A Bit of a Contrarian View

[SBU72]

• Carlos looked very good in the exhibitions. I have to hope he will just be adjusting to the team, his role, and the competition and he’ll end up somewhere between where we first saw him vs the ‘real games.’
• The defense will improve. It can’t get worse. Guys will be humiliated, will fight to be better, and Red will have to reconsider minutes based on performance on that side of the ball.
• McLeod will have to play, if he’s healthy. Dry Rub doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to maintain a heavy load (minutes or weight) for a full season. Naheem has to get ten+ minutes a game. I don’t even mind if it’s in M2M. He’s not ‘good’ at that, but I think he’s long enough and imposing enough that even when he makes mistakes, he can make up for some of them. And he will get better.
• Less reliance on Carlos if he doesn’t improve. Red seems to be giving him the benefit of the doubt, based either on practice or the exhibitions.
• Bell will shoot better. He has to.
• JJ has more confidence than ever.
• Donnie is learning that his HS stardom doesn't transfer. He’s going to have to work. Especially if he doesn’t want to go in the second round.
• If I believed in prayer, I’d use it on Chance. I can’t foresee him getting back to a health position with the knees where he’s going to be an effective defender against the other team’s PG. Just too much lateral and stop/start stress. Maybe that means he shares point duties on offense but plays the opponent’s 2 or 3?
• The only guys who should feel entitled to heavy minutes at this point are JJ and Lampkins. Everyone else needs to make it a matter of personal responsibility to correct errors, minimize weaknesses, commit to D, and as Melania teaches us, “Be best.”

I don't think McLeod should play 5 minutes much less 10. Other than being 7'5" tall, he hasn't shown anything to warrent it. Almost any other option would be better.

 

[chuck]

We have 0 guaranteed wins and Cornell, Albany, and Bucknell are our equals. They will be tough games. This could be the worst SU basketball season in our lifetimes.

I tried warning people the fans get what they wanted they know everything lol. Jk

 

[longtimefan]

We'll never be able to stop a good team down the stretch, out defense is absolutely horrible and at the end every game because the opponents know who they can cook and pick on every single time. Happened the past two games and will continue to happen.

We were better than I thought we would be and by quite a bit, and we still sucked.

Until we are consistently competing for a single digit seed I'm not going to be happy.

They paid a 325 pound center who can't play two days in a row and is one of the worst defensive centers I've seen. As bad his defense is, his offense can be just as good, but it's not consistent.

This roster is what it is, some people thought it was good, they were wrong.

There are no more back-to-back games on the schedule.

I think the defense in Brooklyn was much better than what we had seen in the Dome.

 

[cusefan88]

There are no more back-to-back games on the schedule.

I think the defense in Brooklyn was much better than what we had seen in the Dome.

If the offense is the larger issue at this point I feel they have a punchers chance at getting better. Don't think I would say the same had the defense been a massive issue again.

 

[Marsh01]

Its not as bad as it seems to be but its not great. Wins are what matters and we dont need feel good losses. These werenr really great teams we just played. Tennessee will basically show me where we are at

 

[orangecuse]

I know everybody is miserable mourning the horror of our performance in Brooklyn.

I on the other hand, am a bit encouraged. We played a couple really good teams and competed, and even had a chance to win if a handful of things went better.

Did anybody think that was possible when Youngstown State was taking us to overtime? Or especially when Lemoyne had the ball down two at the buzzer?

We had a lot of positives we could work with.

This actually feels more positive to me than Hawaii last year, when it really didn't feel like we had any way to get better, other than Benny Williams suddenly becoming a top player.

And yet, we still got to twenty wins, with that crazy roster.

I think we'll be ok this year.

"Okay." The equivalence of nothing great or nothing that good at all, but rather a general level of mediocrity or acceptance. Unfortunately, this is, and has been the new normal/status quo of SU basketball for sometime now. Our typical conference/ACC record, sans the inaugural season, supports same as well.

IMO, a very sad state of affairs of a once proud program where its paradigm was at a level of very good to excellent, has seemingly accepted being "okay" as the model/standard.

 

[DoctahLexus]

We have 0 guaranteed wins and Cornell, Albany, and Bucknell are our equals. They will be tough games. This could be the worst SU basketball season in our lifetimes.

If we had just a normal bad day at the line instead of the worst day ever then we would have beat Texas. People are acting like these are blowout losses! We have been blown out in these tourneys by good teams plenty of times. Auburn a couple years back. Maui last year. These games were not that by a long shot.

This post would be appropriate if we lost by 25 while giving up a bunch more points then we did to lemoyne. We had a legit shot at winning both and showed some improvement on defense. We outrebounded Texas tech by 9 and we were only 5 under Texas. Both were very athletic teams. This is way too negative

 

[jncuse]

In order to show continued progress from game 1-3, which we did show in games 4-5 (even in a loss) I need to see a game where we crush a sub 200KP cupcake by 20 or so points. 20.3 points is the average P4 margin against this level of opponent so far this season(160-260). Its not a major ask. If I see that, my optimism will rise another notch for this team.

