Akok Akok in the portal

[HoustonCuse]

This article was published shortly after Moten announced he was going to Syracuse.

It is an interesting read. Especially for folks old enough to have seen Lawrence play at SU.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1990/05/22/moten-opts-to-play-basketball-at-syracuse/cfabd171-ac4e-4d97-8893-ac38e71c6b55/

Really cool find. Thanks.

 

[Cheriehoop]

I’ve seen interviews and read articles with direct quotes. Not a single rhyme. I just don’t get the nickname.

How Moten got his nickname. Was that your question?

"Poetry In Moten" SU Legend Lawrence Moten to have jersey retired

Lawrence Moten is the all-time leading scorer in Syracuse Basketball history with 2,334 points.Let that sink in. Two-Thousand, three hundred thirty four points.He beat Derrick Coleman's record and held off John Wallace by 215 points.In fact nobody has ecl

cnycentral.com

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Tells you all you need to know. No one wants to transfer to be a back-up. It's a pretty simple formula.

 

[Briancuse]

Tells you all you need to know. No one wants to transfer to be a back-up. It's a pretty simple formula.

He wouldn't be a backup here.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Tells you all you need to know. No one wants to transfer to be a back-up. It's a pretty simple formula.

Backup to who though, one of the unproven freshmen?
Akok has been through the wars already and we’ve seen his skill set at play. We know what we’d be getting with him.
Unless he’s given every indication he’s not interested, you’d have to at least ask, correct?
I’m gonna give the staff the benefit here, because the alternative is too depressing.

 

[Orangezoo]

Backup to who though, one of the unproven freshmen?
Akok has been through the wars already and we’ve seen his skill set at play. We know what we’d be getting with him. Unless he’s given every indication he’s not interested, you’d have to at least ask, correct?
I’m gonna give the staff the benefit of that, because the alternative is too depressing.

I guess the question is who did we commit major minutes to in this class besides Mintz?

Go back to the Taylor and Buddy comparisons as well as Taylor sharing that the staff saw him being used like Buddy was used. Seems to me if commitments were made, Taylor would have been that guy. For solid minutes not necessarily as a starter which of course evolved now that Cole is gone.

 

[Briancuse]

I guess the question is who did we commit major minutes to in this class besides Mintz?

Go back to the Taylor and Buddy comparisons as well as Taylor sharing that the staff saw him being used like Buddy was used. Seems to me if commitments were made, Taylor would have been that guy. For solid minutes not necessarily as a starter which of course evolved now that Cole is gone.

I doubt anyone. Im sure they were told at the time they probably wouldn't see any pt as a freshman.

 

[007]

Tells you all you need to know. No one wants to transfer to be a back-up. It's a pretty simple formula.

Two fallacies here - apparently no one explained that formula to Symir, and the pitch is almost always about the opportunity to compete for starting positions and playing time.

 

[Orangezoo]

I doubt anyone. Im sure they were told at the time they probably wouldn't see any pt as a freshman.

Huh? Either sarcasm or an unlikely extreme.

 

[pearl31]

I doubt anyone. Im sure they were told at the time they probably wouldn't see any pt as a freshman.

w t are you talking abt?

 

[kingtidge]

Going to assume we aren’t even trying here. Oh well.

Plan B... Can't be bothered, roll with what we got.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Two fallacies here - apparently no one explained that formula to Symir, and the pitch is almost always about the opportunity to compete for starting positions and playing time.

I'm not sure you can compare Akok and Symir since this is his hometown and he played for the City Rocks with Buddy and JG3. Most kids transferring are looking for a situation where they will fill an important role for the team and usually involves more minutes than at their prior school. We know QB spurned his hometown to seek out more minutes but in Akok's case there are minutes available if he is up for the challenge where at Pitt and Georgetown the minutes will most likely be less competitive. Yes, he would be given that opportunity at Syracuse. But every kid thinks differently but they all think they should be starting, and all think they will be drafted by the NBA.

 

[DilemaCuse]

Need to go with the old Yankee/red Sox trade deadline philosophy. Acquire the guy who is being shopped just so your in division opponent doesn't get him. Heck K has done it to JB at least twice w Tucker and Tape.

 

[Briancuse]

w t are you talking abt?

I don't think one of the freshman other than Judah thought he would be getting much pt as a freshman.

 

[Briancuse]

Plan B... Can't be bothered, roll with what we got.

What we have isn't good enough.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I was completely joking. [Duh.]

 

[DoctorBombay]

Two fallacies here - apparently no one explained that formula to Symir, and the pitch is almost always about the opportunity to compete for starting positions and playing time.

Seems to me that if GTown & Pitt are his only choices, then he’s not looking at winning much over the next coupla years.
So if PT is his only concern, that might be a major issue off the bat.
He’s likely to get all that at SU, but it’s not guaranteed. Maybe that’s the dealbreaker.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Seems to me that if GTown & Pitt are his only choices, then he’s not looking at winning much over the next coupla years.
So if PT is his only concern, that might be a major issue off the bat.
He’s likely to get all that at SU, but it’s not guaranteed. Maybe that’s the dealbreaker.

His coach said he'll plan more visits so those aren't likely his only choices.

