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Jim Boeheim’s radio show is on Thursdays from 7-9PM on ESPN Radio in Syracuse, which is AM1200 or FM 97.7 on the dial. The show originates from Delmonico’s Italian Steakhouse on Erie Boulevard in Syracuse. The first hour, hosted by Matt Park, the Voice of the Orange, is on their general network. The second hour, which begins with the conference season, is hosted by Gomez, a local radio personality.
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
Or on Twitter at mattpark1 or “askBoeheim”.
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
I will be posting my rough transcript the night of the broadcast focusing on my questions, the team and their last and next games and then a second post the next day on other things that were discussed.
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
First hour:
Coach, much has been made of Coach Krzyzewski walking away from the handshake line to talk to someone else. There was long discussion on the radio about whether there should be a handshake line at the end of games at all, whether it’s more appropriate to youth sports leagues than college games or something essential as a symbol of sportsmanship. How important is it to shake hands at the end of games and how offended were your players when Coach K walked away rather than shake hands with them?
Second hour:
Coach, another discussion on the radio was about the state of modern basketball. We used to get fries for 100 points, then tacos for 75 points. Now it’s tacos for 70 points. There’s a formula you can use to determine the number of possessions in a game and that 1965-66 team you played on averaged 186 combined possessions between them and their opponents. In subsequent years the averages were 150-160 possessions until the mid-1990’s, after which it declined to about 130. In the Duke game there were 114 possessions. We’ve got a shot clock and a three point line. You’ve discussed why teams don’t press- the ball handling is too good these days. In the Duke game there was one basket scored off of a fast break and one from a jump shot between the paint and the three point line, where Lawrence Moten used to set scoring records. Can anything be done to return basketball to the game we fell in love with years ago?
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. They are now doing two hour shows. I will do two posts: one on the night of the broadcast on the issues directly relating to the team on the other the next days on other things that were talked about.)
(Note: the next show is scheduled for Tuesday night since there is a game on Thursday of next week.)
The first and most important subject was this weekends’ weather and how it might affect the game. Coach Boeheim wasn’t confident it would come off at all. “At first I heard it was going to be 2 feet o of snow. If that’s the case, there’s no way they can even play on Sunday. There’s not many dates available the rest of the way. We have some gaps but they haven’t played too many games and they don’t have as many gaps in the rest of the schedule. They have rescheduled their game with Wake Forest from Monday to Tuesday…. We could fly into Richmond or Washington but those places will be hit, too. We could take a bus from there but the roads could be icy. The airlines have already cancelled. In the old days we flew commercial but we have our own plane now… I just don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s supposed to be the worse on Friday and Saturday and then clear up…. We had to delay a Georgetown trip one year. We’ve been pretty fortunate since we play in the northeast. We’ve had some tough times. We had to postpone a game once….It won’t be cancelled. There’s too much at stake.”
Later Wayne Mahar, the weatherman for CNY Central, (and Channels 3 and 5 in the Syracuse area), called in. Matt called him “meteorologist to the stars”, because he owns a company that contracts to provide weather forecasts and they were hired by the Academy Awards. He asked the coach what the travel plans are. JB: “We’re going to try to go down Saturday. I’ve heard they dropped the prediction about snow amounts for Charlotte.” Wayne said he’s projecting 20-30 inches. Wayne said the snow should start around 2PM tomorrow and remain heavy until Saturday night when it will slowly taper off. Coach said “Then there is no way they’ll be ready to play by Sunday. They aren’t used to it. The roads won’t be passable. Richmond is two hours away.” Wayne: “I don’t see any flights coming in or out of Charlottesville or Richmond.” Jim said they had their own plane, ”and we can usually land our plane if they clear the field.” (I don’t like the sound of that at all.)
Regarding the Wake Forest and Duke games: “Trevor got us off to a good start. We had a real good performance on offense on defense. There are not many easy wins in the ACC, especially on the road. That almost never happens….We outplayed Duke, frankly. We got an 8 point lead and had a couple of opportunities to put it away. We didn’t do it but made some defensive plays to win…We still had a foul to give but Grayson did what we wanted- take a tough shot. The play at the end of the game was not a foul. Nobody thinks it was. The lesson is: go after the ball when the game’s on the line. It might win the game.”
