POOR REBOUNDING--again: Fat Lady may not sing for 'Cuse

[arbitragegls]

...well that was easy...'Cuse rocked GW...Dion presented himself a nice birthday present...the team played awesome defense and leaving Waiters out...scoring was balanced...steals were high...assts on 67% of buckets...FT shooting was awesome...AND 3pt shooting and rebounding sucked as well as half court flow to the bigs

'Cuse is a very good team...and team meaning balanced scoring and very good defense and all that brings to the party...but 3 glairing weaknesses in this game and in previous games may cost 'Cuse the NC if not fixed quickly:

1. What on rebounding...any team...even much smaller teams...are beating 'Cuse on the boards
--FAB is playing better...but hasnt increased rebounding vs. year ago that much
--Christmas has presented any presents on rebounding...is he on the court
--Fair is inconsistant on grabbing boards...sometimes yes...sometimes no
--Keita has either regressed and or is hurt..his mitts have to be hurting
2. 3 pt shooting is terrible...we need to be 35+% better and that is going to be a stretch for 'Cuse to reach...although for season we are close...we are not canning enough of these to offset weakness in FT shooting and rebounding
3. Half court flow to bigs is not good...with Melo, Keita, and Christmas shooting % good, 'Cuse continues not to throw ball into bigs often enough...and not sure we know how to get them the ball---we are a guard-wing oriented team...which is okay...but 'Cuse could be better working inside-out particularly with bigs shooting %

These are the 3 areas we need to improve...if we can improve any one or two of above, I believe we will be crowned in March...what do you think?

 

[mark79]

Love your posts. Right on brotha. I am encouraged by Fabs growth but the guards gotta go to him more. Would like to see one game when he gets 10 sets.

 

[dasher]

why do they have to be fixed quickly? They don't. Improve over time. March is a long way off. Ask UConn.

 

[Noexcuse]

why do they have to be fixed quickly? They don't. Improve over time. March is a long way off. Ask UConn.

Yeah, I agree. Plenty of time to work on these areas. Hopefully they will and we will see progress as the season goes along.

 

[arbitragegls]

with all do respect...

...because 1 month into season and have not seen anything change...tell me that rebounding has improved...it has regressed...tell me we make 3s...not so much...tell me we pass into the block...almost never...

Sure we have time to make the fixes...1 month down and 2 more months by my counting until March...geez...1/3 of time gone and havent seen any improvement on these points yet...so no rush to fix...how about at least improvement?

 

[StopCoolio]

GW has a very small lineup and crashed the boards with 4 guys on most plays. Want to know why we had so many run outs and dunks? Because GW chose to pick their poison and crash the boards as opposed to getting back on defense. Congrats to them, they won the largely irrelevant rebounding battle...and lost the game by 35 points.

 

[mark79]

Very solid observation Coolio...

 

[SkanSU]

What I observed ... same as Coolio ... and it seems to be consistent with the teams that have out rebounded us. These smaller teams really run under the boards and scrap and fight for the rebound. I always seem to see 3-4 of the opposing team under the basket on rebounds ... pulling, slapping (at the ball), pushing our guys out of position. The other teams just seem much more aggressive than we do under the boards. Granted, they also open themselves up to the SU fast break if they don't get the ball. Just IMHO

 

[Gatekeeper]

I think you have to look at two games to see why JB is doing what they do. If you don't want to have SU dunking on you at the other end and having top ten plays on ESPN then you do what Florida did get back and do the best you can rebounding (We out rebounded them and didn't have that many fast break points off rebounds) or send everyone to the boards and hope to get it cus there are 10 ten plays the other way if we get the rebound (last nights game).

Another thing to consider is they are blocking a lot of shots and that will leave your bigs out of rebounding position. Can't have it both ways. This is very early in the season and you have these games to get guys playing time. They are all still learning and growing they will play better. The best think that I heard about last weeks practice is the second team is beating the first team... Man that is good stuff in my book...

Were No 1 in the Country enjoy it...

 

[Gabjon]

While I agree with all your points the only one that I'm concerned about is the rebounding. Shooting comings and goes people rarely become better shootings during the season that work is done in the off season. Our bigs in this stage of their careers do not have polished post up games. Fab is the best at it and he is no where near the post player Rick was his senior year or AO for most of his career. Keita is too light in the a$$ to be good in the post and xmas is just not ready yet. That being said the ally hoops and put backs is all we need for those guy offensively. Now the rebounding needs to get better and that can happen in season. Southerland is a bad rebounder because he doesnt make himself wide at the base. He jumps from a straight leg position so it is easy to push him around down low also he doesn't look like he has gained an ounce of weight since coming to SU 10lbs of muscle would help him tremendously. Lastly the guards need to help out on the boards. When our forwards close out to contest a shooter on the wings the guards (at least one) has to replace him as a rebounder that doesn't happen and it needs to!

The biggest reason why I believe this team WILL win the NC is the best teams in the country other than us run offenses that don't attack the JB's 2-3 defense very well. Louisville scares me and so does Marquette because they are very good at attacking the zone.

 

[LennX6]

...well that was easy...'Cuse rocked GW...Dion presented himself a nice birthday present...the team played awesome defense and leaving Waiters out...scoring was balanced...steals were high...assts on 67% of buckets...FT shooting was awesome...AND 3pt shooting and rebounding sucked as well as half court flow to the bigs

'Cuse is a very good team...and team meaning balanced scoring and very good defense and all that brings to the party...but 3 glairing weaknesses in this game and in previous games may cost 'Cuse the NC if not fixed quickly:

1. What on rebounding...any team...even much smaller teams...are beating 'Cuse on the boards
--FAB is playing better...but hasnt increased rebounding vs. year ago that much
--Christmas has presented any presents on rebounding...is he on the court
--Fair is inconsistant on grabbing boards...sometimes yes...sometimes no
--Keita has either regressed and or is hurt..his mitts have to be hurting
2. 3 pt shooting is terrible...we need to be 35+% better and that is going to be a stretch for 'Cuse to reach...although for season we are close...we are not canning enough of these to offset weakness in FT shooting and rebounding
3. Half court flow to bigs is not good...with Melo, Keita, and Christmas shooting % good, 'Cuse continues not to throw ball into bigs often enough...and not sure we know how to get them the ball---we are a guard-wing oriented team...which is okay...but 'Cuse could be better working inside-out particularly with bigs shooting %

These are the 3 areas we need to improve...if we can improve any one or two of above, I believe we will be crowned in March...what do you think?

Agreed wholly, Marshall and GW waxed us on the boards. I watch watching highlights last night and saw guys like Raymont Green who would go Jerome Lane on us. Jai Crowder will eat us up yet again. Baylor would feast. The weaknesses you point out make us really vulnerable to our nemesis' Connecticut Louisville and Pitt. Our strength is we have 3 NBA guards (+ Scoop, and seriously Joseph is really a guard who plays close to the baseline)
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