 

[Day2]

Seems to me that if GTown & Pitt are his only choices, then he’s not looking at winning much over the next coupla years.
So if PT is his only concern, that might be a major issue off the bat.
He’s likely to get all that at SU, but it’s not guaranteed. Maybe that’s the dealbreaker.

Or maybe he has no interest in playing center, even as a backup?

 

[DoctorBombay]

Or maybe he has no interest in playing center, even as a backup?

If we are asking him to play center, then if I were him I'd say no as well. My thought was we'd have him play the Tyler Lydon role- stretch 4 with some 5 mixed in, in a pinch. He's too scrawny to play the 5 fulltime, but he'd be a great stretch 4 in our system. And he could compete to be the starter at that position from day 1. JMHO

 

[Zelda Zonk]

If we are asking him to play center, then if I were him I'd say no as well. My thought was we'd have him play the Tyler Lydon role- stretch 4 with some 5 mixed in, in a pinch. He's too scrawny to play the 5 fulltime, but he'd be a great stretch 4 in our system. And he could compete to be the starter at that position from day 1. JMHO

Yeah, I think our situation would be good for him. He could thrive: plenty of minutes at 4 + backup 5. Defense like Baye+, Swiss Army knife like Marek, pick and pop, and a lot of threes opportunities with Buddy, Jimmy, and Cole gone.

 

[pearl31]

I don't think one of the freshman other than Judah thought he would be getting much pt as a freshman.

You'd be wrong.

 

[TinyManInside]

I’m relying on who we have in hand to elevate our ceiling.

I think we’re basically toast in the non-Judah frosh for this year (btw, I think two will be good down the line, I think the other three that don’t pop will transfer, one or two might be functional for some minutes this year, including having to start).

I’m hoping that the following happens:
Joe at the 2 + Jesse getting incrementally better + Benny hitting a sophomore leap + Judah being ready from day one = winning formula.

We will have glaring holes until proven otherwise at backup center and the other forward, but that’s fine. I’m looking to make the tourney, not win the chip. Even if we land guys in the portal, I doubt we get game changers.

We need Jesse not to foul out and be a much bigger part of the offense, we need Benny to stop trying to be KD and start trying to be Scottie Barnes, Joe to cook at the 2 and Judah has to be what we all hope he is.

Ballard, Akok, whatever. Our offensive engine is set. Our defense can’t be any worse. JB has to make it work.

I think you've outlined this quite well.

There is so much that has to go right just to get into the 18-13 range that we've been muddling through for the last 8 years. This roster looks like year 9 to me.

We're banking on a lot of IFs going right, but we've seen a consistent pattern of IFs going wrong over the last 8 years.

What happens if Judah shows up and plays like the last 2 PGs we recruited with similar rankings (Joseph and Carey)?

What happens if Benny doesn't make a giant leap? I mean, the leap he has to make for us to be decent is HUGE. He played a lot of minutes as a frosh and outside of one game against Duke accomplished a lot of nothing. From a correlative standpoint, his season stats on a per minute basis stack up historically with former SU players that never really developed. Not saying he won't, just saying that the empirical data doesn't fill me with hope.

What happens if Jesse can't play 30+ a night due to persistent foul trouble or worse yet, injury?

The only thing I'm willing to predict with certainty about next year is that Joe is going to have the ultimate green light. He's gonna average 1 shot attempt per 2 minutes of floor time at minimum. Worried that will lead to a lot of bad/low efficiency shots without other shooters to spread the floor for him.

I definitely realize that we can't discount the fact that there may be pleasant surprises from the frosh class. But the way player development and handling of FR has gone recently, it would be dubious to bank on that.

 

[Briancuse]

You'd be wrong.

You think a kid ranked like 120 thought he was starting for Syracuse as a freshman?

 

[Orangezoo]

I think you've outlined this quite well.

There is so much that has to go right just to get into the 18-13 range that we've been muddling through for the last 8 years. This roster looks like year 9 to me.

We're banking on a lot of IFs going right, but we've seen a consistent pattern of IFs going wrong over the last 8 years.

What happens if Judah shows up and plays like the last 2 PGs we recruited with similar rankings (Joseph and Carey)?

What happens if Benny doesn't make a giant leap? I mean, the leap he has to make for us to be decent is HUGE. He played a lot of minutes as a frosh and outside of one game against Duke accomplished a lot of nothing. From a correlative standpoint, his season stats on a per minute basis stack up historically with former SU players that never really developed. Not saying he won't, just saying that the empirical data doesn't fill me with hope.

What happens if Jesse can't play 30+ a night due to persistent foul trouble or worse yet, injury?

The only thing I'm willing to predict with certainty about next year is that Joe is going to have the ultimate green light. He's gonna average 1 shot attempt per 2 minutes of floor time at minimum. Worried that will lead to a lot of bad/low efficiency shots without other shooters to spread the floor for him.

I definitely realize that we can't discount the fact that there may be pleasant surprises from the frosh class. But the way player development and handling of FR has gone recently, it would be dubious to bank on that.

It's year 9 of a bunch of firsts when it comes to roster composition and the majority of those years those firsts haven't been good firsts. The biggest thing is having to bank on X, y and z in order to not have a disaster season vs knowing we have x,y,z and then banking on these other things to get us to a higher seed. The two pieces we badly need to lock in something much closer to what we expect aren't coming. We have replaced them with pieces we are hopeful about but know very little going into the season.