Liam in Pompey congratulated Jim and the team on their success. He always seems to ask about the officiating and tonight was no different. He wanted to know why a call involving Mal Richardson was changed from a block to a charge- the defender had one foot inside the arc. Both had to be out for it to be a charge. Then Liam jumped my question about Coach K. Jim repeated his story about “being told by
someone that he looking at what somebody told me were students. He came back to shake some hands. He was distracted by something. The officials had left the court.” If you put a stop watch on the officials at the buzzer, you’d get a pretty good 40 time.
“There wasn’t much to talk about but that’s what people do. If we’d lost they’d be talking about that but we won so they have to talk about this. One guy said that Coach K should have been playing zone. You can be a radio talk show host and still have some sense of right and wrong! Coaches don’t get ‘out-coached’!”
I called in my first question anyway. JB: “I don’t think anybody was offended. He was distracted. I could go either way, (on having a handshake line or not). They do it in hockey but not in most college sports. They don’t do it in pro basketball. Lacrosse does it. We used to shake hands before the game. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I wouldn’t care if we kept it or not. I don’t remember if we shook hands when I played. I don’t think we did.” He suggested that I like to look things up. Maybe I could research it. I told him that I’d have to ask someone who’s been around for 50 years. He laughed and said “And he doesn’t remember it!” Matt noted that JB had “had some fun with the crowd, which was demanding that you take your jacket off.” JB: “I gave then a fake coat take-off.”
Vito in North Syracuse wants the coach on the SU sideline. “Nothing against Hop.” He recalled the call against CJ Fair. “I don’t blame you for your reaction. I almost busted my TV. CJ adjusted his body to avoid the charge and the defender took a shuttle step to get in his way. I was sure it was going to be a blocking call.” JB: “So was I.” Vito wanted to know if this year’s improvement was due to a team meeting “where you asked if these guys wanted to go to the NIT”. He compared the defensive improvement to “a similar uptick in 2013” after the Georgetown game, which Vito said was the only SU game he’d ever missed. He was on a Royal Caribbean cruise and “driving the captain crazy trying to get the game.” JB: “You didn’t miss much.”
JB: “There was no meeting. Just some good practices. At times the defense has been good- Miami and Pittsburgh. The offense was bad in those games. Against Georgetown and St. John’s the defense was bad. It was not a good situation for Hop, taking over my team. They were hearing a different voice. But they got better. They had Clemson beat. We ran a drill to foul with 20 seconds left in practice today and a walk on hit a three pointer, just like Clemson did. If it’s 8-10 seconds you want to foul. Sometimes players freeze a little.” Vito asked why UNC had had such success inside against us. “They used the high post and went from there to the low post. They had two 6-11 guys who could score. Our center would go out to the high post and the other guy would be guarded by Mal Richardson who’s only 6-4. They also had three point shooters we had to commit to. Yet we were winning for 35 minutes against that team by playing the way we were playing. North Carolina is very difficult for anybody to guard. Florida State is a very good man for man team and they scored 100, (actually 109) points on them. UNC is the best team in our league and probably in the country. We’ve got more tough games ahead than we’ve played so far.” Vito said that he figures the team “is good for 11-12 wins this year.” JB: “We’ve already got 13!”.
Ken called in to announce that he goes crazy every time he sees a moving pick. He also doesn’t like it when Cooney’s trying to move around with a handful of his jersey in somebody’s hand.” JB: “We all think we aren’t getting calls. The officiating at Duke was OK. Cooney got hit in the head on a couple of jump shots and Michael got hit on a lay-up but got the ball back and scored. People hold Trevor a lot. But if they do it for the whole game, the referees don’t call it.” This confirms something I’ve always said: referees call what is unusual. If a team fouls constantly as part of their playing style they’ll get away with it because the refs are only going to call the most egregious fouls.
