Are we done with adding players for 2024-25?

[IthacaMatt]

He had a great stretch, but he wasn't very good the last 8 games or so. He was bad a lot more than good last year and if he ended the year great I'd agree but he's an average offensive player who does a lot of average things who can't play defense.

Yes, he did tail off a bit at the end. But even over those last 9 games (I added one to include his 2-9 against Louisville on 2/7), he still shot a little over 31% and was a double digit scorer in every game but his last one in the ACC tournament, when he finished with 9 points. That broke a streak of 15 straight games in double figures.

He's a solid piece coming back, and will probably improve his numbers by about 20% without Judah as the ball dominant guard.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Yes, he did tail off a bit at the end. But even over those last 9 games (I added one to include his 2-9 against Louisville on 2/7), he still shot a little over 31% and was a double digit scorer in every game but his last one in the ACC tournament, when he finished with 9 points. That broke a streak of 15 straight games in double figures.

He's a solid piece coming back, and will probably improve his numbers by about 20% without Judah as the ball dominant guard.

31% three point shooting is horrible for a shooting guard in 2024. You can’t win consistently with that.

 

[CousCuse]

31% three point shooting is horrible for a shooting guard in 2024. You can’t win consistently with that.

Both JJ and Justin had guys on their own team trying to get in their head because they thought they should be playing bigger roles. Glad those guys are gone.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

JJ's season after New Year's was very solid. He shot around 34%. He got more comfortable as the season went on. He's going to be one of the leaders of this team. He can get to the rim. He's a more team-oriented Judah, without all the complaining to the refs.

Who passes less than Judah did. That’s what he needs to change, and quick.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

We need another guy or two before we can really compare. Right now, I think the chemistry looks a lot better. Think about how certain teams of ours in the past with a lot of talent on paper got better the next year, when certain guys moved on.

There is simply no way you can judge chemistry at this point. Zero. The kids aren’t even together yet.

 

[Newhouser]

Kadary & Roach want to compete for a Chip. That's not happening at Cuse, unfortunately.

or St Johns

 

[Orangezoo]

He shot well for 6 weeks in January. At the end of the season he regressed. I hope Moore pushes him because 34 and 35 percent by your guards in 2025 is not a winning formula.

I think Moore will push him, maybe even Cuffe will too. Both are extremely hard workers (JJ too to be fair).

 

[Orangezoo]

So with all the back and forth right now to me it comes down to production.

Realistically I think you could see

Eddie at 13 and 8
Donnie at 11 and 6
Bell at 16 and 4
JJ at 15
Carlos at 9 and 6.5a

Davis at 8 and 7 off the bench
Cuffe at 4-5 ppg

Question marks as to how much we get from Chance and Moore what that does to the other 7s totals. Be at closer to 80 ppg and giving up closer to 67-70 ppg.

That would be a winning team and a tourney team as I see it. Westry and Moore are the unknowns as is McLeod who I expect has a bucket with a few boards and a couple blocks if healthy.

Westry makes the defense much better. Adding another impactful combo guard who can shoot it ups the potential too- I’d take the Yale kid in a heartbeat at this point

 

[OmahaCuse]

So with all the back and forth right now to me it comes down to production.

Realistically I think you could see

Eddie at 13 and 8
Donnie at 11 and 6
Bell at 16 and 4
JJ at 15
Carlos at 9 and 6.5a

Davis at 8 and 7 off the bench
Cuffe at 4-5 ppg

Question marks as to how much we get from Chance and Moore what that does to the other 7s totals. Be at closer to 80 ppg and giving up closer to 67-70 ppg.

That would be a winning team and a tourney team as I see it. Westry and Moore are the unknowns as is McLeod who I expect has a bucket with a few boards and a couple blocks if healthy.

Westry makes the defense much better. Adding another impactful combo guard who can shoot it ups the potential too- I’d take the Yale kid in a heartbeat at this point

Forgot McCloud he will play and contribute

 

[Orangezoo]

Forgot McCloud he will play and contribute

I don’t know any McCloud but I did mention McLeod in my post as an unknown coming off injury as like Chance is.

 

[two3zone]

So with all the back and forth right now to me it comes down to production.

Realistically I think you could see

Eddie at 13 and 8
Donnie at 11 and 6
Bell at 16 and 4
JJ at 15
Carlos at 9 and 6.5a

Davis at 8 and 7 off the bench
Cuffe at 4-5 ppg

Question marks as to how much we get from Chance and Moore what that does to the other 7s totals. Be at closer to 80 ppg and giving up closer to 67-70 ppg.