Yes its another "Super Bowl" opponent. Who gives a crap. I don't want to hear that stupid excuse anymore. Lots of P4 teams play in state rivals and win easily.

The line by the way is coming in around 10-11 (in large part because we are only 100 in KP).

 

[tptcuse]

In order to show continued progress from game 1-3, which we did show in games 4-5 (even in a loss) I need to see a game where we crush a sub 200KP cupcake by 20 or so points. 20.3 points is the average P4 margin against this level of opponent so fr(160-260)

Yes its another "Super Bowl". Who gives a crap. Whatever, I don't care lots of teams play local rivals and win easily.

The line by the way is coming in around 10-11 (in large part because we are only 100 in KP).

Yes to all of this!

 

[two3zone]

There are no more back-to-back games on the schedule.

I think the defense in Brooklyn was much better than what we had seen in the Dome.

Considering our only realistic shot of getting into the tournament this season was winning the ACC tournament it seems they're probably the most important games left on the schedule. You betting on us in back to back days at the end of the year?

 

[IthacaMatt]

To be fair I think the elephant in the room is that we’re putting a similar weight on Donnie having a breakout, or Westry coming back.

I personally think the problem is more that Red is trying to build a rotation that just isn't working, and he needs to change up his lineup and his substitution patterns. You can't take too long to do that.

I remember there was one year, a couple decades ago when JB started the season with a certain guy at PF. Eric Williams was his name. He started the season as a starter, but was replaced after 11 games by Damone Brown, I think it was. I remember Tony Bland, freshman Fab Melo, freshman year for Christmas, and others where they were token starters.

I just think that we have enough talent on the roster to be more competitive, if he breaks his rotations and plays different player combinations earlier in the game, when the game is still in the balance.

 

[hoopsupstate]

My concern is if we need 22 regular season wins to get a possible bid, we can only lose 7 more games this year. I find that hard to do.

 

[Cusefan0307]

My concern is if we need 22 regular season wins to get a possible bid, we can only lose 7 more games this year. I find that hard to do.

Likely 23 or 24.

 

[two3zone]

In order to show continued progress from game 1-3, which we did show in games 4-5 (even in a loss) I need to see a game where we crush a sub 200KP cupcake by 20 or so points. 20.3 points is the average P4 margin against this level of opponent so far this season(160-260). Its not a major ask. If I see that, my optimism will rise another notch for this team.

Yes its another "Super Bowl" opponent. Who gives a crap. I don't want to hear that stupid excuse anymore. Lots of P4 teams play in state rivals and win easily.

The line by the way is coming in around 10-11 (in large part because we are only 100 in KP).

Probably a good game to bet on Syracuse minus the points.

 

[Red2003]

Just saw that St Johns and Rutgers with their big bags of NIL and 5 star recruits just both got knocked off again today. Georgia and Kennesaw State. What's their excuse?

Let's see how we do with the next 6 games. Maryland is a big one, if we drop that game the same ways we did to the Texas's at Barclay then that's personally when I'm going to hit the panic button.

For now we showed improvement in 48 hours just not a complete game yet. Long way to go.

 

[two3zone]

Just saw that St Johns and Rutgers with their big bags of NIL and 5 star recruits just both got knocked off again today. Georgia and Kennesaw State. What's their excuse?

Let's see how we do with the next 6 games. Maryland is a big one, if we drop that game the same ways we did to the Texas's at Barclay then that's personally when I'm going to hit the panic button.

For now we showed improvement in 48 hours just not a complete game yet. Long way to go.

I would take whatever St John's has over what we have, you wouldn't? Isn't that the point of a bag, to get a better team? They did.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I don't think McLeod should play 5 minutes much less 10. Other than being 7'5" tall, he hasn't shown anything to warrent it. Almost any other option would be better.

Niastri has stats that prove he’s the best center since Wilt at Kansas.

 

[Sherman20]

This isn't an unfair observation, but five games in, Freeman has already shown more than Benny Williams ever did.

Freeman, through five games, has 3 double digit rebound games, two of them double doubles.

Williams, for comparison, had 3 double digit rebound games in his Syracuse career, none as a freshman.

Freeman is vastly better than Benny ever was, let alone as a freshman. No comparison.

 

[Red2003]

I would take whatever St John's has over what we have, you wouldn't? Isn't that the point of a bag, to get a better team? They did.

Yea Blowing a 17 point lead at half and then another 5 point lead in OT with 14 seconds left really is impressive. Then being 7 point favorites today and losing is very inspiring for this dream team from the portal and Mr Pitino.