Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="A Clockwork Orange, post: 3293975, member: 16"] My feelings exactly. I'm excited about what they've done recently. If you had told me they'd compete down to the wire with the #8 team in the nation on the road I'd laugh you out of the bar. Especially when they were getting beat down by Iowa and Penn State. This team has overachieved yet they are still who they are. They are that same team they were early in the season. There are fatal flaws that won't be corrected because they can't be. They're slow up top and prone to giving up threes/dribble drives/space at the foul line. They have room to improve on their rotations and that can help, but that will take time. We don't have a dominant shot-blocker in the middle, and the only plus defender we have (when he puts in the effort) is Elijah. With all of that said, they've done a great job trying to mitigate their issues on the defensive end as much as possible but this just isn't and never will be a good defensive team. The offense is solid but can disappear at times and has all year. It's pretty obvious that this team is getting a little winded down the stretch at the end of the half and at the end of the game. If you look at the numbers they have been outscored pretty consistently in those periods all season long. To me, that goes to a little bit of tiredness. Maybe not gasping for air tiredness, but anyone who has ever played the game you know that you can be breathing perfectly fine but you're just a step slower on rotations and maybe you don't have quite the lift in your legs that you usually would. These are things any player believes they can play through, and they just need to make a slight adjustment to the way they're shooting, etc... to overcome. Except those slight adjustments change everything you've taught your muscles through thousands of shots over dozens of years. Those tired legs open the door for worse shooting, poorer rebounding, etc... I'm irritated that Goodine and Washington haven't seen more run. I know they don't have the shooting range that Buddy or Joe has to keep defenses honest, but it's criminal each of them isn't getting a baked in three to five minutes each half on either side of TV timeouts. In short, this team doesn't have the speed or rotations down well enough up top to stop teams in the last four minutes of a half. Other SU teams have had lockdown defenses that could help buoy the offense down the stretch. This team doesn't have that, and in fact, fades pretty badly down the stretch on defense. Instead of the 'd' being a plus in tight games (as it had been in previous years) it's now a net minus. I hope coach Boeheim starts trying to more liberally use his two guard subs a bit more through the course of the game though history shows he will tighten the rotation the closer the game is. In many seasons that would be okay because the athletes and the defense would help out the offense. That's not the case this year. With ALL of that said, I'm excited about an NIT berth because hopefully, coach will look at it as an opportunity to get the younger guys a bit more run as they prep for next year. I have always thought that Coach B's greatest strength and greatest weakness is to play every second of every game to win, instead of sometimes to develop. That mentality has led to an unprecedented era of success that is the envy of almost every other program in the NCAA. It also is a detriment to having other players game ready later in the season. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?