The Downside

[SWC75]

- We are a very young team and it showed at time tonight. Michael Carter-Williams can make some fabulous plays and fill a stat sheet but he has to learn how to control the pace of a game. We played at 45RPM the while game because Arkansas wanted us to. Down the stretch when JB wanted to slow it down and milk the clock, we were still shooting the ball with plenty left on the shot clock. To control a game you’ve got to control the tempo.

- We had 20 turnovers, 6 form the otherwise stellar Michael Carter-Williams. We were facing an aggressive defense but it certainly wasn’t “40 minutes of Hell”. On one play, MCW just got the ball pulled out of his hands and the guy drove the length of the court for a lay-up.

- There were several plays, especially in the first half, when we failed to convert a lay-up or dunk and Arkansas beat us down the court to score. Each was a 4 point swing, not in our favor.

- We used to win games like this by going inside and racking up the points and fouls. At this point, we have no one to go to. DaJuan Coleman, Rakeem Christmas and Baye Moussa Keita were 3 for 9 from the field and scored 8 points.

- The refs blew 46 fouls, (and they blew several of them, too). Arkansas went to the line 36 times to our 24 and they shot it better from there, out-scoring us by 15 points from the foul line.

- Part of the foul where the way game was called but part of it is that we allowed the Razorbacks to cut through our normally stout defense. We’ve gotten most of these big non-conference wins by frustrating the other team with our zone but it was no mystery to Arkansas. We’d given up 49, 57, 53 and 51 points. We gave up 82 tonight.

- Because of the whistles we got in serious foul trouble. Four players wound up with 4 fouls, Fair, Triche, Carter-Williams and Southerland. Two more, Keita and Cooney, who played only 39 minutes between them, had three fouls. It’s a good thing the game never got to overtime. We might have run out of players, especially guards. Three guys for two positions stretches us kind of thin in the backcourt.

- ESPN had a misleading graphic showing SU as only having about half-dozen true road games in the last decade. They left out several games including games against Kansas, Florida and San Diego State that were in their same state and hardly “neutral games. Matt Park, after the game, said maybe it’s time people stopped talking about the frequency of our road games and started talking about how well we play in them.
　

 

[OttoMets]

- We are a very young team and it showed at time tonight. Michael Carter-Williams can make some fabulous plays and fill a stat sheet but he has to learn how to control the pace of a game. We played at 45RPM the while game because Arkansas wanted us to. Down the stretch when JB wanted to slow it down and milk the clock, we were still shooting the ball with plenty left on the shot clock. To control a game you’ve got to control the tempo.

- We had 20 turnovers, 6 form the otherwise stellar Michael Carter-Williams. We were facing an aggressive defense but it certainly wasn’t “40 minutes of Hell”. On one play, MCW just got the ball pulled out of his hands and the guy drove the length of the court for a lay-up.
...
　

Way too many turnovers, and a number of those were unforced - a player falling down with the ball, a couple guys throwing the ball right to a white jersey. A little unfair to mention that specific play, though. While I have no idea why Mike turned away from his defender and looked toward the ref (or into the backcourt?), he got flat-out mugged. That's as bad a no-call as any of us will ever see.

Also, not to quibble too much - it's a great recap, as always - but Florida in Tampa and San Diego State in San Diego were neutral atmosphere games at worst. Nothing resembling a road game. The graphic was accurate.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

No scoring ability from inside. The only inside scoring we got was on drives by mcw. not a single post up bucket the entire game. this team is just going to have to be that good in transition and from three

 

[Cowtown]

No scoring ability from inside. The only inside scoring we got was on drives by mcw. not a single post up bucket the entire game. this team is just going to have to be that good in transition and from three

Interesting comment, thanks SH. In order to be good at transition, you first have to create it by being good at defense and rebounding. Do you see that happening? Most of the games I get to see are on poor & choppy internet feeds, so it's hard to get a feel for the game.

 

[kuethstheman]

Way too many turnovers, and a number of those were unforced - a player falling down with the ball, a couple guys throwing the ball right to a white jersey. A little unfair to mention that specific play, though. While I have no idea why Mike turned away from his defender and looked toward the ref (or into the backcourt?), he got flat-out mugged. That's as bad a no-call as any of us will ever see.

Awful non-call.

I believe MCW was trying to figure out if the ref had started counting a 5-second close defense. He'll have to find out a better way to do that or forget about the ref and make a move.

