A few cornell observations | Syracusefan.com

A few cornell observations

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billsin01

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Interesting game. Have to think it looked better than the exhibitions. What that's worth? I'm not sure but its at least moving the needle in the right direction. Some of the observations I came away with (with the natural caveat that obviously Cornell isn't going to be at the level of most teams we face):

We scored a few baskets in the halfcourt!!!
After two exhibitions of terrible halfcourt basketball I thought the offense actually looked OK tonight. Cornell looked overmatched, so there's that, but even with the poor shooting percentage we actually got some looks and were at least something of a threat in the halfcourt. Brissett had a three go in and out, so did Battle and Thorpe had a couple shot that just didn't fall. But ultimately we got some OK looks and even beat some folks off the dribble at times. Will that translate to the tougher teams we play? Remains to be seen, but at least from a regular season debut standpoint, I'll take the improvement.

The Good

Thorpe's ankle looked 1o0x times better
No idea what happened between Monday and tonight (ideally they found some sort of incredible performance enhancing treatment) but he actually looked to be moving pretty well on that bum ankle. His overall line would look better if a couple shots fell for him, but 19 mins/12 points and moving well on the court is a big thing for this team. Not totally sure what his role is or how good he is overall, but his getting relatively healthy is important.

Chuckwu managed to play 20 mins in a regular season win
He did it a couple times last year (Holy Cross and SC State) but after the exhibition games I was wondering what role he was going to be able to find this year. His defense was, eh, OK (I'll take the three blocks) and his offense is fairly nonexistent (though he had a nice cut to the hoop) but if he can deliver somewhere between 10-15 mins of solid basketball against good teams, we won't be stuck with Moyer at the 5 or a three guard lineup more than we want to be. If you were asking me for a best-case scenario for his debut, this was probably it.

Howard was solid
Thought he was decent -- pretty good shooting, OK defense and generally didn't just pound the ball into the ground. Would still like to see more effort defensively.

Liked that a bad game from Brissett was still a double-double
Brissett didn't get many shots to fall, ran into a bit of foul trouble and had some stretches where he was a little bit out of the picture overall, but he still wound up with a double-double (11 and 10) with just one turnover. Sign of a really good player, IMO.

Matt Moyer!
I was not terribly impressed with the workout videos of Moyer and was even less impressed with his efforts in the exhibitions. But he played well tonight. Hard to see him giving much at all offensively (I would rank him below Sidibe AND Marek and probably even Washington and ahead of only Chuckwu in that department) but he played well enough to tie for the team lead in minutes (JB isn't into giving out charity minutes) and was a factor on the glass at both ends. Nice to see.

Legit contributions from a bunch of players
Battle looked really good -- bailed out on one wild drive, had a bad charge, but ultimately though almost all of his 14 shots had a decent chance of going in and he wound up with 18 -- Sidibe continues to not look like a freshman big, Dolezaj has a role on this team and Washington looked completely unfazed despite not playing particularly great basketball.

The not so good

This team struggles to turn the corner
It was better in the second half but we didn't get a first step advantage against cornell often. That's an issue for a team that's not phenomenal passing the ball.

Dolezaj still managed to get bullied ... by kids his own age.
I love him as a player but still tough to imagine him playing vs. Carolina et al.

Not enough transition opportunities
We sped the game up with the press, which was great, but still struggled to get real transition scoring chances.
 
cuseattle said:
I just finished watching (awesome) and I was most impressed by everyone's effort on the glass.
Expand...

Yes! Thought that was very good as well. Halfcourt offense was bad, IMO. Defense good. Cornell didn’t test the D much though. Kind of an incomplete grade for me but, yes, rebounding was positive.
 
These guys don't seem as bad as advertised. Other than Chukwu, everyone merits some degree of defensive attention, unlike some of our recent rosters where you could just let Roberson catch the ball ten feet from the basket and leave him be..

They contest everything. Cornell didnt get many open looks. Sure over the course of a game, every team will give up open looks here and there, but by in large, these guys didnt. They are long and active.

Ball motion was good outside the first part of the first half. These guys seem to have a clue.
 
Tobias Funke said:
My stream was perfect. Crystal clear all game.
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it kept freezing on my computer. It was annoying but I managed. I like the way we rebounded. I like what I saw from Thorpe. We didnt get alot of transition points. Half court offense has to get better but I was encouraged.
 
