Let's be honest

[SBU72]

Who here thought that this was the year that the streak was going to end. That at some time, most likely when the OOC schedule was done, that 16 wins may just have been the upper limit. I admit the thought had crossed my mind. I thought that with every win when the "eternal optimist" posted that they were seeing things with orange colored glasses. Paths to a 4th place finish in the conference really drove me bananas. But then when the pessimist posted with each lose they were they were just "gloomy gus". The 5 game win streak changed everything. So props to the team. They worked hard with mostly notable improvement. JB has done a good job. His detractors still have lots to complain about but a big challenge has been met and for that they should be cheered.

 

[SUGIANT]

I like Leys. And I agree!

 

[DaCuse]

I thought the goal was to go to the final four?

My how times have changed...

 

[jncuse]

Out of conference (Sometimes combined with the first 2 or 3 ACC games has not been that good to us in 3 of the last 5 years I believe. This year the projection seemed the worse however.

We have seen doom threads in a few recent years in late December / early January.
I remember "Will we go 0-18 in the ACC"..

The team always recovers to some degree.

 

[Newhouser]

I admit - after Iowa I didn't think we would finish 500 for the year. That said I was unaware at that time that the ACC in general would play more like the MAC than the ACC.

 

[Fly Rodder]

I admit - after Iowa I didn't think we would finish 500 for the year. That said I was unaware at that time that the ACC in general would play more like the MAC than the ACC.

Same.

My Iggy predictions are still my official predictions, however.

 

[upperdeck]

i think the fact that win or lose you really have just the one bad game against UL since about xmas.. even though about 10 teams will finish ahead of us in the bubble race not sure any of them had less than 3-4 bad games in that stretch.. What we dont have is that solid win or 2 to finish off the key games that make up the rest of the resume.

Rutgers is in and has some nice wins.. but they have 1 road win all season and thats against nebraska.

good Wins are nice but road wins should count too.

 

[Eric15]

On the one hand, yes I agree we are doing much better now than I would have predicted back in December.

On the other hand, any way you slice it, we are 17-13 and completely off the bubble in a conference that stinks.

 

[Newhouser]

i think the fact that win or lose you really have just the one bad game against UL since about xmas.. even though about 10 teams will finish ahead of us in the bubble race not sure any of them had less than 3-4 bad games in that stretch.. What we dont have is that solid win or 2 to finish off the key games that make up the rest of the resume.

Rutgers is in and has some nice wins.. but they have 1 road win all season and thats against nebraska.

good Wins are nice but road wins should count too.

I get what you are saying but I think for me we have had close games not good games. In my opinion we haven't played well for 40 minutes in a lot of games.

 

[djorange1989]

On the one hand, yes I agree we are doing much better now than I would have predicted back in December.

On the other hand, any way you slice it, we are 17-13 and completely off the bubble in a conference that stinks.

yep, the players play much harder than the crew from last year, have much better chemistry and are easy to root for. However, it is on JB and staff that the talent level is such that 17-13 is seen as somewhat of a success, and that is beyond unacceptable. We should never be as horrible as we were in November-December, and yet we have been horrible in Nov-Dec just about every year since the last really good SU team in 2013-14

 

[SUGIANT]

I thought the goal was to go to the final four?

My how times have changed...

He didn’t change any goals about the final four, just expressed that expectations were met and providing a silver lining.

 

[MSOrange]

I try not to be one to overreact but even after the games at MSG, I was not optimistic about a winning season. We just looked so far away from being a competitive team.

 

[djorange1989]

i think the fact that win or lose you really have just the one bad game against UL since about xmas.. even though about 10 teams will finish ahead of us in the bubble race not sure any of them had less than 3-4 bad games in that stretch.. What we dont have is that solid win or 2 to finish off the key games that make up the rest of the resume.

Rutgers is in and has some nice wins.. but they have 1 road win all season and thats against nebraska.

good Wins are nice but road wins should count too.

we have beaten one good team on the road, UVA. yes, we have played well on the road and that counts for something, but as you mention, we don't have enough good wins overall, not even remotely close.

 

[FrancoPizza]

However, it is on JB and staff that the talent level is such that 17-13 is seen as somewhat of a success, and that is beyond unacceptable.

we keep saying that but where is the accountability? It’s just all talk at this point unless Wildhack actually ties consequences to these results.

 

[Fly Rodder]

I get what you are saying but I think for me we have had close games not good games. In my opinion we haven't played well for 40 minutes in a lot of games.

Agreed about the close but not good games. Most teams go through lulls during a game, so I'm not too concerned there.

This squad is fun to watch (it's great to watch guys drill open threes for a change), but they're not quite good enough to overcome the structural issues of the defense combined with the personnel.

 

[SBU72]

He didn’t change any goals about the final four, just expressed that expectations were met and providing a silver lining.

