How Confident are you with this team (after whatever that was against USF - ignore other thread)

[jordoo]

The somewhat disappointing aspect to me is now believing that DC2 may be a bit player this year. He is such a beast and I love his rebounding. But it looks like a short leash and he needs to bring another aspect. His D is not cutting it and the missed bunny seemed enough to do him in. I hope this trend can somehow reverse, but the odds of it happening just got longer.

Agree with this and it is disappointing but I can't fault JB for sitting him when he has. He's not doing what he has surely been told to over and over again on defense and he isn't clicking on offense well enough to counter that. Its a shame because he is easily the best rebounder we have and draws so much attention on the boards that its easier for the other guys to get them as well. He will be much improved next season as has beed the pattern lately for the bigs . . . . . . . . . I'm not totally counting him out yet this season but its not looking like he will be doing much more than the cameo starts at center.

 

[moqui]

talk to me in February

SU has a gauntlet coming up soon - at Louisville, Cincy, at Nova , at Pitt, and Notre Dame. With the exception of Nova, those will be the best teams we have faced all season (and Nova is a road game in the middle of what could be a swoon), so could conceivably lose all five. But that run will be the real test of the team, because all of them (again, except Nova) have legit size. Even if the Orange drop a couple of those games, it won't bother me too much as long as I see our own bigs showing signs of development. That is what is going to determine how deep this group can go.

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

It kills me to see JB use Keita so extensively in games where DC could be getting valuable time. We are going to need him to contribute if we are cutting nets down.

 

[cpatrocks]

we shot under 40% on the road and won by double digits. thats the best sign.. we can win without shooting lights out or making a ton of 3's

and covered the spread!!

 

[jordoo]

It kills me to see JB use Keita so extensively in games where DC could be getting valuable time. We are going to need him to contribute if we are cutting nets down.

We can't extend the defense the way we did with Coleman in there and that was the key to the game.

 

[Orangezoo]

We can't extend the defense the way we did with Coleman in there and that was the key to the game.

Also add to that - Coleman was a liability in guarding the lob pass. He will be the quick pull guy, but I presume he will see minutes in certain games where he can be effective. With Rak - its like he is so close to getting himself to be a guy who could get position more consistantly and put up 10-12 game and then he regresses. CJ's defense was a huge key I thought. In the year of AO/Ricky we made up for positioning issues by being long at the top of the zone and having good weakside shotblocking. If CJ can provide more of that it will help a lot. One other thing- when the defense was solid the back line did a great job rotating and Rak even got to a couple wing jumpers which was great. With CJ/James floating back to the middle to cover it really helped.