Good summary, Billin01. That was the first chance I had to see the team -- and they were better than expected compared to previews here. Cornell has an experienced team (other than Jimmy Boeheim starting as a true frosh). Their lead guard (Morgan) could play for a lot of teams. What they lack is a center.

Dolezaj was bullied at the offensive end, lacking the strength to finish inside. Needs at least another year of S&C. For the most part, he stayed on the perimeter, not looking for his shot, deferring to the guards and Brissett. Still, in 22 minutes he had 8 points and 6 rebounds, and he scraps. He is active on the wing of the zone, getting out on shooters.

Moyer is a factor on the boards. I saw a comment above that it was a quiet 10 rebounds. I didn't think so. He gets and holds position and he rebounds strongly. He competes inside and we need that.

Sidibe follows missed shots and gets put backs, that count as much as more fancy moves. That might be his main way of scoring until he rounds out his game. Really like what he is doing now, and wow is there some potential.

Thrope has the look of a scorer. Took a couple of bad shots, but he was aggressive in looking to penetrate. Nice complement with Battle on offense, and it was good to see the top of our zone with two active defenders, both with good size.

I think we need to give Howard some slack and take a fresh look at his current game. He isn't a PG -- not the sort who can be our main play-maker and distributor. But he has improved his shooting and he is becoming a good scorer as more of a combo-guard.
 
Tobias Funke said:
My stream was perfect. Crystal clear all game.
Expand...

STEVEHOLT said:
These guys don't seem as bad as advertised. Other than Chukwu, everyone merits some degree of defensive attention, unlike some of our recent rosters where you could just let Roberson catch the ball ten feet from the basket and leave him be..

They contest everything. Cornell didnt get many open looks. Sure over the course of a game, every team will give up open looks here and there, but by in large, these guys didnt. They are long and active.

Ball motion was good outside the first part of the first half. These guys seem to have a clue.
Expand...

I'm being completely serious when I say having both Tobias Funke and Steve Holt reply to this thread brings me joy. Also agree in particular with the bolded part. Not sure we have a lot of studs offensively but at least no black holes.
 
Some great points all around. I missed the live action and watched replay with my morning coffee. Some additional thoughts-

1- Frank's offensive game is far improved. He is much more comfortable attacking the rim and drives with intent. His shot looks better and he has a better feel for picking his spots. You can see the confidence growing. On defense I love that he and Tyus were having fun with continually making it hard to pass into the middle of the paint. Nice to see that chemistry. The only thing I didn't like was he was still missing guys a couple times when playing the point and waiting too long to swing it. Little things.

2- I am really liking this Guard rotation. They all seem to know what they are doing and there is far less wasted movement. Gillon was nice last year but he and Frank both looked lost at times dribbling with zero intent. All four seem to have a plan and a purpose.

3- Geno looked much better. Would like to see his shot come along but what I liked most was his threat to drive the baseline. Scoop used to do this and it really spreads the floor and allows shooters to get open.

4- Oshae/Tyus- both seemed to start to find their game a bit more last night. The talent levels are impressive and it was great to see progress. As the chemistry and confidence builds I think both of these guys will be nightmares to guard this year off the bounce.

5- Moyer and Dolezaj. Activity, hustle and rebounding. Loved the effort and intensity. Both of these guys provide that glue/dirty work component that complements their teammates. Moyer is finding his game more too. His work on the boards is fun to watch. He just needs to keep the ball higher and look to draw contact vs making it easier to get stuffed.

Center- happy with both guys in their rotations. Both get out on the wing shooters quickly and we saw signs of much more body control from PC. That little pick and roll with Frank where PC had to collect the bounce pass, dribble and finish was impressive for a big guy and shows he is developing. Also his quickness on defense and positioning was good. Bourama just oozes with potential. He isn't far from being a two way center... for now love his positioning, shot blocking and offensive put back work.

Defense- I haven't seen a zone rotate this well in a few years. Communication top and bottom was good last night and the weak side help was even better. Cornell got the zone moving a lot and it didn't matter as guys were filling the voids quickly or communicating to pass off their guy to a shotblocker.

As others have said, I feel a lot better about this team. They look much more like a basketball team than last year where it was throwing up 30 3s. I somewhat see us as kind of similar to South Carolina last year in terms of being a defensive team with some playmakers on offense but being very blue collar.
 
