Almost a month away from the exhibition games. What are you way too early predictions?

[Jeremy L.]

Coming off the Final Four year, this team will be one of the most interesting teams to watch in the country. Joining the ACC will be a difficult task, but it will certainly help us come tournament time.

Obviously the loss of MCW, James, and Triche are big losses. If Ennis is as good as advertise we should be okay at the point guard position. Losing Triche and James are key, but Triche had a big time game every once in a while (20+ pts) while James lived and died by his three point shot. Grant should be able to slip into a role where Boeheim expects him to make plays. I think Cooney is going to have a much better year than last. Add those with Silent G and the new recruits, filling those two spots should be fine.

The big concern to me is the depth/experience at PG, as well as the front court. We all expected Rak to make the sophomore jump, and now we expect DC2 to make the jump. Keita will still need to be a spark off the bench.

If everybody can play to the level that Boeheim needs them to play and C.J. is an absolute animal, I can see us making it back to the Final Four.

 

[dasher]

Coming off the Final Four year, this team will be one of the most interesting teams to watch in the country. Joining the ACC will be a difficult task, but it will certainly help us come tournament time.

Obviously the loss of MCW, James, and Triche are big losses. If Ennis is as good as advertise we should be okay at the point guard position. Losing Triche and James are key, but Triche had a big time game every once in a while (20+ pts) while James lived and died by his three point shot. Grant should be able to slip into a role where Boeheim expects him to make plays. I think Cooney is going to have a much better year than last. Add those with Silent G and the new recruits, filling those two spots should be fine.

The big concern to me is the depth/experience at PG, as well as the front court. We all expected Rak to make the sophomore jump, and now we expect DC2 to make the jump. Keita will still need to be a spark off the bench.

If everybody can play to the level that Boeheim needs them to play and C.J. is an absolute animal, I can see us making it back to the Final Four.

Jeremy, we played in a tougher league than the ACC for the last 33 years.

 

[PoppyHart]

I suppose it may help that we'll be playing in more hostile (read: non-NBA) environments where tickets will be harder to come by.

This might be an interesting year in that the starting line-ups may constantly be in flux, and the squad we put out there in February may look nothing like that in November. Other than Fair and McIntyre, no one has a stranglehold on anything.

 

[Lawrinson14]

Other than Fair and McIntyre, no one has a stranglehold on anything.

I have a feeling this is going to go over a bunch of peoples' heads.

 

[tee1222]

For those of you who missed out on some FIBA games:
McIntyre = Ennis

 

[cusetown1]

For those of you who missed out on some FIBA games:
McIntyre = Ennis

TEM is our new MCW.

 

[mark79]

Agree with most of this.

I think a big key to us going deep is what to do when Ennis is in foul trouble. We may need to rely on another freshman in BJ. Not sure if silent G or Cooney or Patterson have the ball handling. If one of those four can do this effectively we are poised. If not, look for a lot of trapping and ball pressure to whilt our back court.

Rather than counting on CJ or Roc or DC to make a quantum jump into the stratosphere I am hoping that one of the young guns shows us an MCW-like transformation. Most likely candidate is grant. But It could be Cooney or a freshman surprise (least likely).

So two things. Backup ball-handling and someone making an MCW-like transformation. Those are my ingredients.

 

[tee1222]

 

[jordoo]

We'll be better than last year overall IMO.

Backcourt:
Offensively I believe Ennis and MikeG will be better more steady scorers than MCW and Brandon. On defense I doubt they will be as quite as goo. I do worry about whats behind them. Cooney, Buss or BJ will need to emerge.

Frontcourt: We lost James but have everyone else back older and better plus we added Roberson and Johnson. We will have one of the deepest most dominating front courts in college bball. We can match Fair, Grant, Roberson, Johnson, Christmas, Coleman, Keita?

 

[tee1222]

We'll be better than last year overall IMO.

Backcourt:
Offensively I believe Ennis and MikeG will be better more steady scorers than MCW and Brandon. On defense I doubt they will be as quite as goo. I do worry about whats behind them. Cooney, Buss or BJ will need to emerge.

Frontcourt: We lost James but have everyone else back older and better plus we added Roberson and Johnson. We will have one of the deepest most dominating front courts in college bball. We can match Fair, Grant, Roberson, Johnson, Christmas, Coleman, Keita?

Never seen such a deep frontcourt, any team.
Sure, some of this is going on potential, but some isn't in Fair/Grant/DC2/Keita.