That would be a winning team and a tourney team as I see it. Westry and Moore are the unknowns as is McLeod who I expect has a bucket with a few boards and a couple blocks if healthy.

Westry makes the defense much better. Adding another impactful combo guard who can shoot it ups the potential too- I’d take the Yale kid in a heartbeat at this point

More depressing when i look at it like this. 20 wins could be tough.

 

[Niastri]

So with all the back and forth right now to me it comes down to production.

Realistically I think you could see

Eddie at 13 and 8
Donnie at 11 and 6
Bell at 16 and 4
JJ at 15
Carlos at 9 and 6.5a

Davis at 8 and 7 off the bench
Cuffe at 4-5 ppg

Question marks as to how much we get from Chance and Moore what that does to the other 7s totals. Be at closer to 80 ppg and giving up closer to 67-70 ppg.

That would be a winning team and a tourney team as I see it. Westry and Moore are the unknowns as is McLeod who I expect has a bucket with a few boards and a couple blocks if healthy.

Westry makes the defense much better. Adding another impactful combo guard who can shoot it ups the potential too- I’d take the Yale kid in a heartbeat at this point

I'd like to point out that only 18 teams had an average margin of victory of 10 or higher last season. Only 8 had a 13 margin or higher.

You're looking at a top10 team, not a barely above the bubble team with those numbers.

I think the team will score well, too many good scorers at too many positions to be easily stopped. The team also has diversified scoring, with shooting, dribble penetration and post play in the half court.

I worry about defense and rebounding. I think McLeod, with his excellent shotblocking, will get more time than expected. Lampkin is a big guy, and will need his rest. He also is a good, not great rebounder, at only 9.5 per 40 minutes in the pac10 last season. By comparison, McLeod was at 11.8 per 40 last season.

Bell and Freeman aren't known for their rebounding either. Davis is going to have to play some games just to get a board.

 

[Orangezoo]

I'd like to point out that only 18 teams had an average margin of victory of 10 or higher last season. Only 8 had a 13 margin or higher.

You're looking at a top10 team, not a barely above the bubble team with those numbers.

I think the team will score well, too many good scorers at too many positions to be easily stopped. The team also has diversified scoring, with shooting, dribble penetration and post play in the half court.

I worry about defense and rebounding. I think McLeod, with his excellent shotblocking, will get more time than expected. Lampkin is a big guy, and will need his rest. He also is a good, not great rebounder, at only 9.5 per 40 minutes in the pac10 last season. By comparison, McLeod was at 11.8 per 40 last season.

Bell and Freeman aren't known for their rebounding either. Davis is going to have to play some games just to get a board.

It was a relative post not predicting exact figures- if you give up 75 and score 80 then that could be more realistic albeit it depends on the schedule to which it looks much more favorable next year so far.

 

[Orangezoo]

More depressing when i look at it like this. 20 wins could be tough.

I don’t know. We need to see what a team looks like playing Reds system the way he wants it played and with a more senior laden team. We need to see where things are health wise and we need to see what we end up doing with adding another guard.

 

[IthacaMatt]

31% three point shooting is horrible for a shooting guard in 2024. You can’t win consistently with that.

It was 9 games.
Does every college player shoot consistently over the course of a season?

For the year, despite a 3-24 start to the season, and a bit of a cooling off at the end, he still wound up at 32.4% for the year. It only takes 33% to make a 3 point shot the equivalent of a 50% 2-point FG, so he wasn't far off what's acceptable.

I would bet that he shoots around 35% or better from 3 this year.
And by the way, he shot more than 4 points better from 3 than Judah did.
So this will be improvement just by having better shooters take more shots.

 

[IthacaMatt]

He shot well for 6 weeks in January. At the end of the season he regressed. I hope Moore pushes him because 34 and 35 percent by your guards in 2025 is not a winning formula.

If you have 3 or 4 guys who hit that percentage, then it IS a winning formula, because there will be enough threats to create open shots.

You realize, of course, that a lot of "legendary" shooters for Syracuse didn't shoot much better than that (e.g., Gerry McNamara with 35.4% for his career).

 

[MSOrange]

It was 9 games.
Does every college player shoot consistently over the course of a season?