SoBristol said:
Good summary, Billin01. That was the first chance I had to see the team -- and they were better than expected compared to previews here. Cornell has an experienced team (other than Jimmy Boeheim starting as a true frosh). Their lead guard (Morgan) could play for a lot of teams. What they lack is a center.

Dolezaj was bullied at the offensive end, lacking the strength to finish inside. Needs at least another year of S&C. For the most part, he stayed on the perimeter, not looking for his shot, deferring to the guards and Brissett. Still, in 22 minutes he had 8 points and 6 rebounds, and he scraps. He is active on the wing of the zone, getting out on shooters.

Moyer is a factor on the boards. I saw a comment above that it was a quiet 10 rebounds. I didn't think so. He gets and holds position and he rebounds strongly. He competes inside and we need that.

Sidibe follows missed shots and gets put backs, that count as much as more fancy moves. That might be his main way of scoring until he rounds out his game. Really like what he is doing now, and wow is there some potential.

Thrope has the look of a scorer. Took a couple of bad shots, but he was aggressive in looking to penetrate. Nice complement with Battle on offense, and it was good to see the top of our zone with two active defenders, both with good size.

I think we need to give Howard some slack and take a fresh look at his current game. He isn't a PG -- not the sort who can be our main play-maker and distributor. But he has improved his shooting and he is becoming a good scorer as more of a combo-guard.
Expand...

Agree with all of these points. Dolezaj gets bullied but our best five right now (maybe not going forward) is Frank/Battle/Brissett/Sidibe/Dolezaj. Everyone active, everyone can do at least a little to help on the offensive end and they hustle and scrap. Again, wouldn't be shocked to see Thorpe inserted into that group and maybe Moyer is the better player over the duration of the season, but Dolezaj has been a factor early.

Love Sidibe's confidence offensively. We don't see that from many bigs. Agree on Thorpe -- you can see he has something. How much he can give is still a question for me but seeing him looking much closer to 100% on that ankle was the first step. Howard off ball is interesting. He's not a stud but you do have to account for him b/c he can shoot and occasionally make a play in the paint. The one thing I'd like to see from him is a bit more of that creative passing he showed in the first part of last season. Haven't seen much of that. Missed a wide open battle on the wing for three, and instead settled for a long two (and missed) on one set which is a killer.
 
Sidibe is a gem. The guy just can play. I hope soon that it is Chukwu coming in subbing for Bourama and not the other way around. We’ll have to wait and see how they both handle bigger forwards/power forwards/centers who can dislodge them easily potentially.
 
seems like there will a pt in every game where one of the centers is in foul trouble because they try to block so many shots and are a bit reckless doing it.. wouldnt surprise me that both foul out multiple times this year. who is center number 3?
 
Orangezoo said:
Some great points all around. I missed the live action and watched replay with my morning coffee. Some additional thoughts-

1- Frank's offensive game is far improved. He is much more comfortable attacking the rim and drives with intent. His shot looks better and he has a better feel for picking his spots. You can see the confidence growing. On defense I love that he and Tyus were having fun with continually making it hard to pass into the middle of the paint. Nice to see that chemistry. The only thing I didn't like was he was still missing guys a couple times when playing the point and waiting too long to swing it. Little things.

2- I am really liking this Guard rotation. They all seem to know what they are doing and there is far less wasted movement. Gillon was nice last year but he and Frank both looked lost at times dribbling with zero intent. All four seem to have a plan and a purpose.

3- Geno looked much better. Would like to see his shot come along but what I liked most was his threat to drive the baseline. Scoop used to do this and it really spreads the floor and allows shooters to get open.

4- Oshae/Tyus- both seemed to start to find their game a bit more last night. The talent levels are impressive and it was great to see progress. As the chemistry and confidence builds I think both of these guys will be nightmares to guard this year off the bounce.

5- Moyer and Dolezaj. Activity, hustle and rebounding. Loved the effort and intensity. Both of these guys provide that glue/dirty work component that complements their teammates. Moyer is finding his game more too. His work on the boards is fun to watch. He just needs to keep the ball higher and look to draw contact vs making it easier to get stuffed.

Center- happy with both guys in their rotations. Both get out on the wing shooters quickly and we saw signs of much more body control from PC. That little pick and roll with Frank where PC had to collect the bounce pass, dribble and finish was impressive for a big guy and shows he is developing. Also his quickness on defense and positioning was good. Bourama just oozes with potential. He isn't far from being a two way center... for now love his positioning, shot blocking and offensive put back work.