“Duke can’t foul for the same reason we can’t foul- they’ve only got 6-7 guys.” (Interesting, I heard Duke had 7 McDonald’s All-Americas on their team- but they have no depth.) “A Duke team shooting 9-10 free throws is rare. Games are better when not as many fouls are called.” Ken asked why “bigger guys like Plumley get away with more than smaller guys.” JB: “There’s going to be some of those calls. I’m sure they thought we were over the back, too….if both coaches are complaining, the game has probably been equal.” Ken asked about Trevor “sticking his leg out to prevent penetration. Sometimes the ball hits him in the leg and they call it a kick even though his leg wasn’t moving.” JB: “If the ball is thrown it the knee they’re not supposed to call that but they do. I’ll take the trade off if it will prevent penetration.”
Dexter wanted to know Jim’s reaction to Coach K’s “amazing” press conference. JB: “It was a good play. Both guys came together. Both had the ball and Mal pulled it away. People I’ve talked to in the league don’t believe it’s a foul. It was a well officiated game. We still had a foul to give. They would have had a few seconds to get a shot off. If the same thing happened here, I’d probably want a foul to be called.”
Stephan in Utica compared Cameron Indoor Arena to Wrigley Field. (It’s harder for the visitors to win in one place than the other.) Coach wondered how long Cameron had been around. Gomez looked it up: since 1940. Coach said “That’s 85 years….75! I did the math.” I like a coach who can do the math.
Stephan wondered if the coach might consider this team comparable to our 2002-03 national champions. JB: “Not really. We are a little more like the 1995-96 team that kept grinding out wins and got better as the year went on.” My own view is that this year’s team would indeed resemble the 2002-03 team if we had Carmelo Anthony instead of Tyler Lydon, Hakim Warrick instead of Tyler Roberson, Craig Forth instead of DaJuan Coleman, Kueth Duany instead of Michael Gbinje, Gerry McNamara instead of Trevor Cooney, Josh Pace instead of Mal Richardson and Billy Edelin instead of Franklin Howard….I do see a resemblance to the 2012-2013 team however, which had Michael Carter Williams and Brandon Triche driving to the basket, a good outside shooter in James Southerland and a couple of centers who didn’t score in Rakeem Christmas and Baye Moussa Kieta. That team even had Trevor Cooney!
Pat called in saying he was the only one who predicted we would win at Duke. He has a problem with callers who want to see us play some man-to-man when playing zone for 40 minutes is the “identity of the program…When we make adjustments, we make adjustments within the zone.” JB: “All the time. Teams that play man to man spend an hour and a quarter on man to man each practice to get good at it. The rest of practice is on the offense. Man to man coaches who want to play zone spend 10-15 minutes on it. Zone coaches would have to spend a full hour to get become just OK on man-to-man. You’d need 3 ½ hour practices. With 6-7 guys, we don’t have the energy for that. But if you lose, the talk shows say to play man for man. If we played man for man they’d say to play zone. If Duke had played zone we’d have
beaten them by 10-15 points. If we’d played man for man, Duke would have beaten us by 10-15 points. Coaches like Bill Self teach a great man to man. If he has to make adjustments, he makes it within his man to man because that’s their defense. We don’t play zone all the time because I’m stubborn. We play it’s because it’s our best defense. As we play good teams we’re getting better at it. We won more Big East games and went to more finals than anyone. We’re a good tournament team and have a good winning percentage in the NCAAs. If you like man to man, you’re not going to like us.”
“Virginia’s defense is tough. Last year they double-teamed Rak. They’ve had one home loss in three years. That was at home to Duke on almost second shot that went out and back in again. They aren’t quite as good this year. They lost 2 great players. They are very strong and play great defense.”
I called in my second question about the state of the game. JB: “We still have a game people love. (Back in 1965-66) we were one of the highest scoring teams. We had a great offensive team and pressed all the time. But most teams were scoring 70 points a game, just like they do now. There’s been a change in coaching philosophies with an emphasis on defense. It takes time to get good shots off. Many of our points against Duke came on throw-ins or offensive rebounds. In Divisions 2 and 3 you see teams scoring 100 points a game but at this level, defense is the priority. If we had a 24 second clock, we’d get another 5-6 possessions. (I don’t know if he meant Syracuse would get 5-6 more possessions or that there would be 5-6 more possessions combined) But I don’t think we’ll get that, There’s no appetite for it.”
