sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Another game, another great defensive effort, another easy win over a team that is not nearly as bad as they were made to look tonight.
I have been watching SU basketball since the early 1970s, and I don't remember any SU team dominating teams, just beating them up on defense, like this one has done so far this season. I am not talking about the whole season. I don't remember this kind of domination in early season OOC games period.
34 points off turnovers today. Layup after layup after dunk after dunk. Like the Marshall game, it almost looks like men playing against boys the way we are able to take the ball away time after time. JB is on record saying he thinks it is impossible to press all season long these days successfully. Teams are too well coached and too good to get away with that.
Well, SU has always played around with the press some in early season games but by this point, it is normally put away in a cupboard behind the Christmas dishes, not to be brought out again until we are losing badly late in the game. JB has used the press in just about every game, and it continues to be successful. I am starting to think we might actually try and press some teams in conference play in the first half of some games. That would be interesting.
Syracuse started in zone. It was again very effective. GW looked really uncomfortable with the attacking style, rarely looked at the basket and forced a lot of bad shots. Their only real offense, like so many other teams we have played so far this year, was to hit the offensive boards hard. They hurt us there some. Defensive rebounding remains a major weakness.
SU also shock things up by playing some man to man. This was also effective. Very out of character for a JB coached team. Might we switch to man sometimes this season in conference games? History says no but with this team, it might just happen.
Pretty good crowd for a Saturday night during the height of the Christmas shopping season. It was announced at 23K. I think about 20K were actually there. Pretty lively crowd. They liked the Dion dunks a lot. He is emerging as a crowd favorite.
Dion had a wild and crazy night on his birthday. Had a bunch of steals again which helped lead to a bunch of dunks. Had a few assists too. Was all over the court. Had a really bad stretch during the first half where he made 2 or 3 bad plays in a row and for the first time since he has been here, was not taken out for screwing up. Dion paid JB back for the unusual faith shown him by playing some lights out basketball.
GW was slow and did a bad job getting back on defense, so Dion was able to get layups and dunks a lot. He still struggles in the half court, but on this day, that was not an issue.
JB played the guards like hockey lines tonight, with Scoop and BT playing together, and Dion and MCW paired together when they were not in. Kind of surprising given how well Dion and BT have been working together but it was successful. Thought Scoop struggled some, BT played pretty well in limited minutes. But tonight was also a great night for MCW, who played his best game. Looks to be our best passing guard in a very long time, set up a lot of baskets in a short period of time. Sees the court really well. Capable of making long cross court passes, little lobs to the bigs inside, just name it, he can do it. But he looks especially gifted at making alley oop passes. Could be our best at this since Sherm.
Thought Fab played quite well. Drew a couple more charges, got some blocks, made a few nice moves for baskets. Not as strong a rebounder as he could be, still isn't finishing as well as he is capable and it looks like he is going to make a run at the most goaltending fouls made in the history of SU basketball. But he is playing with aggression, still in learning mode and continues to make progress.
Everyone played pretty well. Again. Dirty was kind of up and down at times, I still think CJ is struggling quite a bit, especially on offense and Baye still is having problems holding on to the ball. But they are all playing good defense, and the defense is good enough to get this team a lot of wins.
SU is a completely different team when the running game is shut down and they are forced to run a half court offense. Our ability to execute that offense, and our ability to rebound decently against a good offensive rebounding team will determine how long this team stays at number 1 in the country. It will be interesting to see if the rotation stays the same this second time on the road down in Raleigh. I really don't know if it will, and it might not be determined until JB sees how the starters do in the first 5 or 10 minutes of the 1st half.
The NA was sung by Ashley Cox, a minor Syracuse music legend. She sang a folksy version of the song. Not bad at all.
The traditional running of the flags was pulled off successfully, but Mr Excitement again took too long making his announcements so the kids did not have enough time to take the flags on to the court and wave them.
Props to Otto for running the lap with the flag bearers.
Nops to Mr Excitement, who continues to add more rhymes to his PA duties with each passing game. Now he has added "Be loud, be proud, be orange" to his long winded and self indulgent "Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, get on your feet and make some noise" intro he uses for both halves. You are a public address announcer. Not a very good one at that. Please focus on giving facts, not trying to be witty, funny or motivational.
Trevor Cooney really shot the ball well in pregame warmups. Squares up to the basket and has really nice form. He is going to be a good one down the road.
Driving up Castle Street to the Dome tonight, there was a huge full moon hanging above the Dome. Maybe it was a harbinger of the events that would unfold tonight that led to SU becoming the #1 team in the country on Monday. Pretty cool night. Let's hope our #1 rating lasts a lot longer than the full moon will.
