A couple of quick takes

[RF2044]

After the bitter tequila shot that our football season has devolved into, it was a relief to have the soothing lime wedge of basketball season finally getting here. Lackluster debut, for the most part. There WAS some good, but lots of things I didn't like to see. Namely:

• Too much standing around, and poor execution of half court offensive sets. I get that we're going to be more perimeter oriented this season, but we need to do more than just swing it around the perimeter and chuck up threes. There was nearly ZERO penetration tonight; nearly ZERO getting the ball inside in any capacity. As a zone defense, we love when teams swing it around the perimeter without probing and take long shots. That's what we resorted to tonight. We need to be a little more active and diversified offensively or it is going to be a long year.

• Too many unforced turnovers. We were sloppy all game long, but were a sieve for a lengthy stint in the second half. Too many horizontal, lazy passes that led to run outs. Now, early season games are generally sloppy as the team rounds into form, but what we saw today was unacceptable. We need to do a better job taking care of the ball. Which leads me to my next point...

• I don't "love" Gbinije at the point. I am a huge Gbinije fan. I love how much he's improved over the course of his career, and I think he could challenge for all league / all american honors. But I don't like how our offense flows with him at the initiator of the offense. When he's the facilitator, our offense slows down, and we don't have the inside players to be successful in half court slowdown games. I bet that some people see him handle the ball well in the open floor and think that makes him a point. But it would be peachy if one of the other points could do more when they're in the game. Howard didn't play much tonight. Joseph did, but didn't look comfortable handling the ball tonight. Something's got to change--we need more diversification on offense.

• Coleman struggled. I'll give him a pass, as it was his first game in 22 months. But we need more from him for this to be a successful year.

• Relative to expectations, Obokoh played well. He competed, blocked some shots, and rebounded. He played more minutes than Coleman did today.

• Lydon is our best inside player...and it probably isn't that close. If he were a sophomore [i.e., a little more physical maturity], he might be the best player on the team. Kid has NBA potential.

• Nice to see Malachi knock down some threes. I can't remember the last time we had an athletic 2G scorer his size. Duany? But this kid has a lot more offensive potential than Duany. He reminds me of LaVert from Michigan.

• Roberson was invisible. We need more from him. He's an upperclassman.

• We played 9 guys, 8 of whom played 25% or more of the game. Howard was the odd man out tonight.

• Cooney with lots of open misses tonight. He was very active defensively.

• All time low. I heard that tonight's game was the lowest scorinng opening game of JB's 39 years. We're going to need to improve offensively or its going to be a long year. We've got the components to be a more potent scoring team than what we saw tonight. Need to pick it up.

It was ugly, but it was a "W." 1-0.

Let's Go Orange!!!

 

[NineOneSeven]

After this year we will appreciate Rakeem Christmas and his senior season even more.

There is literally no inside game and it honestly won't improve all that much with coleman getting up to speed after tonight, imo

 

[Brooky03]

After this year we will appreciate Rakeem Christmas and his senior season even more.

There is literally no inside game and it honestly won't improve all that much with coleman getting up to speed after tonight, imo

No offense intended, but I won't. Rak was phenomenal, no doubt. But last year's offense hurt my soul nearly every game.

Today's offense was bad and still way more fun to watch than 50% of the games last year. If we're going to be bad on offense, I'd rather be bad in the paint than not be able to make a 3-pointer.

 

[SoBeCuse]

No offense intended, but I won't. Rak was phenomenal, no doubt. But last year's offense hurt my soul nearly every game.

Today's offense was bad and still way more fun to watch than 50% of the games last year. If we're going to be bad on offense, I'd rather be bad in the paint than not be able to make a 3-pointer.

I don't know man. This offense has the potential to be much worse than last year imo and that's saying a lot. Watching Rak own many opponents in the paint was a thing of beauty. We won't be seeing much paint this year. More athletic teams will crowd the 3point line and then what? We don't really do anything creative with X's and O's to potentially overcome that. It was sort of alarming how we weren't blowing by their guards and doing any of that. We'll see.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Cooney needs to stop with the layup claymore mines that result in fast breaks for the opposition. I can sort of handle him bricking threes because he actually will make those and get hot, but he has never shown an ability to make layups in traffic with any consistency.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Give me 34 three point attempts every night over last years mess. We are going to shoot a lot better than 32% from three most nights.

Turnovers were an issue. Mal is talented but he fired some lazy passes. I thought Trevor tried to do to much at times, and found himself in no mans land. Gbinije needs to go to the basket more.