I pressed him on the subject of the fast break and two point jumpers. “It’s hard to fast-break. Teams get back on defense. We emphasize getting back on defense.” (I’d love to have the fast-break points numbers for the Sherman Douglas teams.) “If a player is within a foot of the three point line, any coach will say he should be beyond the line. A 15 footer might be OK. Lawrence Moten would till take the 15 footer today but he could make threes, too.” Moten was 197 for 624, (5 a game out of 14 shots overall) from the arc in his career, 31.6 “In high school they are shooting threes or driving.” So what we have is basketball without the press, the fast break or the two point jump shot.
Gomez asked him what rule changes he’d still like to see. “It’s bad that coaches can’t call time outs any more- only players can. Players are concentrating on playing. They only call time outs when I shout at them to do so….All time outs should be 30 seconds.” (I’m in favor of that, since all commercials would have to be 30 seconds!) “When the referees have to look at the monitors, players should not be able to go back to the bench and get a free time out with their coach.”
Brad called to ask what Tyler Roberson was doing differently. JB: “We use him as a screener. When we do that, his man has to help. If he rolls hard, he can get to the ball. If he’s not aggressive enough, he’s pretty easy to block out. Tyler Lydon is similar. Virginia blocks out on rebounds and he’ll have to work harder to get to the ball. Wake Forest and Duke don’t block out so he was able to get to the ball. He doesn’t work hard enough when he’s blocked out. But he’s getting stronger and giving a more concerted effort.”
Tyler “looks good on those 12 foot shots”. JB: “We chart these things and he shoots about 20% from there. He thinks he can make it. He also thinks he can make free throws but he can’t do that, either. He’s not there yet. He would be a great player if he could make the 15 footer. It would set up his drives. He works 15-20 minutes with Adrian Autry in practice. He makes them there but he has a chance to get a rhythm going. You can’t do that in games.” I got the impression that JB was not being dismissive of Tyler’s recent accomplishments but believes his potential is even greater than that and he wants to push him to be great. The results should be interesting.
Here’s an important note: Pearl Washington is “having a tough time” and Go Fund Me fund has been set up for him. CTO already has it linked on the board. Please see if you can help out one of our biggest SU basketball heroes. (As I type this, Matt Mulcahy said on the news that Pearl is no longer able to walk and needs round-the-clock care.)
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
Or on Twitter at mattpark1 or “askBoeheim”.
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
I will be posting my rough transcript the night of the broadcast focusing on my questions, the team and their last and next games and then a second post the next day on other things that were discussed.
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
First hour:
Coach, much has been made of Coach Krzyzewski walking away from the handshake line to talk to someone else. There was long discussion on the radio about whether there should be a handshake line at the end of games at all, whether it’s more appropriate to youth sports leagues than college games or something essential as a symbol of sportsmanship. How important is it to shake hands at the end of games and how offended were your players when Coach K walked away rather than shake hands with them?
Second hour:
Coach, another discussion on the radio was about the state of modern basketball. We used to get fries for 100 points, then tacos for 75 points. Now it’s tacos for 70 points. There’s a formula you can use to determine the number of possessions in a game and that 1965-66 team you played on averaged 186 combined possessions between them and their opponents. In subsequent years the averages were 150-160 possessions until the mid-1990’s, after which it declined to about 130. In the Duke game there were 114 possessions. We’ve got a shot clock and a three point line. You’ve discussed why teams don’t press- the ball handling is too good these days. In the Duke game there was one basket scored off of a fast break and one from a jump shot between the paint and the three point line, where Lawrence Moten used to set scoring records. Can anything be done to return basketball to the game we fell in love with years ago?
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. They are now doing two hour shows. I will do two posts: one on the night of the broadcast on the issues directly relating to the team on the other the next days on other things that were talked about.)
(Note: the next show is scheduled for Tuesday night since there is a game on Thursday of next week.)
