2025-26 Preseason Practice | Page 5 | Syracusefan.com
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2025-26 Preseason Practice

Sorry Chaz, I think I've found my new avatar picture.
1000004078.jpg
 
OmahaCuse said:
Eddie could not play the full game was winded in fact could barely dunk for most of the year at 6’11”. I liked how crafty he was wound the rim and how he would keep rebounds alive and tap to himself. Also liked his attitude and hustle. But we were terrible last year and could not stop anyone or score consistently, block shots or get steals. Would be great coming off the bench for matchups but not for a switching M2M defense or zone
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Eddie was hurt for a while and played himself into shape. He was very good for us late in the year, and just by coincidence, Chris Bell started making shots from 3 again, when the defense had to double team the guy in the low post. Arinze didn't have many dunks back in the day, either.
 
Niastri said:
Sure, we couldn't guard anybody with a decent post player, nor could we rebound when we had Brown and Justin Taylor as our big men... Our roster is worlds better than the last two years.

But we still are going to see a handful of 7' 265lb guys this season, and having no answer for them isn't exactly a comfortable place to be.

Almost every single P4 team we are playing against this year has at least one player bigger than our biggest guy. If you exclude Diawara when you consider he is unlikely to play much, it gets even a little worse.

We are putting a lot of faith in our three guys listed 6'8-6'9 and 225-235lbs when the other teams throwing out guys both taller and heavier. White is listed at 195 and Freeman 205...

We might be able to play them against mid majors at center, but we're looking at a race to see who fouls out first if they try to guard 7' 265 lb centers.
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And those guys are going to have to guard mobile big men against a team with a great passing point guard. If the five guys we play are any good around the basket he won't be in the game long.
When we had DC and Rony they made the Florda Guy and others look bad.We have 2 mobile centers , and including Betsey 3 n mobile forwards.
 
baggerbob said:
And those guys are going to have to guard mobile big men against a team with a great passing point guard. If the five guys we play are any good around the basket he won't be in the game long.
When we had DC and Rony they made the Florda Guy and others look bad.We have 2 mobile centers , and including Betsey 3 n mobile forwards.
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This is why I suggested it would become a race to see who fouls out first.

When nether guy can guard the other, it inevitably results in lots of scores, until somebody gets in foul trouble.
 
OrangeXtreme said:
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She says we need
One Vegas game (1)
@Drexel (2)
Beat all the teams in 300s - this projects to be Binghamton, Delaware St, Mercyhurt, Stonehill (6)
Some conference road games - we will only be favored at BC, let’s be optimistic and say we get 4 road wins - BC, 2 vs GAtech/Pitt/NCState/Wake, 1 vs UNC/UVA/Duke/LVille (10)
Games we “should” win not listed above - Monmouth, StJoes, Hofstra, Northeastern, Clemson, FSU, VaTech, Miami, ND, Cal, SMU, Pitt (22)

If the season shakes out that way we are a lock.

Using this as our baseline, I think we can have as little as 19 wins. We have 3 top 20 road/neutral games against OOC teams. We have 5 projected top 50 road games in conference play and only 1 home game.

If we don’t win road games won’t go to the dance this year. 9 top 50 games and 8 are away from the Dome - we need to be able to win on the road this year to get a bid. Just holding serve at home won’t do anything
 
tee1222 said:
Try this one, my friend. I cropped a little cleaner and it will help the avatar.View attachment 255819
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Looks like he went home on a quick trip and just returned. On the flight, he had a baby with an ear infection on one side, a super-sized Jabba-the-Hutt sitting on the other side of him, and the in-flight movie was the 2025 version of “War of the Worlds.”
 
jdubs30 said:
She says we need
One Vegas game (1)
@Drexel (2)
Beat all the teams in 300s - this projects to be Binghamton, Delaware St, Mercyhurt, Stonehill (6)
Some conference road games - we will only be favored at BC, let’s be optimistic and say we get 4 road wins - BC, 2 vs GAtech/Pitt/NCState/Wake, 1 vs UNC/UVA/Duke/LVille (10)
Games we “should” win not listed above - Monmouth, StJoes, Hofstra, Northeastern, Clemson, FSU, VaTech, Miami, ND, Cal, SMU, Pitt (22)

If the season shakes out that way we are a lock.

Using this as our baseline, I think we can have as little as 19 wins. We have 3 top 20 road/neutral games against OOC teams. We have 5 projected top 50 road games in conference play and only 1 home game.

If we don’t win road games won’t go to the dance this year. 9 top 50 games and 8 are away from the Dome - we need to be able to win on the road this year to get a bid. Just holding serve at home won’t do anything
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I think we have a much better chance in Vegas than you think.

Every team is in flux, every season these days. Nobody really knows what they have until they see it on the court against good competition. Syracuse has two returning players, and that seems more the norm than the exception these days.
I just read a season outlook for Kansas, and their starting 3 guard lineup is two mid major transfers and a highly recruited freshman. They are loaded with inexperienced talent... But they are starting the lower level recruits with experience. We shall see.

