12 games in--where do we stand as a team?

[SoBristol]

Took a look at some advanced stats today. Things that stand out. McCullough and Joseph are killing us on offense. Both below 100 Offensive Ratings. Joseph is 86. McCullough 98. For McCullough, with the second highest usage percentage on the team, that needs to improve

Defensively McCullough has been our best. Cooney surprisingly our worst.

Christmas is obviously our best player. The advanced stats point that out. Cooney has added the second most value to the team.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/syracuse/2015.html

I expect JB would disagree, emphatically, with any ranking that shows McCullough as a strong defender. Stats sometimes lie.

 

[JrodCuse]

Great post! My only disagreement is I see us being around a 10-12 seed when the season is all said and done, but we'll be that higher seed that no team will want to face in the first 3-4 rounds.

 

[AlaskaSU]

The big change is using Mike & Trevor to be more aggressive and help initiate offense (in addition to having Mike take a lead role against the press). There are no extra points awarded for having the SG and SF sprint up court. Usually the best defender presses the PG; and Mike may have an advantage against a forward trying to defend. So, use what is working.

If you want KJ to turn into Ennis, beat the press on his own, control the offense -- you will be disappointed this season. If you want a good offense, have the three (Mike, Trevor and Kaleb) share the ball-handling and take advantage of what Mike can do operating from the backcourt.

You do get extra points if you beat the other team downcourt. Its called transition points.
We all feel good but we have work to do. We have to pull some ACC upsets. We pretty much all agree that ball handling and turnovers are our weakness. We appear to have solved the problem. Not so fast...
There are 2 ways to share ball handling: one is to have different people take the inbounds pass, the other is to have players shadow the ball handler in the backcourt. The ball handler KJ), makes a backcourt pass to the shadow when he is pressured. The latter is the formula that we now mostly use and its working for now. Faster and deeper teams will shut down our backcourt passing lanes. We are not out of the woods yet. If we are to upset the best teams KJ will have to handle pressure. Whether he will be able to is an open question.

 

[CaptainJ]

This is a great thread. I'm not always the greatest prognosticator and am not sure how much of worth I have to add on top of all that's been written, so I will let someone who knows about standing say it for me. I find this inspirational and thought provoking:

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Great post! My only disagreement is I see us being around a 10-12 seed when the season is all said and done, but we'll be that higher seed that no team will want to face in the first 3-4 rounds.

Hmm. If we're really a 10-12 seed we might not make the torunament. Historically, the committee has never seeded us along those lines. Any time we could have been seeded there we were sent to the NIT.

 

[jordoo]

Hmm. If we're really a 10-12 seed we might not make the torunament. Historically, the committee has never seeded us along those lines. Any time we could have been seeded there we were sent to the NIT.

Sadly this is a good point. That is firm bubble territory where IMO we have not gotten the benefit of the doubt from the committee if it was close.

 

[SUskibum]

Hmm. If we're really a 10-12 seed we might not make the torunament. Historically, the committee has never seeded us along those lines. Any time we could have been seeded there we were sent to the NIT.

Although, it should be noted most of the scenarios where we were fighting for 10-12 seed but ended in the NIT, it was because of a strongish start and a weak finish. This year would be the opposite of that, even if the total body of work looks close.

 

[Cusefan0307]

This Iowa win keeps looking better and better.

 

[two3zone]

I'm think we need 20 wins with how our ooc schedule went. Iowa does have a couple of decent victories but they have some a couple bad losses as well.

To get to 20 wins were going to need a 11-7 record in the ACC, I really do like the way we've been playing but I just don't know if we're capable of doing that, we have a torrid schedule towards the end. As long as we win the games we should win and steal a few from the powers we can get there. We're a long way away and well not know how consistent any of these guys are going to be through the whole season, not to mention how many early fouls Raks going to have on him each game. He plays less than 25 minutes in a game, I don't like our chances.

 

[RF2044]

I'm think we need 20 wins with how our ooc schedule went. Iowa does have a couple of decent victories but they have some a couple bad losses as well.

To get to 20 wins were going to need a 11-7 record in the ACC, I really do like the way we've been playing but I just don't know if we're capable of doing that, we have a torrid schedule towards the end. As long as we win the games we should win and steal a few from the powers we can get there. We're a long way away and well not know how consistent any of these guys are going to be through the whole season, not to mention how many early fouls Raks going to have on him each game. He plays less than 25 minutes in a game, I don't like our chances.

Don't forget about the conference tournament, where we can tack on another win or hopefully two.

 

[Macky44]

Great post, RF. (You put significantly more effort into this board than I put into my actual job today).

Into my actual job EVER perhaps... lol

 

[jordoo]

I'll be honest I'm pretty optimistic that we can get to 16-4 going into the UNC game. Tomorrow gets us to 9 and the first 7 ACC games are very winnable if we play well. I realize we are going to lose some of those games down the stretch but it would really build some excitement if we take care of business + beat Miami before heading to UNC for a chance to make a statement.

 

[AZOrange]

This years frontline is better than last years. This years Silent G is better than last years and this years Coondog is starting to hunt. KJ is going to be better than TE by mid season. Kieta , meh.

This is clown stuff bro.

 

[CousCuse]

This is clown stuff bro.

I don't feel like writing a thesis level dissertation.

 

[AlaskaSU]

Although, it should be noted most of the scenarios where we were fighting for 10-12 seed but ended in the NIT, it was because of a strongish start and a weak finish. This year would be the opposite of that, even if the total body of work looks close.

Have you seen our end of year schedule?