The first and most important subject was this weekends’ weather and how it might affect the game. Coach Boeheim wasn’t confident it would come off at all. “At first I heard it was going to be 2 feet o of snow. If that’s the case, there’s no way they can even play on Sunday. There’s not many dates available the rest of the way. We have some gaps but they haven’t played too many games and they don’t have as many gaps in the rest of the schedule. They have rescheduled their game with Wake Forest from Monday to Tuesday…. We could fly into Richmond or Washington but those places will be hit, too. We could take a bus from there but the roads could be icy. The airlines have already cancelled. In the old days we flew commercial but we have our own plane now… I just don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s supposed to be the worse on Friday and Saturday and then clear up…. We had to delay a Georgetown trip one year. We’ve been pretty fortunate since we play in the northeast. We’ve had some tough times. We had to postpone a game once….It won’t be cancelled. There’s too much at stake.”
Later Wayne Mahar, the weatherman for CNY Central, (and Channels 3 and 5 in the Syracuse area), called in. Matt called him “meteorologist to the stars”, because he owns a company that contracts to provide weather forecasts and they were hired by the Academy Awards. He asked the coach what the travel plans are. JB: “We’re going to try to go down Saturday. I’ve heard they dropped the prediction about snow amounts for Charlotte.” Wayne said he’s projecting 20-30 inches. Wayne said the snow should start around 2PM tomorrow and remain heavy until Saturday night when it will slowly taper off. Coach said “Then there is no way they’ll be ready to play by Sunday. They aren’t used to it. The roads won’t be passable. Richmond is two hours away.” Wayne: “I don’t see any flights coming in or out of Charlottesville or Richmond.” Jim said they had their own plane, ”and we can usually land our plane if they clear the field.” (I don’t like the sound of that at all.)
Regarding the Wake Forest and Duke games: “Trevor got us off to a good start. We had a real good performance on offense on defense. There are not many easy wins in the ACC, especially on the road. That almost never happens….We outplayed Duke, frankly. We got an 8 point lead and had a couple of opportunities to put it away. We didn’t do it but made some defensive plays to win…We still had a foul to give but Grayson did what we wanted- take a tough shot. The play at the end of the game was not a foul. Nobody thinks it was. The lesson is: go after the ball when the game’s on the line. It might win the game.”
Liam in Pompey congratulated Jim and the team on their success. He always seems to ask about the officiating and tonight was no different. He wanted to know why a call involving Mal Richardson was changed from a block to a charge- the defender had one foot inside the arc. Both had to be out for it to be a charge. Then Liam jumped my question about Coach K. Jim repeated his story about “being told by
someone that he looking at what somebody told me were students. He came back to shake some hands. He was distracted by something. The officials had left the court.” If you put a stop watch on the officials at the buzzer, you’d get a pretty good 40 time.
“There wasn’t much to talk about but that’s what people do. If we’d lost they’d be talking about that but we won so they have to talk about this. One guy said that Coach K should have been playing zone. You can be a radio talk show host and still have some sense of right and wrong! Coaches don’t get ‘out-coached’!”
I called in my first question anyway. JB: “I don’t think anybody was offended. He was distracted. I could go either way, (on having a handshake line or not). They do it in hockey but not in most college sports. They don’t do it in pro basketball. Lacrosse does it. We used to shake hands before the game. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I wouldn’t care if we kept it or not. I don’t remember if we shook hands when I played. I don’t think we did.” He suggested that I like to look things up. Maybe I could research it. I told him that I’d have to ask someone who’s been around for 50 years. He laughed and said “And he doesn’t remember it!” Matt noted that JB had “had some fun with the crowd, which was demanding that you take your jacket off.” JB: “I gave then a fake coat take-off.”
Vito in North Syracuse wants the coach on the SU sideline. “Nothing against Hop.” He recalled the call against CJ Fair. “I don’t blame you for your reaction. I almost busted my TV. CJ adjusted his body to avoid the charge and the defender took a shuttle step to get in his way. I was sure it was going to be a blocking call.” JB: “So was I.” Vito wanted to know if this year’s improvement was due to a team meeting “where you asked if these guys wanted to go to the NIT”. He compared the defensive improvement to “a similar uptick in 2013” after the Georgetown game, which Vito said was the only SU game he’d ever missed. He was on a Royal Caribbean cruise and “driving the captain crazy trying to get the game.” JB: “You didn’t miss much.”