99% of the teams in D1 do not make the FF. Pure fact. Any team who's ONLY goal is to reach the FF is therefore more than likely doomed to failure. As an ultimate goal, its fine but even that has bench mark posts that have to be met to achieve it. You can't get there without a winning season, without making tourny (which has it's own set of goals), without winning at least 4 games in the Tournament. And even then the goal should not be FF but Champs! So if people want to only congratulate a team for a great season if they make the FF, then they aren't going to say that very often. Like 4 times for JB's teams. In 40 years.

 

[djorange1989]

we keep saying that but where is the accountability? It’s just all talk at this point unless Wildhack actually ties consequences to these results.

yeah, WE are saying it, we aren't the ones who can hold him accountable, and JW isn't going to kick JB to the curb. at least not until after 2022-2023(assuming Dior and whomever else makes it up here)

 

[DilemaCuse]

Twice I thought losing season was likely, after thanksgiving games in NYC and after losing home game to Vtech which put them at 8-7 w road trip to UVA.

I knew going into the season, the team would be different. I hoped they would be better but knew it was unlikely after losing 4 veteran starters and the freshman coming in were not MCD AA caliber. I predicted interior defense would be the downfall. So it was sort of a rebuilding or resetting year. With that said they still have a shot to win 20 games this year. Not bad all things considered.

Now as for next year, the pressure to win increases since like others have said, JB hasn't had a team with a Top 4 seed in the tournament since 2014. Fans can live with a year like this but its harder to tolerate when there have been 5 previous years of mediocrity save for the Final 4 and Sweet 16 run that was unexpected. JB and staff have done a poor job building a roster the last couple of recruiting cycles. JB and staff did a decent job scratching out wins this year with what they have to work with considering youth, injuries, Jalen Carey couldn't play PG etc. I still think JB should look at changes in recruit evaluation, S&C, staff members and even defense as more teams just shoot and make 3s at a higher frequency than just 5 years ago.

 

[FrancoPizza]

JB hasn't had a team with a Top 4 seed in the tournament since 2014. Fans can live with a year like this but its harder to tolerate when there have been 5 previous years of mediocrity.

I think many are sadly accustomed to the bubble now. Getting to the NCAAs next year would probably be considered a success to those people.

JB should look at changes in recruit evaluation, S&C, staff members and even defense as more teams just shoot and make 3s at a higher frequency than just 5 years ago.

a 77-year old coach is not going to make changes at this point in his career.

 

[Fat tire 13]

This is why we can't have too many syracuse.com stragglers join this board. If you read the comments there, JB is squandering an opportunity for our "all world" talent to reach their full potential. Therefore he's the worst coach in the world. The takes on here, while they may result in a heated debate, are at least informed and thoughtful. Most of the time

 

[leftytg]

The ACC is steaming hot garbage as a conference this year and will likely be only a 4 bid conference. If this was even an average ACC year, let alone a strong year, Syracuse's record would have looked much more dismal and more in line with the less optimistic predictions coming out of the non-conference part of the schedule.

We need to be honest with ourselves and not try to put lipstick on a pig. From an optics perspective, the team caught a break due to the weakness of the conference schedule. Not all win totals reflect the same quality of a team year to year, and this years win total definitely skews perception to a more positive perception than reflects the underlying quality of the team.

 

[Sherman20]

The ACC is steaming hot garbage as a conference this year and will likely be only a 4 bid conference. If this was even an average ACC year, let alone a strong year, Syracuse's record would have looked much more dismal and more in line with the less optimistic predictions coming out of the non-conference part of the schedule.

We need to be honest with ourselves and not try to put lipstick on a pig. From an optics perspective, the team caught a break due to the weakness of the conference schedule. Not all win totals reflect the same quality of a team year to year, and this years win total definitely skews perception to a more positive perception than reflects the underlying quality of the team.

I’m sorry, but please stop buying into the conventional wisdom. The ACC isn’t nearly as bad as people are saying. The conference, full of young teams that were still figuring things out, lost some key games in November and December and that dragged down the overall NET and KenPom ratings. The Big 10 isn’t as good as people are saying and the ACC isn’t as bad as it appears.

 

[SoBristol]

we keep saying that but where is the accountability? It’s just all talk at this point unless Wildhack actually ties consequences to these results.

Two elements to accountability. Did JB and staff get a winning record with the obvious limits of this team? Yes - good job. Did JB and staff load the roster sufficiently in past cycles? Obviously, no. Then, how does it look going forward, with 6 of top 7 guys returning and chance to upgrade via grad transfer?

 

[miamicuse]

I thought the goal was to go to the final four?

My how times have changed...

It still is, kind of. Slight adjustments to "First Four", if not then "Final 4 of NIT", if not at least "beat Buffalo".

 

[GoSU96]

we keep saying that but where is the accountability? It’s just all talk at this point unless Wildhack actually ties consequences to these results.

Accountability for what genius? Another tiresome and played out clown.