Defense- I haven't seen a zone rotate this well in a few years. Communication top and bottom was good last night and the weak side help was even better. Cornell got the zone moving a lot and it didn't matter as guys were filling the voids quickly or communicating to pass off their guy to a shotblocker.

As others have said, I feel a lot better about this team. They look much more like a basketball team than last year where it was throwing up 30 3s. I somewhat see us as kind of similar to South Carolina last year in terms of being a defensive team with some playmakers on offense but being very blue collar.
Expand...

Agree with all of this except for the South Carolina part. I get the comp in terms of style, but even taking out their final four run, just don't think we're as solid on either end against top competition (at least not yet). Some of the solid teams we play preseason will give us a much better feel. One question that remains to be seen is what we do when we hit an offensive drought. Obviously getting the ball to Tyus would be the play, but can he be that guy and can he create for others? And can those others knock down big shots? Potential is there but still a ton of questions on that end.

Having said that, I agree with everything else. The nitpick on frank being a little slow to swing the ball is a particularly good observation.
 
SoBeCuse said:
Sidibe is a gem. The guy just can play. I hope soon that it is Chukwu coming in subbing for Bourama and not the other way around. We’ll have to wait and see how they both handle bigger forwards/power forwards/centers who can dislodge them easily potentially.
Expand...
What, you don't think we should go behind every single game by electing not to start our best lineup? /sarcasm
 
billsin01 said:
Agree with all of these points. Dolezaj gets bullied but our best five right now (maybe not going forward) is Frank/Battle/Brissett/Sidibe/Dolezaj. Everyone active, everyone can do at least a little to help on the offensive end and they hustle and scrap. Again, wouldn't be shocked to see Thorpe inserted into that group and maybe Moyer is the better player over the duration of the season, but Dolezaj has been a factor early.

Love Sidibe's confidence offensively. We don't see that from many bigs. Agree on Thorpe -- you can see he has something. How much he can give is still a question for me but seeing him looking much closer to 100% on that ankle was the first step. Howard off ball is interesting. He's not a stud but you do have to account for him b/c he can shoot and occasionally make a play in the paint. The one thing I'd like to see from him is a bit more of that creative passing he showed in the first part of last season. Haven't seen much of that. Missed a wide open battle on the wing for three, and instead settled for a long two (and missed) on one set which is a killer.
Expand...
I was impressed by Thorpe's handle and that bodes well for his contribution.
 
SoBeCuse said:
Sidibe is a gem. The guy just can play. I hope soon that it is Chukwu coming in subbing for Bourama and not the other way around. We’ll have to wait and see how they both handle bigger forwards/power forwards/centers who can dislodge them easily potentially.
Expand...

Reminds me of what Baye would have been if he had some offensive skill. Almost feel like you could play Sidibe at the 4 (not that there would be any reason to do that this year) and feel OK about it. He moves his feet well.
 
billsin01 said:
Reminds me of what Baye would have been if he had some offensive skill. Almost feel like you could play Sidibe at the 4 (not that there would be any reason to do that this year) and feel OK about it. He moves his feet well.
Expand...

Agreed. I think he is stronger than Baye ever was right now. Not as ‘tough’ or ‘physical’ yet as Baye was but he’ll get that soon with more experience and more battles under his belt. Then when even more strength comes, look out! Yeah, he can do things already on offense Baye never could.
 
Speaking of hands, MM may not have hands of stone, but he does have semi-functional hands. How many times he lost control of the ball in several different ways. Maybe he was trying to do something with the ball before he had control or nerves but------? I do think it's something he can improve on.
 
billsin01 said:
Agree with all of this except for the South Carolina part. I get the comp in terms of style, but even taking out their final four run, just don't think we're as solid on either end against top competition (at least not yet). Some of the solid teams we play preseason will give us a much better feel. One question that remains to be seen is what we do when we hit an offensive drought. Obviously getting the ball to Tyus would be the play, but can he be that guy and can he create for others? And can those others knock down big shots? Potential is there but still a ton of questions on that end.

Having said that, I agree with everything else. The nitpick on frank being a little slow to swing the ball is a particularly good observation.
Expand...

Yeah I should have clarified on the SC part. Meant more in terms of what we are all about than being at that level. They were really good and deeper.

Offense is definitely the big question. I really hope we explore running through Sidibe to present a post game as the season evolves. Lots of pieces and abilities to work with. We still have to push it up the court whenever possible to make hay from being solid defensively.
 
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