JB: “There was no meeting. Just some good practices. At times the defense has been good- Miami and Pittsburgh. The offense was bad in those games. Against Georgetown and St. John’s the defense was bad. It was not a good situation for Hop, taking over my team. They were hearing a different voice. But they got better. They had Clemson beat. We ran a drill to foul with 20 seconds left in practice today and a walk on hit a three pointer, just like Clemson did. If it’s 8-10 seconds you want to foul. Sometimes players freeze a little.” Vito asked why UNC had had such success inside against us. “They used the high post and went from there to the low post. They had two 6-11 guys who could score. Our center would go out to the high post and the other guy would be guarded by Mal Richardson who’s only 6-4. They also had three point shooters we had to commit to. Yet we were winning for 35 minutes against that team by playing the way we were playing. North Carolina is very difficult for anybody to guard. Florida State is a very good man for man team and they scored 100, (actually 109) points on them. UNC is the best team in our league and probably in the country. We’ve got more tough games ahead than we’ve played so far.” Vito said that he figures the team “is good for 11-12 wins this year.” JB: “We’ve already got 13!”.
Ken called in to announce that he goes crazy every time he sees a moving pick. He also doesn’t like it when Cooney’s trying to move around with a handful of his jersey in somebody’s hand.” JB: “We all think we aren’t getting calls. The officiating at Duke was OK. Cooney got hit in the head on a couple of jump shots and Michael got hit on a lay-up but got the ball back and scored. People hold Trevor a lot. But if they do it for the whole game, the referees don’t call it.” This confirms something I’ve always said: referees call what is unusual. If a team fouls constantly as part of their playing style they’ll get away with it because the refs are only going to call the most egregious fouls.
“Duke can’t foul for the same reason we can’t foul- they’ve only got 6-7 guys.” (Interesting, I heard Duke had 7 McDonald’s All-Americas on their team- but they have no depth.) “A Duke team shooting 9-10 free throws is rare. Games are better when not as many fouls are called.” Ken asked why “bigger guys like Plumley get away with more than smaller guys.” JB: “There’s going to be some of those calls. I’m sure they thought we were over the back, too….if both coaches are complaining, the game has probably been equal.” Ken asked about Trevor “sticking his leg out to prevent penetration. Sometimes the ball hits him in the leg and they call it a kick even though his leg wasn’t moving.” JB: “If the ball is thrown it the knee they’re not supposed to call that but they do. I’ll take the trade off if it will prevent penetration.”
Dexter wanted to know Jim’s reaction to Coach K’s “amazing” press conference. JB: “It was a good play. Both guys came together. Both had the ball and Mal pulled it away. People I’ve talked to in the league don’t believe it’s a foul. It was a well officiated game. We still had a foul to give. They would have had a few seconds to get a shot off. If the same thing happened here, I’d probably want a foul to be called.”
Stephan in Utica compared Cameron Indoor Arena to Wrigley Field. (It’s harder for the visitors to win in one place than the other.) Coach wondered how long Cameron had been around. Gomez looked it up: since 1940. Coach said “That’s 85 years….75! I did the math.” I like a coach who can do the math.
Stephan wondered if the coach might consider this team comparable to our 2002-03 national champions. JB: “Not really. We are a little more like the 1995-96 team that kept grinding out wins and got better as the year went on.” My own view is that this year’s team would indeed resemble the 2002-03 team if we had Carmelo Anthony instead of Tyler Lydon, Hakim Warrick instead of Tyler Roberson, Craig Forth instead of DaJuan Coleman, Kueth Duany instead of Michael Gbinje, Gerry McNamara instead of Trevor Cooney, Josh Pace instead of Mal Richardson and Billy Edelin instead of Franklin Howard….I do see a resemblance to the 2012-2013 team however, which had Michael Carter Williams and Brandon Triche driving to the basket, a good outside shooter in James Southerland and a couple of centers who didn’t score in Rakeem Christmas and Baye Moussa Kieta. That team even had Trevor Cooney!
