on both sides of the floor.