 

[longislandcuse]

Im really not worried about low post scoring because DC2 will be able to do that with some game experience. The one post play we ran for him, he got a great look, looked smooth and had everything but the finish. Eventually those will go down.

As far as our offense goes, I can't imagine too many teams will be able to stop MCW when he wants to take over a game ala Johnny Flynn vs UCONN 6 OT.

 

[ORRange]

- We are a very young team and it showed at time tonight. Michael Carter-Williams can make some fabulous plays and fill a stat sheet but he has to learn how to control the pace of a game. We played at 45RPM the while game because Arkansas wanted us to. Down the stretch when JB wanted to slow it down and milk the clock, we were still shooting the ball with plenty left on the shot clock. To control a game you’ve got to control the tempo.

- We had 20 turnovers, 6 form the otherwise stellar Michael Carter-Williams. We were facing an aggressive defense but it certainly wasn’t “40 minutes of Hell”. On one play, MCW just got the ball pulled out of his hands and the guy drove the length of the court for a lay-up.

- There were several plays, especially in the first half, when we failed to convert a lay-up or dunk and Arkansas beat us down the court to score. Each was a 4 point swing, not in our favor.

- We used to win games like this by going inside and racking up the points and fouls. At this point, we have no one to go to. DaJuan Coleman, Rakeem Christmas and Baye Moussa Keita were 3 for 9 from the field and scored 8 points.

- The refs blew 46 fouls, (and they blew several of them, too). Arkansas went to the line 36 times to our 24 and they shot it better from there, out-scoring us by 15 points from the foul line.

- Part of the foul where the way game was called but part of it is that we allowed the Razorbacks to cut through our normally stout defense. We’ve gotten most of these big non-conference wins by frustrating the other team with our zone but it was no mystery to Arkansas. We’d given up 49, 57, 53 and 51 points. We gave up 82 tonight.

- Because of the whistles we got in serious foul trouble. Four players wound up with 4 fouls, Fair, Triche, Carter-Williams and Southerland. Two more, Keita and Cooney, who played only 39 minutes between them, had three fouls. It’s a good thing the game never got to overtime. We might have run out of players, especially guards. Three guys for two positions stretches us kind of thin in the backcourt.

- ESPN had a misleading graphic showing SU as only having about half-dozen true road games in the last decade. They left out several games including games against Kansas, Florida and San Diego State that were in their same state and hardly “neutral games. Matt Park, after the game, said maybe it’s time people stopped talking about the frequency of our road games and started talking about how well we play in them.
　

Yes if you asked the Syracuse staff, SD St. staff and oddsmakers in Vegas if the game on the ship was totally neutral they would laugh at you. One team had to fly 3 time zones and everything that it invloves and SD St. got to do their usual routine for the game. Most neutral games at least both teams have to travel. Definitely a hybrid road game for SU. It's true the Aztecs didn't have their usual fanbase of rabid fans but they sure had more advantages than SU, most certainly in the eyes of the oddsmakers.

 

[OttoMets]

Awful non-call.

I believe MCW was trying to figure out if the ref had started counting a 5-second close defense. He'll have to find out a better way to do that or forget about the ref and make a move.

Yeah, can't turn your head away from the defender.

Ref could holler it out, too, but maybe it was loud down there.

 

[SWC75]

The "mugging" is somehting that would happen in the NBA all night. "Protect yourself, (and the ball) at all times."

Here is a list of the non-conference regular season games played away from the Carrier Dome or Madison Square Garden by SU in the last ten years, (since the 2003-04 season), by category:

"True" road games:
12/3/03 SU 87 St. Bonaventure 78
1/12/04 SU 82 Missouri 68
11/27/04 SU 78 Siena 56 (Listed in the SU media Guide as the "Pepsi Arena"- It's now the Times Union Center and is their home court)
12/5/07 SU 70 Virginia 68
12/20/08 SU 72 Memphis 65
12/17/11 SU 88 NC State 72
11/30/12 SU 91 Arkansas 82

Games played in the other team's state or city:
11/25/06 SU 81 Canisius 71 at HSBC Arena in Buffalo
12/10/09 SU 85 Florida 73 in Tampa
11/9/12 SU 62 San Diego State 49