Pat called in saying he was the only one who predicted we would win at Duke. He has a problem with callers who want to see us play some man-to-man when playing zone for 40 minutes is the “identity of the program…When we make adjustments, we make adjustments within the zone.” JB: “All the time. Teams that play man to man spend an hour and a quarter on man to man each practice to get good at it. The rest of practice is on the offense. Man to man coaches who want to play zone spend 10-15 minutes on it. Zone coaches would have to spend a full hour to get become just OK on man-to-man. You’d need 3 ½ hour practices. With 6-7 guys, we don’t have the energy for that. But if you lose, the talk shows say to play man for man. If we played man for man they’d say to play zone. If Duke had played zone we’d have
beaten them by 10-15 points. If we’d played man for man, Duke would have beaten us by 10-15 points. Coaches like Bill Self teach a great man to man. If he has to make adjustments, he makes it within his man to man because that’s their defense. We don’t play zone all the time because I’m stubborn. We play it’s because it’s our best defense. As we play good teams we’re getting better at it. We won more Big East games and went to more finals than anyone. We’re a good tournament team and have a good winning percentage in the NCAAs. If you like man to man, you’re not going to like us.”
“Virginia’s defense is tough. Last year they double-teamed Rak. They’ve had one home loss in three years. That was at home to Duke on almost second shot that went out and back in again. They aren’t quite as good this year. They lost 2 great players. They are very strong and play great defense.”
I called in my second question about the state of the game. JB: “We still have a game people love. (Back in 1965-66) we were one of the highest scoring teams. We had a great offensive team and pressed all the time. But most teams were scoring 70 points a game, just like they do now. There’s been a change in coaching philosophies with an emphasis on defense. It takes time to get good shots off. Many of our points against Duke came on throw-ins or offensive rebounds. In Divisions 2 and 3 you see teams scoring 100 points a game but at this level, defense is the priority. If we had a 24 second clock, we’d get another 5-6 possessions. (I don’t know if he meant Syracuse would get 5-6 more possessions or that there would be 5-6 more possessions combined) But I don’t think we’ll get that, There’s no appetite for it.”
I pressed him on the subject of the fast break and two point jumpers. “It’s hard to fast-break. Teams get back on defense. We emphasize getting back on defense.” (I’d love to have the fast-break points numbers for the Sherman Douglas teams.) “If a player is within a foot of the three point line, any coach will say he should be beyond the line. A 15 footer might be OK. Lawrence Moten would till take the 15 footer today but he could make threes, too.” Moten was 197 for 624, (5 a game out of 14 shots overall) from the arc in his career, 31.6 “In high school they are shooting threes or driving.” So what we have is basketball without the press, the fast break or the two point jump shot.
Gomez asked him what rule changes he’d still like to see. “It’s bad that coaches can’t call time outs any more- only players can. Players are concentrating on playing. They only call time outs when I shout at them to do so….All time outs should be 30 seconds.” (I’m in favor of that, since all commercials would have to be 30 seconds!) “When the referees have to look at the monitors, players should not be able to go back to the bench and get a free time out with their coach.”
Brad called to ask what Tyler Roberson was doing differently. JB: “We use him as a screener. When we do that, his man has to help. If he rolls hard, he can get to the ball. If he’s not aggressive enough, he’s pretty easy to block out. Tyler Lydon is similar. Virginia blocks out on rebounds and he’ll have to work harder to get to the ball. Wake Forest and Duke don’t block out so he was able to get to the ball. He doesn’t work hard enough when he’s blocked out. But he’s getting stronger and giving a more concerted effort.”
Tyler “looks good on those 12 foot shots”. JB: “We chart these things and he shoots about 20% from there. He thinks he can make it. He also thinks he can make free throws but he can’t do that, either. He’s not there yet. He would be a great player if he could make the 15 footer. It would set up his drives. He works 15-20 minutes with Adrian Autry in practice. He makes them there but he has a chance to get a rhythm going. You can’t do that in games.” I got the impression that JB was not being dismissive of Tyler’s recent accomplishments but believes his potential is even greater than that and he wants to push him to be great. The results should be interesting.
Here’s an important note: Pearl Washington is “having a tough time” and Go Fund Me fund has been set up for him. CTO already has it linked on the board. Please see if you can help out one of our biggest SU basketball heroes. (As I type this, Matt Mulcahy said on the news that Pearl is no longer able to walk and needs round-the-clock care.)