 

[Lawrinson14]

I want to see this on the court next year, just for shits and giggles:

Pg: 6-7 Gbinije
Sg: 6-7 BJ
F: 6-9 Grant
F: 6-8 CJ
C: 6-10 Keita

With the reach and athleticism of these guys, the opponent wouldn't even be able to pass the ball within the arc. And from what I've read on here, this lineup actually has a chance of seeing the court.

---------

In all seriousness...worrying about Coleman and Rak, IMO, is almost a moot point as I think Keita will play the majority of minutes at the 5.

 

[Orange2389]

Final Four

 

[NineOneSeven]

I want to see this on the court next year, just for shits and giggles:

Pg: 6-7 Gbinije
Sg: 6-7 BJ
F: 6-9 Grant
F: 6-8 CJ
C: 6-10 Keita

With the reach and athleticism of these guys, the opponent wouldn't even be able to pass the ball within the arc. And from what I've read on here, this lineup actually has a chance of seeing the court.

---------

In all seriousness...worrying about Coleman and Rak, IMO, is almost a moot point as I think Keita will play the majority of minutes at the 5.

I respectfully disagree here.

 

[Trueblue25]

Coleman dominates offensively.

 

[Lawrinson14]

I respectfully disagree here.

I'm sure you would have said the same thing last year too.

 

[NineOneSeven]

I'm sure you would have said the same thing last year too.

I actually predicted Keita would lead our team in rebounds. Obviously that didn't happen (and in hindsight, What was I thinking), but it does mean I expected him to log a lot of minutes.

 

[Lawrinson14]

I don't think there is anything wrong with Keita logging the most minutes at center. He is a senior. He is our best defender. He shut down Zeller in the NCAA tournament. With the zone, I'd rather have a defensive minded center with sub-par offense than an offensive minded center with sub-par defense (Coleman). Hell, it's not like we pass it down low anyway.

And at this point I don't even think Rak is in the equation.

 

[Trueblue25]

We should be a top 5 team.

We have a top 5 recruit PG and a 6'6 transfer capable of handling the point...

yet depth at the pg position is still feasibly our greatest weakness.

We are the biggest most athletic team in the nation.

I'm counting down.

 

[orangefan13]

Gbinije reminds everyone of Josh Paces speed with better dribbling, a jumpshot and a pretty quick trigger.

Agree we are so underated can't wait to Rothelstein jumps on a early practice and has a heart attack. Love that guy!

 

[tee1222]

Final Four

We should be a top 5 team.

We have a top 5 recruit PG and a 6'6 transfer capable of handling the point...

yet depth at the pg position is still feasibly our greatest weakness.

We are the biggest most athletic team in the nation.

I'm counting down.

 

[SgtCuse]

I predict that we will see a lot of "We are going 10-11 deep this year" posts. Especially early this year once the reports from the exhibition games start to come. As soon as ACC play starts we will go only 8 deep: 3 Guards, 3 Forwards, 2 Centers. Then, as soon as we lose one game everyone will be calling for JB's head because "he only plays 8". :noidea: Been this way for 36 years and I always get a kick out of the "depth" threads. Cant argue with 900+ wins and counting.

I also predict that unless Bus beats out TC for the 3rd guard spot, the only Freshman to see meaningful minutes during conference games this year will be Ennis. The rest will see MCW type of minutes his Freshman year.

Personally I love this about our program in that we don't have to depend on Freshman right away. Bring them in and let them learn the system for a year before unleashing them.

25+ Wins
Top 2 in the ACC
Top 10 nationally all season
Protected seed (2-3 range) playing in Buffalo for the first 2 rounds
Elite 8 (anything past that depends on matchups)

 

[cusetown1]

Never seen such a deep frontcourt, any team.
Sure, some of this is going on potential, but some isn't in Fair/Grant/DC2/Keita.

You got that right! This team is going to be insanely good! INSANELY good, yeah I said it.

 

[NineOneSeven]

You got that right! This team is going to be insanely good! INSANELY good, yeah I said it.

AM I WRONG?!?!

 

[tee1222]

Not quite sure why people don't think we go more than 8 deep.
If anything, ball handling alone could warrant this.

Btw, look up SU statistics on ESPN. Past 5 seasons, I counted at least 2 teams that had 9 players with an AVERAGE of 10+ minutes per game. The numbers don't lie.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/183/syracuse-orange
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...183/sort/avgMinutes/year/2012/syracuse-orange
Two other of these 5 teams each had a player averaging 9.9 minutes per game. One player was a freshman Fab. Considering the other was a freshmen Keita, those weren't all insignificant games. Especially towards the end of the year, and BE tourney, he played and contributed significant minutes as our 9th man.

36 years, not counting two out of the past two!

 

[cusetown1]

AM I WRONG?!?!

No. And yes.