General20
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Many people wish every day was Christmas. I like Christmas, but I'm starting to wish every day was right after Christmas.
Across the country teams generally play ugly ball right after Christmas. Its usually a lot of traveling for kids (out to see family, back to school, then out to whatever venue you are playing in) and not much practice time, so nobody is operating at 100% efficiency.
It turns out that is a great way for Syracuse to play. We are conditioned to think that many factors go into winning or losing a basketball game - how you shoot, how you rebound, how you defend, etc. When you play Syracuse there is one factor that is much more important than the others. Are you taking care of the ball?
If you dont take care of the ball against Syracuse, absolutely nothing else matters. Syracuse is too good defensively and too good in transition. No matter what the shooting, rebounding, or anything else is like, if you cant protect the ball against Syracuse you are going to get blown out.
That is what happened to Seton Hall. The quick turn around from Christmas break, then traveling to the number one team in the country's home court, was too much for them. They couldn't seem to hold onto the ball, and that was all she wrote.
One other factor mattered big time in this game, and that was the Fab factor. Herb Pope is by far the most talented player on Seton Hall's roster and everything they do goes through him. Syracuse was able to render Herb Pope completely ineffective, and that completely shut Seton Hall's offense down. They had no plan B. Most of the credit has to go to Fab.
Over the past few years we have had two very good defensive centers in Jackson and Onuaku. Last year Jackson was among the best defenders in the entire country. But, neither Jackson nor Onuaku was a traditional shot blocker.
Playing great positional defense will get you far, even to a championship, and Syracuse is no stranger to centers who have done that - pretty much every one from Forth to Watkins, to Onuaku, to Jackson. But there is something about a great shot blocker that can steal the soul of the opposition. Melo was that kind of shot blocker against Seton Hall. He absolutely ripped their soul out, and he did it against arguably the most talented big man in the Big East. That is not something Syracuse has had the ability to do in a long time.
Most of the teams that hurt Syracuse's zone do so by working the ball inside out. With Fab blocking shots like that, not many teams are going to be able to hurt us inside, which means not many teams are going to be able to score effectively against us.
One other benefit of having Fab in the middle, which I have noticed all year is that he takes up more space and covers more space than a typical center, so Syracuse has given him more room to operate. The rest of the zone seems to puff out more when Fab is in the game, than it has in previous years. If you want to know why we lead the country in steals, I would say Fab is just as important to that particular achievement as the guys who are actually getting the steals.
Count me as someone who thought this was going to be a tough game. Even though last year's blow out had the feel of our football team blowing out West Virginia (one of those fluky upsets where everything goes right for the underdog). I still thought they would come into the Dome with a good plan that they could execute and give Syracuse trouble. I only thought we'd see a blow out if Syracuse shot the lights out. Syracuse did not shoot the lights out by any means, and the game was still a laugher from start to finish. Lets mark this one as a free-be and move on.
Going forward I hope we see more Fab dominance, more mid range jumpers from Triche, and more aggressive attacking of the basket.
Across the country teams generally play ugly ball right after Christmas. Its usually a lot of traveling for kids (out to see family, back to school, then out to whatever venue you are playing in) and not much practice time, so nobody is operating at 100% efficiency.
It turns out that is a great way for Syracuse to play. We are conditioned to think that many factors go into winning or losing a basketball game - how you shoot, how you rebound, how you defend, etc. When you play Syracuse there is one factor that is much more important than the others. Are you taking care of the ball?
If you dont take care of the ball against Syracuse, absolutely nothing else matters. Syracuse is too good defensively and too good in transition. No matter what the shooting, rebounding, or anything else is like, if you cant protect the ball against Syracuse you are going to get blown out.
That is what happened to Seton Hall. The quick turn around from Christmas break, then traveling to the number one team in the country's home court, was too much for them. They couldn't seem to hold onto the ball, and that was all she wrote.
One other factor mattered big time in this game, and that was the Fab factor. Herb Pope is by far the most talented player on Seton Hall's roster and everything they do goes through him. Syracuse was able to render Herb Pope completely ineffective, and that completely shut Seton Hall's offense down. They had no plan B. Most of the credit has to go to Fab.
Over the past few years we have had two very good defensive centers in Jackson and Onuaku. Last year Jackson was among the best defenders in the entire country. But, neither Jackson nor Onuaku was a traditional shot blocker.
Playing great positional defense will get you far, even to a championship, and Syracuse is no stranger to centers who have done that - pretty much every one from Forth to Watkins, to Onuaku, to Jackson. But there is something about a great shot blocker that can steal the soul of the opposition. Melo was that kind of shot blocker against Seton Hall. He absolutely ripped their soul out, and he did it against arguably the most talented big man in the Big East. That is not something Syracuse has had the ability to do in a long time.
Most of the teams that hurt Syracuse's zone do so by working the ball inside out. With Fab blocking shots like that, not many teams are going to be able to hurt us inside, which means not many teams are going to be able to score effectively against us.
One other benefit of having Fab in the middle, which I have noticed all year is that he takes up more space and covers more space than a typical center, so Syracuse has given him more room to operate. The rest of the zone seems to puff out more when Fab is in the game, than it has in previous years. If you want to know why we lead the country in steals, I would say Fab is just as important to that particular achievement as the guys who are actually getting the steals.
Count me as someone who thought this was going to be a tough game. Even though last year's blow out had the feel of our football team blowing out West Virginia (one of those fluky upsets where everything goes right for the underdog). I still thought they would come into the Dome with a good plan that they could execute and give Syracuse trouble. I only thought we'd see a blow out if Syracuse shot the lights out. Syracuse did not shoot the lights out by any means, and the game was still a laugher from start to finish. Lets mark this one as a free-be and move on.
Going forward I hope we see more Fab dominance, more mid range jumpers from Triche, and more aggressive attacking of the basket.