The offense will get better. There is too much talent here. I know a lot of old timers don't like all the threes, but basketball is evolving to the style we are trying to play this year.

 

[Brooky03]

I don't know man. This offense has the potential to be much worse than last year imo and that's saying a lot. Watching Rak own many opponents in the paint was a thing of beauty. We won't be seeing much paint this year. More athletic teams will crowd the 3point line and then what? We don't really do anything creative with X's and O's to potentially overcome that. It was sort of alarming how we weren't blowing by their guards and doing any of that. We'll see.

On the flip side, this offense has the potential to be much better than last year's. We couldn't out-gun anybody last season; we at least have that potential now. I don't necessarily like the volatility that comes with a 3-point shooting team but it's better than a one-trick-pony team that has to dump the ball in the post to one guy and pray.

This team needs to find some chemistry on offense because the potential to hang 80+ on teams is there, imo. I'm not convinced teams can take away three 3-point threats without severely exposing themselves to open drives to the rim. We have guys capable of finishing at the rim, too.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

"I thought Trevor tried to do to much at times, and found himself in no mans land."

Haven't read that for the last four years.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Give me 34 three point attempts every night over last years mess. We are going to shoot a lot better than 32% from three most nights.

Turnovers were an issue. Mal is talented but he fired some lazy passes. I thought Trevor tried to do to much at times, and found himself in no mans land. Gbinije needs to go to the basket more.

The offense will get better. There is too much talent here. I know a lot of old timers don't like all the threes, but basketball is evolving to the style we are trying to play this year.

Yes but those threes won't be there against good teams. There will be no need to honor any inside threats. Unless the staff revs up the creativity like the way Notre Dame, VCU or other 3-point based teams do to get good looks; then we will struggle to get to 50 ppg, imo.

 

[SoBeCuse]

On the flip side, this offense has the potential to be much better than last year's. We couldn't out-gun anybody last season; we at least have that potential now. I don't necessarily like the volatility that comes with a 3-point shooting team but it's better than a one-trick-pony team that has to dump the ball in the post to one guy and pray.

This team needs to find some chemistry on offense because the potential to hang 80+ on teams is there, imo. I'm not convinced teams can take away three 3-point threats without severely exposing themselves to open drives to the rim. We have guys capable of finishing at the rim, too.

Good points. I'm just not convinced we have enough guys that can beat you off the bounce if those teams try to take away the threes. Not against the good teams at least.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Yes but those threes won't be there against good teams. There will be no need to honor any inside threats. Unless the staff revs up the creativity like the way Notre Dame, VCU or other 3-point based teams do to get good looks; then we will struggle to get to 50 ppg, imo.

We will be fine. There's too much offensive talent on this team. They just need to cut down on turnovers, move the ball, and drive a little more. I'd like to see Lydon be more aggressive as well.

Tonight we just turned it over a bit. We will get better as the year goes on at moving the ball to open guys. Lehigh is a good team. They beat the Duke team with Parker two years ago. I think some people are selling them short.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Lydon at the five is not going to work against real teams. I dont see the point of even wasting time trying it against lesser teams.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Lydon at the five is not going to work against real teams. I dont see the point of even wasting time trying it against lesser teams.

His plus/minus tonight had to be one of the highest in the game. Guy gets boards. Who cares what he looks like. Small ball is in!

 

[STEVEHOLT]

His plus/minus tonight had to be one of the highest in the game. Guy gets boards. Who cares what he looks like. Small ball is in!

Its fools gold. Once they play bigger teams with real athletes, it wont work and they'll have to start from scratch.

 

[NineOneSeven]

No offense intended, but I won't. Rak was phenomenal, no doubt. But last year's offense hurt my soul nearly every game.

Today's offense was bad and still way more fun to watch than 50% of the games last year. If we're going to be bad on offense, I'd rather be bad in the paint than not be able to make a 3-pointer.

It's going to be ugly when we have games shooting 4-20 from 3.

 

[Cusefan0307]

It's going to be ugly when we have games shooting 4-20 from 3.

I think your baseline is too low. We aren't going to have many games we attempt just 20 threes.

We need to get to the basket more than we did tonight, however.

 

[CaptainJ]

Its fools gold. Once they play bigger teams with real athletes, it wont work and they'll have to start from scratch.

Sadly, that even happened to an extent with Rak down the stretch last year. I'm sure I wasn't the only one sore that we didn't get to see him abuse clowns like whomever the guy is who reminds me of Cherokee Parks. Of course maybe the refs will finally be less bias against our bigs now that Rak is gone?

 

[NineOneSeven]

I think your baseline is too low. We aren't going to have many games we attempt just 20 threes.

