Interesting season: Wouldn't say we exactly turned anything around and there are certainly a few holes in the old resume, but at the same time we saw some encouraging things and if we're able to build on it, we could feel like we are rounding that corner next season. With that, some thoughts:
We're officially a man-2-man team
The defense had some atrocious moments but I have to give Red credit for ripping the band-aid off and moving to primarily M2M. Feel like this was always going to be a bit ugly, or at least uneven, whenever it happened and we witnessed that, particularly the last 8 games or so. But completely switching up your defensive philosophy, increasing the pace significantly and managing to keep your head above water with solid but unspectacular talent is a pretty solid debut for a first-year head coach. Credit to Red.
Some old basketball tropes proved true. Others proved less true.
Two of the big things repeated here and all over the college basketball world for the past few years were that it's hard to rebound out of the zone and you give up a lot of threes if you play a zone all game. The latter appears to be true, for the most part. We allowed 243 3-pointers made on 712 attempts this season vs. surrendering 329 and 958 last season and we did that while playing at a faster pace. The percentages were basically the same .341 vs. .343, but we seemed to do a better job limiting damage from three. Rebounding was a different story as we finished 294th in that category (and yes, perhaps personnel was a much bigger factor here than defensive system). But I think the bottom line here is whatever defense you play, you need to communicate and play it well or you can get torched. We've seen too much of that the past few years, so we need to improve on this end of the floor (more on that in a bit).
Red's offseason moves were mediocre at best. His in-season management was pretty solid.
JJ was a nice addition -- room to improve, but solid addition. Cuffe has some potential and had a few moments, but was a peripheral figure much of the year. McLeod was ... not great. Westry didn't play. Patterson didn't play. There's a bit of wait and see here in terms of JJ's potential, Cuffe's potential, the potential of a healthy Westry and whatever Patterson potentially becomes, but at least based on year one, it's a lot of meh. That said, thought we managed to get some nice moments out of Benny once he got on the court and Red made the tough, but correct decision to part ways when we did. He got good contributions from a bunch of players including Cope, Brown and JJ improving significantly over the course of the season, Cuffe contributing a bit and staying competitive despite a significant lack of size. If Red has a better off-season this year (which seems likely with Freeman as a good start), it could be a very interesting season with a little bit more of a foundation to build off.
We were brutal in transition defense ... even off makes on the offensive end
Not sure I've seen a Syracuse team this bad at getting back on defense. Judah was a big offender, Bell was a big one too. Even Brown sometimes found himself behind the play. Add that to fact that we didn't really dedicate much to offensive rebounding and it was a really bad mix.
We were brutal against good teams
The UNC win was great and it was really, really important for this group. Outside of that we had a bunch of nice wins -- Pitt, NC State, etc. But we really struggled against well-coached, talented teams. Like struggled to even be in the game. We don't need to win all those (thought that would be fine too), but we have to find a way to be in those games fairly consistently and to win our fair share. More talent and depth would help, but we also need to make it tougher from an approach standpoint against those teams. To that end ...
Some thoughts looking ahead to Year 2
We need more imagination on defense and offense
The thing that really jumped out to me, particularly early in the season was how stagnant our offense was (everyone blames judah, but we ran a ton of minutes with a lineup of three struggling offensive players in Taylor, McLeod and JJ and a stationary spot-up shooter in Bell. Tough mountain to climb.) and how rudimentary our defensive approach was. It was like five guys defending five guys vs. a team playing defense together. Thought the more we saw of Copeland and Bell, the more variety we saw in the offense and we actually were pretty impressive on that end in Februrary ... we even saw Bell moving some off the ball. The defense overall really struggled but we were better defending the high ball screen, which was killing me early in the season.
But more actions and secondary actions offensively will really help if Judah isn't around and defensively we need to have wrinkles that make teams work. The interesting thing against Clemson was that we gave up 90 without really getting killed in transition. They just consistently got whatever they wanted and on the few possessions they didn't, they found a matchup they liked (a big singled up against Brown deep in the post, anyone Bell was guarding) and attacked that way. It was a nearly effortless 90. Not great. We have to find a way to make teams like that more uncomfortable. Better help and communication would be a start. Can you get creative with doubles to jump teams or reduce the issues with bad matchups? Can we get better (and it was better later in the season) at not having a player out of the play defensively chasing from behind? Can we employ some sort of creative defense to take advantage of the rim protection of McLeod without exposing him as a defender on the perimeter? We need our approach to be more sophisticated on this end if we ever hope to be a top tier team in the regular season.
JJ needs more Copeland swag in his game
Interesting year for JJ. Hard to pick on him too much because he was huge for us in the second half once he rediscovered his shot. But he's an odd player at the same time. He took a lot of criticism for his defense but I actually thought he played decent position defense, but he just never gambles. Never reaches in and picks anyone's pocket, never really shoots passing lanes, never drops his man and helps to mess up the opponent. He just sort of runs around with his guy. His 1.4 fouls a game means he's not in foul trouble, but it also often means you're not much of a factor either. Offensively is the same, the jumper came around and he is really tough in the mid-range, but he struggles to get to the rim and he never draws contact -- he shot 56 FTs on the season, less than half as many as Cope in nearly 400 more minutes as a primary ball-handler. Crazy.
Some interesting decisions lie ahead
Don't love speculating on the portal because it's such a crapshoot. But just thinking about how they value players and where they see them fitting is an interesting exercise. Bell is a really interesting one. The kid is a really talented scorer and an elite shooter. Obviously it's a lot of threes, but he's got a pump fake and pullup in his game, he hits contested shots, he can get to the rim a bit and finish on the break. If he can move better, he's tough to defend. Defensively, the chase-down block he's got ... the rest of it ... that's a work in progress. And the rebounding is a killer. A bit better late, but it's a struggle. Taylor is pretty much the opposite player -- lots of hustle and movement, works hard defensively and on the glass, but he just has such a tough time offensively I'm not sure. Does the staff think Carey can get healthy and be a factor with his athleticism? Seems hard to imagine, but maybe. Patterson is likely back after redshirting ... can he be a factor?
Lots of folks talking about a big, but I'd settle for a couple longish athletes
I wonder if there are many traditional bigs who will thrive in this system given the demands on the perimeter. But a couple 6'7"/6'8" dudes who play hard and have some athleticism could give you a frontcourt that can work on both ends and help give you a defensive identity. I think that could work.
I don't know -- there's a probably a lot more, but that's a start.