Houston has some really good recruits as well, but lost its leading scorer and is going to try to replace that scoring with freshmen.

Nobody really knows how the team is going to perform, and that goes for just about everybody.

I would actually put the over under at 23.5 wins for Syracuse this year. Lots of winnable games, lots of toss-ups and few likely losses. I think we'll be in every game this year.

I think Syracuse is going to have a completely different product with the talents of Kline and Harris added to the program.

You can't overstate how bad the offseason was before last season, and how good this one was. Kline seemed to help with scouting and allocation of funds, and we pulled in a bunch of extremely long armed athletes who use length of limb as a proxy for height. Having guys that can reach 9' high seems to be a primary criteria for big men, and the defense is going to be greatly improved by having all those long arms deflecting passes and shots. We will be switchable, which didn't work well last year because of mobility issues throughout the defense.

Then, we got one of the best point guards in the country at throwing diagonal alley oop passes to those athletic big men. We haven't had a true point guard at Syracuse in a long time.

On top of the innate talent increase with the transfer class, Harris has set a different tone than previously. These guys look better than any team I've ever seen at Syracuse. The intensity of their workouts is going to leak into their intensity in everything else they do. Gone are the days of Cole Swider posting video of him working out by himself, quietly, without a drop of sweat on him. These kids are being reformed into monsters in the gym.

Huge improvements to offense and defense, along with massive upgrade in depth, and I predict at least a 10 win improvement over last season.
 
Niastri said:
I think we have a much better chance in Vegas than you think.

Every team is in flux, every season these days. Nobody really knows what they have until they see it on the court against good competition. Syracuse has two returning players, and that seems more the norm than the exception these days.
I just read a season outlook for Kansas, and their starting 3 guard lineup is two mid major transfers and a highly recruited freshman. They are loaded with inexperienced talent... But they are starting the lower level recruits with experience. We shall see.

Houston has some really good recruits as well, but lost its leading scorer and is going to try to replace that scoring with freshmen.

Nobody really knows how the team is going to perform, and that goes for just about everybody.

I would actually put the over under at 23.5 wins for Syracuse this year. Lots of winnable games, lots of toss-ups and few likely losses. I think we'll be in every game this year.

I think Syracuse is going to have a completely different product with the talents of Kline and Harris added to the program.

You can't overstate how bad the offseason was before last season, and how good this one was. Kline seemed to help with scouting and allocation of funds, and we pulled in a bunch of extremely long armed athletes who use length of limb as a proxy for height. Having guys that can reach 9' high seems to be a primary criteria for big men, and the defense is going to be greatly improved by having all those long arms deflecting passes and shots. We will be switchable, which didn't work well last year because of mobility issues throughout the defense.

Then, we got one of the best point guards in the country at throwing diagonal alley oop passes to those athletic big men. We haven't had a true point guard at Syracuse in a long time.

On top of the innate talent increase with the transfer class, Harris has set a different tone than previously. These guys look better than any team I've ever seen at Syracuse. The intensity of their workouts is going to leak into their intensity in everything else they do. Gone are the days of Cole Swider posting video of him working out by himself, quietly, without a drop of sweat on him. These kids are being reformed into monsters in the gym.

Huge improvements to offense and defense, along with massive upgrade in depth, and I predict at least a 10 win improvement over last season.
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Yeah, I’m shooting for more than 19 wins. Sick of the low expectations. Win, or else for Red. He’s got the pieces.
 
Niastri said:
This is why I suggested it would become a race to see who fouls out first.

When nether guy can guard the other, it inevitably results in lots of scores, until somebody gets in foul trouble.
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And outside of Donnie who we hope will be very good. The other 4 give us 20 fouls, should be able to rebound, play defense, and give us some scoring inside. Betsey might give us some shooting range, which would be a bonus.
 
Orangezoo said:
Of course Melo isn’t saying any differently but if the coaching staff out performs expectations with the talent on this roster it’s not an unreasonable take. The staff’s performance could be worth a 5-7 game regular season swing.
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Melo is retired so he should back up his comments by taking on a role similar to or bigger than Jayson Tatum. It would definitely help current players and with recruiting.

www.espn.com

Alum Jayson Tatum takes on role as Duke's 'chief basketball officer'

Duke said Tuesday that former Blue Devils player and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum would serve in a volunteer advisory role for the program as "chief basketball officer."
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
Hopkins16 said:
Melo is retired so he should back up his comments by taking on a role similar to or bigger than Jayson Tatum. It would definitely help current players and with recruiting.

www.espn.com

Alum Jayson Tatum takes on role as Duke's 'chief basketball officer'

Duke said Tuesday that former Blue Devils player and Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum would serve in a volunteer advisory role for the program as "chief basketball officer."
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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lol Melo is doing plenty good for us. Does it need to be published on ESPN?
 

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