SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- There’s no spinning it: the best team won. You have to admire Dick Bennett and the teams he turns out. These guys weren’t highly recruited, (I’ll be the rankings coming of high school of our guys, even in our depleted condition, we on average higher than the guys there were matching up against on Virginia). They are as fundamentally sound a team as you’ll see. The play hard on every possession on offense and defense. They are wonderful at getting positon for rebounds, (which is where they won this game). They pass the ball well and make open shots. They play great defense without fouling much. And I didn’t get the impression, (as I do with Pittsburgh and UCOPNN and Georgetown in the old days), that they were getting away with things the refs weren’t calling. It was just great defense, the way it should be played. If you are doing something that bothers them, they figure it out and it stops working at some point during the game and they take over. The solid fundamentals and developing lesser recruited players into a top team causes Bennett to remind me of Brad Stevens. As long as he is at Virginia, they will be very formidable. We’ve played them twice and it hasn’t been close either time. It hasn’t matter whether it was there or here, as it usually doesn’t with the really good teams.
- I hate to say it but when was the last time you marveled at how fundamentally sound Syracuse was? Bad passes, weak handles, awkward shots. Even when we win, we seem to overcome our own mistakes to do so. And how often are we credited with getting more out of our talent than it appeared possible? We look at ourselves as a young team that will mature. Virginia’s starting line-up has one senior, same as ours. The others are juniors and sophomores, same as us, (since Joseph didn’t start). And why do each of their players seem physically stronger than their Syracuse counter-parts.
- That great start, (13-2) was fun. But it could have been 20 or 25-2. We missed a bunch of open jumpers and had too many turnovers of our own. We gave up 2 points in the first 13:53, then 33 points in the next 9:10, going from 13-2 with 6:07 left in the first half to down 25-35 3:05 into the second half. Ball game. Even a 25-2 lead might not have held up but it would have kept us in the game. It was huge missed opportunity.
- I believe Boeheim started BJ Johnson in place of Kaleb Joseph because he felt that we were going to have to shoot over Virginia’s defense to score and he wanted all three of our three point guys out there: Cooney, Gbinije and Johnson. They went 2 for 8, 1 for 6 and 1 for 5 from the arc, a total of 4 for 19. Eventually we had to abandon the three and go to the basket. Nice idea but it didn’t work.
- But we lost this game on the boards. Virginia was just more aggressive and did a far better job of boxing out for positon. This had been a pretty good rebounding Syracuse team this season but the Cavs crushed us on the boards, 20-42. Pat’s “first chance points”, (total points minus second chance points, fast break points and free throws made) were 28-28. But Virginia was up 6-15 in second chance points and that doesn’t count the times they were just able to drain the clock after their 16 offensive rebounds. They rebounded 16 of their 30 misses (53.3%). We rebounded 6 of our 32 missed shots (18.8%). Ugh. The worst one was a play in the second half where Virginia missed a jump shot and we had four guys- 4- surrounding one Virginia player under the basket. The one Virginia guy got the ball and scored while our four guys essentially watched him do it. Double Ugh.
- Mike Gbinije’s slump continued. He was 2 for 11 from the field and 1 for 6 from the arc with 5 turnovers. Switching him to point guard made our defense strong but I think it hurt his offense. He wasn’t able to move without the ball. He had to create his own shots and he’s not that good at it. Also that run of excellent games he had has earned him more defensive attention than he is used to.
- Rakeem Christmas in his Dome finale, got outplayed by Anthony Gill, who had 17 points and 9 rebounds and Mike Tobey who had 10 and 8. They combined for 12 for 18 shooting. Rak was 4 for 9 for 10 points and only 4 rebounds. The newspapers can’t say “Yes Virginia, there is a Christmas”. But of course they knew there was as they had 2-3 guys around him at all times.
- This will be the third Boeheim team not to win 20 games. Also, the combined records of the SU football and basketball teams, the two teams that put this burg on the map, is now 21-21 for this school year. We last had a combined losing record in 2007-08, (23-24). We have to win in Raleigh on Saturday to avoid that fate. It’s been a tough year, in more ways than one.
- I hate to say it but when was the last time you marveled at how fundamentally sound Syracuse was? Bad passes, weak handles, awkward shots. Even when we win, we seem to overcome our own mistakes to do so. And how often are we credited with getting more out of our talent than it appeared possible? We look at ourselves as a young team that will mature. Virginia’s starting line-up has one senior, same as ours. The others are juniors and sophomores, same as us, (since Joseph didn’t start). And why do each of their players seem physically stronger than their Syracuse counter-parts.
- That great start, (13-2) was fun. But it could have been 20 or 25-2. We missed a bunch of open jumpers and had too many turnovers of our own. We gave up 2 points in the first 13:53, then 33 points in the next 9:10, going from 13-2 with 6:07 left in the first half to down 25-35 3:05 into the second half. Ball game. Even a 25-2 lead might not have held up but it would have kept us in the game. It was huge missed opportunity.
- I believe Boeheim started BJ Johnson in place of Kaleb Joseph because he felt that we were going to have to shoot over Virginia’s defense to score and he wanted all three of our three point guys out there: Cooney, Gbinije and Johnson. They went 2 for 8, 1 for 6 and 1 for 5 from the arc, a total of 4 for 19. Eventually we had to abandon the three and go to the basket. Nice idea but it didn’t work.
- But we lost this game on the boards. Virginia was just more aggressive and did a far better job of boxing out for positon. This had been a pretty good rebounding Syracuse team this season but the Cavs crushed us on the boards, 20-42. Pat’s “first chance points”, (total points minus second chance points, fast break points and free throws made) were 28-28. But Virginia was up 6-15 in second chance points and that doesn’t count the times they were just able to drain the clock after their 16 offensive rebounds. They rebounded 16 of their 30 misses (53.3%). We rebounded 6 of our 32 missed shots (18.8%). Ugh. The worst one was a play in the second half where Virginia missed a jump shot and we had four guys- 4- surrounding one Virginia player under the basket. The one Virginia guy got the ball and scored while our four guys essentially watched him do it. Double Ugh.
- Mike Gbinije’s slump continued. He was 2 for 11 from the field and 1 for 6 from the arc with 5 turnovers. Switching him to point guard made our defense strong but I think it hurt his offense. He wasn’t able to move without the ball. He had to create his own shots and he’s not that good at it. Also that run of excellent games he had has earned him more defensive attention than he is used to.
- Rakeem Christmas in his Dome finale, got outplayed by Anthony Gill, who had 17 points and 9 rebounds and Mike Tobey who had 10 and 8. They combined for 12 for 18 shooting. Rak was 4 for 9 for 10 points and only 4 rebounds. The newspapers can’t say “Yes Virginia, there is a Christmas”. But of course they knew there was as they had 2-3 guys around him at all times.
- This will be the third Boeheim team not to win 20 games. Also, the combined records of the SU football and basketball teams, the two teams that put this burg on the map, is now 21-21 for this school year. We last had a combined losing record in 2007-08, (23-24). We have to win in Raleigh on Saturday to avoid that fate. It’s been a tough year, in more ways than one.