"True" Neutral Court games:
12/27/05 SU 86 Towson 52 at Wilkes-Barre Pa.
11/21/08 SU 89 Florida 83 at Kansa City, Missouri
11/22/08 SU 89 Kansas 81 (OT) at Kansas City, Missouri (I actually listed this in the second category until I realized it was Missouri)
11/26/10 SU 53 Michigan 50 at Atlantic City
11/27/10 SU 80 Georgia Tech 76 at Atlantic City

You will notice all these games have one thing in common. In fact our last non-conference loss in a game not played in the Carrier Dome or Madison Square Garden was at Tennessee, 62-66 on 1/19/02, going on 11 years ago. We are 15-0 in such games since. As Matt Park said, maybe people should stop talking aobut the frequence of such games and start talking about our success in them.

 

[Quazzum69]

The low-post game (or lack of one) is very frustrating considering who is down there. I know we have good slashers and shooters on the perimeter but it would really open up more clean looks from deep if there was a threat near the basket. Maybe the coaches aren't completely confident in Christmas or Coleman, but they need to at least give them a chance and make it a point to feed them. Who cares if they only score 5 out of 20 possessions from down low at first, it would probably be about equal to having the guards take lower percentage shots and having higher turnover percentage. I hope these next few games Christmas and Coleman get more touches to practice some moves and get some confidence.

 

[OttoMets]

The "mugging" is somehting that would happen in the NBA all night. "Protect yourself, (and the ball) at all times."
...

That's a very good rule, and one I hope he remembers, no doubt about it.

Nevertheless, that much contact is usually going to earn a whistle at every level of the game. The defender ran into him.

 

[SBU72]

-
- The refs blew 46 fouls, (and they blew several of them, too). Arkansas went to the line 36 times to our 24 and they shot it better from there, out-scoring us by 15 points from the foul line.

　

The actual number of fouls was 25 SU and 21 Ark. Even considering the number of intentional fouls the last minute or so, isn't that about the normal ratio of home team fouls to visitor's fouls?

 

[anomander]

Awful non-call.

I believe MCW was trying to figure out if the ref had started counting a 5-second close defense. He'll have to find out a better way to do that or forget about the ref and make a move.

Agree. That was an easy call that is whistled 9 out of 10 times. But that was just an example of how the game was called. There won't be nearly that many whistles against us in the Big East. The only problem is they need to learn to adapt quickly if they get a crew like this (just like ohio st last year). They need to learn to not reach as much if they get a crew that is quick with the whistle. After the first 15 minutes at least you can see how the game was going to be called and Syracuse didn't change the way they were playing one bit. Arkansas couldn't score at all on our defense, but stupid reach in and ticky tack whistles that usually aren't called kept Arkansas in the game. Otherwise Syracuse wins by 30 .

 

[kuethstheman]

Agree. That was an easy call that is whistled 9 out of 10 times. But that was just an example of how the game was called. There won't be nearly that many whistles against us in the Big East. The only problem is they need to learn to adapt quickly if they get a crew like this (just like ohio st last year). They need to learn to not reach as much if they get a crew that is quick with the whistle. After the first 15 minutes at least you can see how the game was going to be called and Syracuse didn't change the way they were playing one bit. Arkansas couldn't score at all on our defense, but stupid reach in and ticky tack whistles that usually aren't called kept Arkansas in the game. Otherwise Syracuse wins by 30 .

Actually, I normally wouldn't want that call to be made. It wasn't that bad but it was worse than 90% of the calls that were made.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

That's a very good rule, and one I hope he remembers, no doubt about it.

Nevertheless, that much contact is usually going to earn a whistle at every level of the game. The defender ran into him.

The defender was bodied up to him, so he didn't 'run into him.' He may have gotten a bit of the arm, but he got mostly ball, and then maybe went through MCW a bit to go get it. Either way, I thought it was a decent no-call, but I didn't come to that until I watched it a couple times because at first I thought Mike got fouled as well.

 

[OttoMets]

The defender was bodied up to him, so he didn't 'run into him.' He may have gotten a bit of the arm, but he got mostly ball, and then maybe went through MCW a bit to go get it. Either way, I thought it was a decent no-call, but I didn't come to that until I watched it a couple times because at first I thought Mike got fouled as well.

Who should I believe, you or my lyin' eyes?

Doesn't matter if he 'ran into him' or 'went through him' - what happened on that play is a foul by any interpretation of the rules. Heavy contact with arms and body that caused the player to lose the ball.