0.947 ppp

[RF2044]

Not taking anything away from his great play this year and hoping he gets back asap but I thought Grants outside game was beginning to emerge early in the season and never really progressed and perhaps regressed. He's had a couple games with bad airballs or misses lately which I'll credit to the back problem. Grant consistently hitting the 15-18 foot jumper would have been huge in opening up offense. Run high pick and roll with JG and the low screens to CJ/TC coming off it. Seems to have lost confidence along with others.

I think Grant's best game of the year might have been against UNC. MacAdoo came out and was really en fuego the first few minutes, and I thought--uh oh. But about 5 minutes in Grant settled down, busted a bunch of jumpers in MacAdoo's face, and then took him to the hole seemingly at well. Might have been the top player on the floor that game. When he is hitting that mid-range jumper, he is a really difficult mismatch at the collegiate level.

Was also terrific against Duke in the Dome matchup. But I agree that he's struggled a bit in the last couple of games. And it should come as no surprise that the team's struggles have coincided with him not performing at his best.

 

[OrangeDW]

We get almost nothing in transition. It seems we go entire games without any easy baskets at all. No running game whatsoever. Even when we get steals, we don't get fast breaks much of the time.

The '10 and '12 teams would get transition dunks off of rebounds, outlet passes and running the floor, let alone off steals. I miss it.

 

[SWC75]

Boom! That is a mammoth plummet. This should stifle those orange-goggled fans who think the offense is fine and we just have to hit a few more shots.

Hitting a few more shots would certainly help.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Hitting a few more shots would certainly help.

Most certainly. I just think we are becoming easier to defend as well.

 

[Cuse315Pat]

We need to finish at the rim. We miss more layups and gimmes than any team I've seen in a long time. But also, we make some tough shots, but miss the easy ones, such as wide open jumpers.

I've seen Cooney, Fair, Grant, Ennis all airball multiple wide open jump shots over the last couple weeks. I just don't see how that could be attributed to anything other than not having the confidence.

 

[pulaski74]

let me say this, i think tyler ennis is a great player(in the half court game) but the officials are beginng to notice his push offs on driving to the rim. also i think run outs w/ numbers lead to easy baskets, that and effective inside scoring leads to a better shooting percentage. defenses are relising this and adjusting. just my humble opinion. by the way has anyone seen so many air balls in this stretch? been listening and watching orange bb for nearly 50 yrs and have never seen this

 

[SUbear]

Not taking anything away from his great play this year and hoping he gets back asap but I thought Grants outside game was beginning to emerge early in the season and never really progressed and perhaps regressed. He's had a couple games with bad airballs or misses lately which I'll credit to the back problem. Grant consistently hitting the 15-18 foot jumper would have been huge in opening up offense. Run high pick and roll with JG and the low screens to CJ/TC coming off it. Seems to have lost confidence along with others.

Back problems will do that to your shooting!

 

[SoBeCuse]

let me say this, i think tyler ennis is a great player(in the half court game) but the officials are beginng to notice his push offs on driving to the rim. also i think run outs w/ numbers lead to easy baskets, that and effective inside scoring leads to a better shooting percentage. defenses are relising this and adjusting. just my humble opinion. by the way has anyone seen so many air balls in this stretch? been listening and watching orange bb for nearly 50 yrs and have never seen this

Good points man. Lots of airballs and you're right about those push offs.

 

[jordoo]

I'm not sure of this has been sighted as I just kind of scanned the thread. Sad I know.

One of the things I've noticed is that in general about 8-10 games ago much more contact has been allowed off the ball covering the cutter's as well as hip and hands on the drive that was being called fouls in the first half of the season. Getting into the bonus early and having a guy like Ennis who makes FT's drastically changes your offense down the last 10min of the game. You cannot foul him its giving away points and that opens everything up for SU. Much like with his foul trouble against VA we gave up penetration too easily which allowed them really get into a grove offensively and then of course they got Brogdon going on the middle as well.

I think that we have struggled to draw fouls and get into the bonus so as the game goes on the defense can tighten up even more making everything a little bit harder. When things are harder you miss jumpers hurrying them, you miss on drives and post ups because of little bumps. The pressure mounts and it becomes even harder to make shots. Combine this with the pressure of being undefeated, winning a bunch of close games, Grant and Keita injuries and the dog days of February and it makes more sense.

This is not a blame it on the refs thing just an observation that things are going back more to last seasons way of calling games causing Ennis to be less effective which in turn makes the whole team less effective. There is some truth to needing to make shots and that kind of happened to last years to right at the end. You could see the cloud lift off them and they seemed to play with ease and enjoyment again. Its not like we haven't gotten a lot of shots we want in the last 10 games we have and we've missed them causing the games to get close and the defense tighter because they were mostly jump shots. I really believe that if we concentrate on setting up the offense to go inside through Rak and driving aggressively early, getting fouls and FT's it would help a lot and then when we get those open jumpers they will be easier shots. I also would like to see Cooney go for the dunk on his drives he always slides and tries to fend off the defense without which he rarely gets the call on. Go strong with 2 hands like he can and force a whistle or get a big dunk.