We need to get to the basket more than we did tonight, however.

You get my point

 

[OrangeDW]

My take is that big time college hoops has now devolved into an open gym run with a bunch of bball IQ-less chuckers. Good God.

Good athletes, bad bball. I care less and less every year. Everybody sucks.

 

[OrangeDW]

Give me 34 three point attempts every night over last years mess. We are going to shoot a lot better than 32% from three most nights.

Turnovers were an issue. Mal is talented but he fired some lazy passes. I thought Trevor tried to do to much at times, and found himself in no mans land. Gbinije needs to go to the basket more.

The offense will get better. There is too much talent here. I know a lot of old timers don't like all the threes, but basketball is evolving to the style we are trying to play this year.

Last year's national champs had the best low post scorer in the country. Trends come and go, but needing offensive balance is a constant.

 

[RoatanCuse]

h

Cooney needs to stop with the layup claymore mines that result in fast breaks for the opposition. I can sort of handle him bricking threes because he actually will make those and get hot, but he has never shown an ability to make layups in traffic with any consistency.

Was thinking the same thing.

 

[Toga]

I would like to say this is a team which could press 8-10 minutes a game but we have nobody to protect the basket.

 

[orangefan13]

Taking 4 or 5 dribbles and then pulling up could get us to the line for three freebies a couple of times a game. We haven't begun to do that. And we have alot of guard depth to wear opponents down on top of those fouls.

With as wide open as we were tonight I begin to wonder why we didn't have two guys go 6 for 9.

 

[tipphill]

Cooney needs to stop with the layup claymore mines that result in fast breaks for the opposition. I can sort of handle him bricking threes because he actually will make those and get hot, but he has never shown an ability to make layups in traffic with any consistency.

or three's

 

[NYCSUGrad]

After the bitter tequila shot that our football season has devolved into, it was a relief to have the soothing lime wedge of basketball season finally getting here. Lackluster debut, for the most part. There WAS some good, but lots of things I didn't like to see. Namely:

• Too much standing around, and poor execution of half court offensive sets. I get that we're going to be more perimeter oriented this season, but we need to do more than just swing it around the perimeter and chuck up threes. There was nearly ZERO penetration tonight; nearly ZERO getting the ball inside in any capacity. As a zone defense, we love when teams swing it around the perimeter without probing and take long shots. That's what we resorted to tonight. We need to be a little more active and diversified offensively or it is going to be a long year.

• Too many unforced turnovers. We were sloppy all game long, but were a sieve for a lengthy stint in the second half. Too many horizontal, lazy passes that led to run outs. Now, early season games are generally sloppy as the team rounds into form, but what we saw today was unacceptable. We need to do a better job taking care of the ball. Which leads me to my next point...

• I don't "love" Gbinije at the point. I am a huge Gbinije fan. I love how much he's improved over the course of his career, and I think he could challenge for all league / all american honors. But I don't like how our offense flows with him at the initiator of the offense. When he's the facilitator, our offense slows down, and we don't have the inside players to be successful in half court slowdown games. I bet that some people see him handle the ball well in the open floor and think that makes him a point. But it would be peachy if one of the other points could do more when they're in the game. Howard didn't play much tonight. Joseph did, but didn't look comfortable handling the ball tonight. Something's got to change--we need more diversification on offense.

• Coleman struggled. I'll give him a pass, as it was his first game in 22 months. But we need more from him for this to be a successful year.

• Relative to expectations, Obokoh played well. He competed, blocked some shots, and rebounded. He played more minutes than Coleman did today.

• Lydon is our best inside player...and it probably isn't that close. If he were a sophomore [i.e., a little more physical maturity], he might be the best player on the team. Kid has NBA potential.

• Nice to see Malachi knock down some threes. I can't remember the last time we had an athletic 2G scorer his size. Duany? But this kid has a lot more offensive potential than Duany. He reminds me of LaVert from Michigan.

• Roberson was invisible. We need more from him. He's an upperclassman.

• We played 9 guys, 8 of whom played 25% or more of the game. Howard was the odd man out tonight.

• Cooney with lots of open misses tonight. He was very active defensively.

• All time low. I heard that tonight's game was the lowest scorinng opening game of JB's 39 years. We're going to need to improve offensively or its going to be a long year. We've got the components to be a more potent scoring team than what we saw tonight. Need to pick it up.

It was ugly, but it was a "W." 1-0.

Let's Go Orange!!!

To be fair about your last point, we usually play really bad teams our first game. Lehigh and SDSU are the recent exceptions, and playing in the open air messed with SDSU.