For the year, despite a 3-24 start to the season, and a bit of a cooling off at the end, he still wound up at 32.4% for the year. It only takes 33% to make a 3 point shot the equivalent of a 50% 2-point FG, so he wasn't far off what's acceptable.

I would bet that he shoots around 35% or better from 3 this year.
And by the way, he shot more than 4 points better from 3 than Judah did.
So this will be improvement just by having better shooters take more shots.

Again you need your volume shooters to be in the high 30s or 40s in today's game. 34 percent is NOT good.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Again you need your volume shooters to be in the high 30s or 40s in today's game. 34 percent is NOT good.

OK, hyperbole alert.

In all of Division 1 basketball last year, of the 351 teams that play (so, out of more than 3,500 players total) - only 40 guys shot 40% or better from three last year.

Forty guys. That's barely 1 percent. OK, tone it down.

Gerry McNamara only shot 35% from three.
Buddy Boeheim only shot 36% from three.

 

[Cusefan0307]

OK, hyperbole alert.

In all of Division 1 basketball last year, of the 351 teams that play (so, out of more than 3,500 players total) - only 40 guys shot 40% or better from three last year.

Forty guys. OK, tone it down.

Gerry McNamara only shot 35% from three.
Buddy Boeheim only shot 36% from three.

Not comparably. Gerry was the only shooter on those teams. Both he and Buddy forced shots. JJ is a lot more open than both shooting that percentage. Maybe he will improve and prove me wrong.

 

[two3zone]

It was 9 games.
Does every college player shoot consistently over the course of a season?

For the year, despite a 3-24 start to the season, and a bit of a cooling off at the end, he still wound up at 32.4% for the year. It only takes 33% to make a 3 point shot the equivalent of a 50% 2-point FG, so he wasn't far off what's acceptable.

I would bet that he shoots around 35% or better from 3 this year.
And by the way, he shot more than 4 points better from 3 than Judah did.
So this will be improvement just by having better shooters take more shots.

This would all be fine with me if he played defense better than a traffic cone.

 

[IthacaMatt]

This would all be fine with me if he played defense better than a traffic cone.

At a minimum, he was the third or fourth worst defender on last year's team.
He was not the problem.

 

[IthacaMatt]

This would all be fine with me if he played defense better than a traffic cone.

Why is everybody so intent on hating on our players, FFS?

Starling is a quality guard who will be better this year.
Bell is a fine shooter who has room to improve his game.

I would have loved to have Copeland back, but he was a problem.

If MacLeod is healthy, he's not a starting center, but he can block some shots.

Lampkin seems like a pretty solid player. Same with Jyare Davis and Jaquan Carlos. Good solid, mature rotation players.

Freeman might explode, or he might not.
Westry might be healthy, or he might not.

We have useful pieces in Moore and Cuffe, and we all know that we need a couple more guys to have a full squad.

Stop hating. This is going to be a more enjoyable team next year.

 

[two3zone]

At a minimum, he was the third or fourth worst defender on last year's team.
He was not the problem.

He was by far the worst I saw. He cant stay in front of his guy, can't get through a screen, and is a step behind every single time.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Not comoarable Gerry was the only shooter on those teams. Both he and Buddy forced shots. JJ is a lot more open than both shooting that percentage. Maybe he will improve and prove me wrong.

You just love to argue with every thing I say, don't you?

 

[IthacaMatt]

He was by far the worst I saw. He cant stay in front of his guy, can't get through a screen, and is a step behind every single time.

OK, I don't want to argue with you, but I guess I have to.

Worst defender? How about Judah???

How many dozen times, hundred times, did he fail to run back on defense while he was busy arguing with a ref about not getting a foul call?

How many times did Judah "ole" a defender and give him a free pass to the basket on the drive? Another 100 times in 33 games, or whatever it was?

How many good games did Mounir Hima have? Any?
How about MacLeod? Did he have ANY good defensive games last year?

How about Chris Bell? He had maybe 3 chase-down blocks last season. How many dozens of open shots did he give up? Hundreds?

Benny Williams. Had maybe 4 or 5 good games that he played with effort ALL SEASON.

At least Starling tried to stay in front of people. You might love trashing him, as you've been doing for months.

Did you forget that this is a McDonald's AA who comes from Baldwinsville, and came home to play in front of his family? This is an Andy Rautins local kind of kid who we should be supporting.

What the heck is wrong with you guys? When did you stop being fans ???