I have been watching SU basketball since the early 1970s, and I don't remember any SU team dominating teams, just beating them up on defense, like this one has done so far this season. I am not talking about the whole season. I don't remember this kind of domination in early season OOC games period.
34 points off turnovers today. Layup after layup after dunk after dunk. Like the Marshall game, it almost looks like men playing against boys the way we are able to take the ball away time after time. JB is on record saying he thinks it is impossible to press all season long these days successfully. Teams are too well coached and too good to get away with that.
Well, SU has always played around with the press some in early season games but by this point, it is normally put away in a cupboard behind the Christmas dishes, not to be brought out again until we are losing badly late in the game. JB has used the press in just about every game, and it continues to be successful. I am starting to think we might actually try and press some teams in conference play in the first half of some games. That would be interesting.
Syracuse started in zone. It was again very effective. GW looked really uncomfortable with the attacking style, rarely looked at the basket and forced a lot of bad shots. Their only real offense, like so many other teams we have played so far this year, was to hit the offensive boards hard. They hurt us there some. Defensive rebounding remains a major weakness.
SU also shock things up by playing some man to man. This was also effective. Very out of character for a JB coached team. Might we switch to man sometimes this season in conference games? History says no but with this team, it might just happen.
Pretty good crowd for a Saturday night during the height of the Christmas shopping season. It was announced at 23K. I think about 20K were actually there. Pretty lively crowd. They liked the Dion dunks a lot. He is emerging as a crowd favorite.
Dion had a wild and crazy night on his birthday. Had a bunch of steals again which helped lead to a bunch of dunks. Had a few assists too. Was all over the court. Had a really bad stretch during the first half where he made 2 or 3 bad plays in a row and for the first time since he has been here, was not taken out for screwing up. Dion paid JB back for the unusual faith shown him by playing some lights out basketball.
GW was slow and did a bad job getting back on defense, so Dion was able to get layups and dunks a lot. He still struggles in the half court, but on this day, that was not an issue.
JB played the guards like hockey lines tonight, with Scoop and BT playing together, and Dion and MCW paired together when they were not in. Kind of surprising given how well Dion and BT have been working together but it was successful. Thought Scoop struggled some, BT played pretty well in limited minutes. But tonight was also a great night for MCW, who played his best game. Looks to be our best passing guard in a very long time, set up a lot of baskets in a short period of time. Sees the court really well. Capable of making long cross court passes, little lobs to the bigs inside, just name it, he can do it. But he looks especially gifted at making alley oop passes. Could be our best at this since Sherm.
Thought Fab played quite well. Drew a couple more charges, got some blocks, made a few nice moves for baskets. Not as strong a rebounder as he could be, still isn't finishing as well as he is capable and it looks like he is going to make a run at the most goaltending fouls made in the history of SU basketball. But he is playing with aggression, still in learning mode and continues to make progress.
Everyone played pretty well. Again. Dirty was kind of up and down at times, I still think CJ is struggling quite a bit, especially on offense and Baye still is having problems holding on to the ball. But they are all playing good defense, and the defense is good enough to get this team a lot of wins.
SU is a completely different team when the running game is shut down and they are forced to run a half court offense. Our ability to execute that offense, and our ability to rebound decently against a good offensive rebounding team will determine how long this team stays at number 1 in the country. It will be interesting to see if the rotation stays the same this second time on the road down in Raleigh. I really don't know if it will, and it might not be determined until JB sees how the starters do in the first 5 or 10 minutes of the 1st half.
The NA was sung by Ashley Cox, a minor Syracuse music legend. She sang a folksy version of the song. Not bad at all.
The traditional running of the flags was pulled off successfully, but Mr Excitement again took too long making his announcements so the kids did not have enough time to take the flags on to the court and wave them.
Props to Otto for running the lap with the flag bearers.
Nops to Mr Excitement, who continues to add more rhymes to his PA duties with each passing game. Now he has added "Be loud, be proud, be orange" to his long winded and self indulgent "Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, get on your feet and make some noise" intro he uses for both halves. You are a public address announcer. Not a very good one at that. Please focus on giving facts, not trying to be witty, funny or motivational.
Trevor Cooney really shot the ball well in pregame warmups. Squares up to the basket and has really nice form. He is going to be a good one down the road.
Driving up Castle Street to the Dome tonight, there was a huge full moon hanging above the Dome. Maybe it was a harbinger of the events that would unfold tonight that led to SU becoming the #1 team in the country on Monday. Pretty cool night. Let's hope our #1 rating lasts a lot longer than the full moon will.
