Cooney is a selfish player

[longislandcuse]

That's a gross oversimplification. Good defense AND a team that peaked offensively at the right time, with MCW and Triche--who weren't consistent shooters--suddenly becoming matchup terrors, Southerland playing well, CJ playing well, and Keita providing a modicum of inside scoring that the team utterly lacked the entire year.

It wasn't just defense. The defense also happened to be great, due to the personnel.

Think about this: we really aren't that good defensively this year, and yet we hung with Villanova at their place, #4 ranked Duke, #11 ranked UNC at their place, Pitt at their place. If we play even just a little better defensively, we win all four of those games. Complaining about the offense, this year, given the strides we've made on offense from when the season began, is off target.

Ill give you that, and this is a whole other topic, but this year when we've played teams who play us straight up and don't take the air out of the ball all game, we've fared well until we inevitably run out of gas or get some bs calls to derail us.

Maybe our lack of offense recently directly correlates to lack of 3 point shooting which is a recruiting issue. Common trend in CBB is if you don't have shooters, no matter how good your talent is, you can't score.

 

[jsshap]

Exactly. We get 10x the talent coming through this program yet haven't fielded a competent offense in years.

You can certainly call Wisky's offense efficient and responsible, but tremendous?????

 

[kirbivore]

Not selfish but he had several ill-advised heaves in the second half.

one was a momentum killing airball

 

[Millhouse]

cooney is 10th nationally in 3PA in conference play
and he's 250th nationally in 3P% in conference play

deshawn williams shot better from 3 in conference play every year of his career fwiw

 

[TinyManInside]

The stats actually show we are a better offensive team this year than we were last year. Sort of scary, actually.

Big difference defensively though...

 

[Millhouse]

cooney is 10th nationally in 3PA in conference play
and he's 250th nationally in 3P% in conference play

deshawn williams shot better from 3 in conference play every year of his career fwiw

I think I got this way wrong. I was using statsheet.com incorrectly. ignore that williams part - he was TERRIBLE in conference games

 

[NineOneSeven]

I think I got this way wrong. I was using statsheet.com incorrectly. ignore that williams part - he was TERRIBLE in conference games

Are those Cooney stats correct?

 

[RF2044]

The stats actually show we are a better offensive team this year than we were last year. Sort of scary, actually.

Big difference defensively though...

That IS scary, given how anemic last year's scoring was for lengthy stretches. Also scary considering where this team started out the season [but a testimony to how far they've come in terms of execution].

Defense is the achilles heel--no question.

 

[moqui]

Exactly. We get 10x the talent coming through this program yet haven't fielded a competent offense in years.

Not sure what your definition of "competence" or "years" are, but for reference:

• Syracuse offensive efficiency has been well above average every year that Ken Pomeroy has kept records, going back to the 2001-02.
• This year is only the second time in that span that the offense has not been ranked in the top 100 nationally (123rd in 2001-02 and 109th this season)
• From 2007-08 to 2013-14, Syracuse was in the top 50 in offensive efficiency every season
• of those 7 top 50 seasons, 5 of them were top 30 and three of them were top 10 (2008-9, 6th; 2009-10, 9th; 2011-12, 6th)

 

[moqui]

The stats actually show we are a better offensive team this year than we were last year. Sort of scary, actually.

Big difference defensively though...

not really: the Orange are playing at a faster pace but doing so much less efficiently; this year's squad is playing at the 78th fastest tempo in the nation (and 4th in the ACC) but scoring 104.9 points per 100 possessions. Compared to last year when the pace was glacial - 343rd out of 351 teams - but scored much more efficiently in that pace, 112.3 points per 100 possessions.

 

[PhatOrange]

He's good for several forced bad shots per game - they're all usually of the head scratching variety to - the 'its my turn to shoot' kind of forced.

He's also a guaranteed turnover machine on the break.

 

[upperdeck]

I think his fast break stuff is blown out of proportion.. who do we have thats a finisher on the break to pass too?

 

[Millhouse]

I think his fast break stuff is blown out of proportion.. who do we have thats a finisher on the break to pass too?

in relative terms, EVERYONE ELSE

 

[upperdeck]

we play 7 kids. fbreak pts usually come guard to forward. Other than G we dont have a guard who seems to catch passes, roberson struggles to finish layups, Rak is hardly ever out there, if you can get the ball to the backboard should you really be passing? Im sure there are some he could have passed off. but this thread sounds like everytime he does the wrong thing and thats not true.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I think on a better team, hopefully next year, Cooney will be good for 3 less attempts per game and average right around the same points per game. He's really a spitting image of 05-06 McNamara at this point. If he has the ball at the end of the clock, or we need a big shot, he's guaranteed to chuck it up. If he got rid of some of those 2-3 awful shots he takes every game, his efficieny numbers wouldn't even look that bad. He's a good player on an average team trying to make his team good.

 

[Alsacs]

I think on a better team, hopefully next year, Cooney will be good for 3 less attempts per game and average right around the same points per game. He's really a spitting image of 05-06 McNamara at this point. If he has the ball at the end of the clock, or we need a big shot, he's guaranteed to chuck it up. If he got rid of some of those 2-3 awful shots he takes every game, his efficieny numbers wouldn't even look that bad. He's a good player on an average team trying to make his team good.

Gerry was playing PG and was the primary ballhandler in 05-06 and that led to him taking bad shots. Gerry's schedule that year was insane I think we had the number 1 SOS that year. Cooney is a catch and shoot SG who doesn't create for others, has improved putting the ball on the court but is still subpar.
GMac did more for the team than Cooney has. I would take 05-06 Gmac if Cooney could do that.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Gerry was playing PG and was the primary ballhandler in 05-06 and that led to him taking bad shots. Gerry's schedule that year was insane I think we had the number 1 SOS that year. Cooney is a catch and shoot SG who doesn't create for others, has improved putting the ball on the court but is still subpar.
GMac did more for the team than Cooney has. I would take 05-06 Gmac if Cooney could do that.

I just quoted you on another Cooney post. Oh well, not denying Gerry was the better point guard. I just think from a shooting/scoring perspective they are similar players. At least there's no Louie Mc. on this team.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I think his fast break stuff is blown out of proportion.. who do we have thats a finisher on the break to pass too?

Typically, the person ahead of you that isn't being guarded is the better option. Unless you really like to see his one on 3 blunders.

 

[moqui]

I think his fast break stuff is blown out of proportion.. who do we have thats a finisher on the break to pass too?

Tyler does a great job getting out & running, but his teammates rarely even look his way. We don't know how effective he'd be as a finisher since they don't go to him