Re-assessing Our Team Near the Midpoint

[AlaskaSU]

Do you remember Dion Waiters?

Sure do but Scoop was a damn good pg.

 

[JustPherU]

Sure do but Scoop was a damn good pg.

Dion was more a shooting guard and would have started on just about any team in the country.
You asked who doesn’t start their best players and I was just stating one example, but there are many great 6th men that never started.

 

[Fly Rodder]

Preseason, I wasn't worried about being under .500, talent level is too high and Red was familiar enough with these guys to get them to beat the cupcakes. The blowout losses to Gonzaga and Tennesee and near loss to Colgate had me worried about being competitive this season with better teams. Red is improving his in-game coaching; his substitutions are getting more effective and the in-game adjustments are getting quicker. Minor nit, I think he holds his timeouts too long. Watching him at the bench, it's obvious he's still trying to get guys to break bad habits and he's getting them to buy into his approach. I'd like to see better half-court sets to get open(er) looks when the fast breaks aren't happening as much.

That blowout loss to UVA tempers my enthusiasm, but I'm moving my 1st quarter team grade up to a B- for the first half. Longer term, roster management needs improvement, BUT we all know this team would look a lot different with Jesse and a healthy Chance.

 

[djcon57]

Not going to lie, I thought McLeod was worse than Bell. That’s a surprise to me.

Defensive numbers are a little skewed with blocks.

 

[bballbeadle]

It’s sad that it’s half over already. Feels like we’re just getting started.

STOP!

 

[bballbeadle]

When we hired Red, and I looked at our schedule for this year and how it would play out:

If you told me we'd be 10-3 (1-1) at this point in the season, I'd be thrilled.

If you told me we'd have no Q3/4 losses, I'd be thrilled.

If you told me I just would've enjoyed watching the games this season, I'd be thrilled.

Couldn't be happier with where we're at right now. There's things to work on, but I wasn't expecting what we've gotten so far.

We are going to have losses in the early part of the ACC. If they are not blow outs (or even if they are) our team can’t get down on themselves. I think Red will play a big part helping them keep confidence. He seems to be that kind of a coach. Then for the “easier” part of the schedule we just need to win win win. It would be fantastic if we could beat Carolina in the Dome, having learned from playing them in the Dean Dome and having the backing of a huge, loud crowd.

 

[mark79]

I’ve gotta say, what has impressed me the most about this years team is the passing that has recently materialized. The ball rarely sticks and we’ve seen interior passing that we haven’t seen in what feels like decades. It is a joy to watch SU basketball when they play like a real team.

 

[Sbucketball]

We are going to have losses in the early part of the ACC. If they are not blow outs (or even if they are) our team can’t get down on themselves. I think Red will play a big part helping them keep confidence. He seems to be that kind of a coach. Then for the “easier” part of the schedule we just need to win win win. It would be fantastic if we could beat Carolina in the Dome, having learned from playing them in the Dean Dome and having the backing of a huge, loud crowd.

That's why beating Pitt at home was so important in my opinion. This is a pretty young team and the next games are at Duke, v an improved BC, at UNC, at Pitt, and v Miami. I was afraid of a huge slide here, especially if we lost the first game which was a winnable home game, and then add in the loss to Virginia and it's a huge uphill battle that could devastate this team. The team should be feeling good heading into the gauntlet.

 

[SoBristol]

They should be feeling good. I give credit to Copeland, Brown and a revived Williams. Q said these are his guys - they play together in practices against the starters and know how to look for each other. And I suspect Q’s energy is inspiring Williams. Those 3 get after the boards.

Certainly we ride with Mintz and JJ, but then I look to Q and his guys to give us a chance.

 

[upperdeck]

go no worse than 2-2 and then come home and see what you can do..

Even that will be hard enough with 3 on the rd.

we have two 3 game stretches at home.. if we can go 4-2 and steal a couple other rd games 10 wins is on the table.. Any more than that and we can think about the NCAAs if we get closer to 12.

 

[Fly Rodder]

You can see by these percentile ranks what Syracuse is good at and what they're not (98th would indicate that they're in the 98th percentile of D1 teams, likewise, a 12 indicates that they're in the 12th percentile of D1 teams).

They excel at getting steals, blocks and limiting personal fouls while doing so and scoring on the breaks. On the downside, they don't shoot threes a lot or well (which in combination is a good thing I'd guess. You don't want to be bad at shooting threes and shooting a lot of them) and they don't rebound well. (net rating in this is not the NET, it's just the measure of points for and points against).

 

[djcon57]

You can see by these percentile ranks what Syracuse is good at and what they're not (98th would indicate that they're in the 98th percentile of D1 teams, likewise, a 12 indicates that they're in the 12th percentile of D1 teams).

They excel at getting steals, blocks and limiting personal fouls while doing so and scoring on the breaks. On the downside, they don't shoot threes a lot or well (which in combination is a good thing I'd guess. You don't want to be bad at shooting threes and shooting a lot of them) and they don't rebound well. (net rating in this is not the NET, it's just the measure of points for and points against).

View attachment 236053

Maliq with steals and Naheem with blocks carrying our Hakeem Pct.

 

[Nicknack]

Do you remember Dion Waiters?

This isn't directed just at you, but I get tired of people going back to Dion to defend someone not starting and coming off the bench. This isn't the same team and there are many different things at play. I'm not suggesting that Red is wrong with what he's doing, but JT just isn't cutting it and if he doesn't start contributing more, he needs to come off the bench. I'm sure Red would rather have Benny start, but with what happened before, he's doing the right thing by forcing him to earn his spot back.

 

[Fly Rodder]

This isn't directed just at you, but I get tired of people going back to Dion to defend someone not starting and coming off the bench. This isn't the same team and there are many different things at play. I'm not suggesting that Red is wrong with what he's doing, but JT just isn't cutting it and if he doesn't start contributing more, he needs to come off the bench. I'm sure Red would rather have Benny start, but with what happened before, he's doing the right thing by forcing him to earn his spot back.

I get it. But we need to play a lot of guys, we got tired of the short rotation with JAB. I don't think starting matters as much as getting the best minutes out of your rotation. I'd like to see this lineup, Starling, Mintz, Copeland, Maliq, and McLeod. It hasn't happened yet because there's no shooting. There's apparently only been two possessions where Maliq played with McLeod.

I do think as far as the starting lineup goes, Taylor and Bell shouldn't be on the court at the same time. I also understand that Taylor starting is a lot of the result of Benny not starting. Taylor at least gives some defense. Bell is our worst regular player by the numbers and he's been in a funk since Cornell. It's not like he doesn't have the ability, the kid makes some pro plays that are jaw dropping but then disappears for the next 30 minutes.