General20
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This was a rather unremarkable game. Arkansas isn't a very good team and should have been blown out, but Syracuse never managed to accomplish the task. While it was never a rout, you also never got the feeling that Arkansas was going to win. The real fun came from seeing how far Syracuse's players have come since their game against San Diego St.
Due to the circumstances of the San Diego St. game, I was less interested in how each player performed relative to that game, and more interested in the differences in how they were used. The playing time differences from Syracuse's first game against real competition to this one is probably the best indication of how things have been going in practice that we outsiders are going to get.
Cooney and Colman were the two players who earned more time. With Cooney's minutes going towards allowing Triche and Carter-Williams time to rest, and Coleman playing mostly at the expense of Christmas (Keita played about the same as he did against San Diego St and Southerland got a few more minutes at the expense of Grant). Arkansas did not play a particularly Coony or Coleman friendly style of basketball, yet they both earned more minutes, which to me is a good sign that they are progressing well in practice.
Cooney isn't shooting the ball well, obviously, but he is contributing with some ball handling and he helps space the offense. Boeheim is patient with offensive problems, he pulls players for screwing up defensively. Cooney has been solid on the defensive side of the ball, and that means he can play good minutes whether his shot is falling or not. He didn't get any steals today, but he got his hands on two or three passes. He's got quick hands and plays the passing lanes well which is important in the zone. My biggest concern with him is the fact that he takes too long to get around screens. I was not expecting Cooney to play much at all against Arkansas' pressure, but he logged decent minutes and didn't hurt Syracuse any by his presence despite not hitting any shots. That is a good sign. He is contributing without shooting well, eventually the shots will fall and Syracuse will have a rather complete player on their hands.
I have little doubt that Coleman will be a beast offensively by the end of the season. He has all the tools he needs, and I was really impressed with his ability to rebound the ball. I know he was a prolific rebounder in high school, but I had doubts that he was athletic enough to get the job done quit so effectively in college. He proved me wrong today with strength, aggressiveness, good hands, and a nasty attitude. The problem is on defense. Coleman let up two early lay-ups that quite frankly should never happen against the zone Syracuse plays, and immediately got benched (I assumed for the rest of the game). It turned out that after a long talk, Boeheim gave Coleman another chance, and Coleman rewarded that trust with a solid performance. Arkansas went small for most of the game, and Coleman was the only Syracuse player that made them pay for it. The defense is still a long way from where it needs to be but there is reason to be hopeful.
On the down side is Christmas, who I thought has looked great against the mid-majors. He didn't earn nearly as many minutes as he did against San Diego St. and was mostly invisible in the minutes he did earn. This is a situation worth monitoring as the season progresses. Right now it seems like a step backwards for Chrsitmas - at least from my perceived understanding of his readiness. I thought he should have done damage against the small team Arkansas fielded.
Mike Anderson, I noticed, took a page out of the Rick Pitino playbook by pressing and then falling back into a zone. This defense strikes me philosophically as the best possible one because most college players are either very skilled shooters who are not great athletically or great athletes who are not skilled shooters (those players who are both great shooters and great athletes usually end up in the NBA sooner rather than later). A press which falls back into a zone exploits both types of players weaknesses. The problem with this defense is that it is extremely nuanced and difficult to teach in the limited practice time that college teams have. Over the years this has lead to inconsistent play in Louisville's case. In Arkansas case (who is much less talented and doesen't have a coach that is heading to the hall of fame) it lead to a team that wasn't very good at either the press or the zone.
Syracuse scored 91 points which looks great on paper, but keep in mind that the tempo of the game was very fast and Syracuse got a good shot just about every time down the court. Given the circumstances, I'd say it was about as bad as a team can play offensively and still score 91 points. The shooting in particular was bad - apart from Southerland who played as close to a perfect game as we are likely to see any time soon. Syracuse as a team shot 41% without Southerland's one man show, and that was against a defense that was undersized and didn't put up much of a fight. That is just not good enough. Its not good enough around the basket, and not good enough from three by Triche, Cooney, and Carter-Williams, none of whom can buy a basket at the moment.
Lets keep in mind though that the season is young, and shooting tends to improve as the season progresses. Let's also keep in mind that shooting is usually bad in every team's first road game.
In general I thought Carter-William's played worse than his numbers indicate. He was not able to drive and dish like he could against the past few mid-majors. The good news is he figured this out by the end of the game and took over late driving and scoring himself. Carter-Williams is clearly a heady player. He seems to learn how to read defenses as the game goes on, and while some teams have given him problems, nobody has stopped him for an entire game. His shot from deep looks really ugly though.
There is no leadership void on this year's team. Triche is the leader. When things got close against Princeton, Boeheim went to Triche in the huddle. Triche responded by playing like a man possessed, getting two steals on two consecutive plays and really turning the tide in the game. When things got close against Arkansas (and Southerland was on the bench with foul trouble) Triche again took over the game on both sides of the court. He has not shot well from deep this year, but he's still scoring. That is huge. In previous year's Triche had many productive games. His problem was always that in those game where his shot was off, he hardly contributed anything offensively, too often putting up two or zero point games. This year Triche has found a way to score despite having off nights shooting, and that shows a lot of growth. One more interesting note, he played point quite a bit going down the stretch, with Carter-Williams off the ball. I think this is because Boeheim was anticipating Arkasas fouling and wanted Triche on the line.
Fair looked very uncomfortable handling the basketball against the guards who play forward for mid-majors. Back against a major conference opponent Fair looked comfortable with the ball in his hands again. Fair is not a star, but he is a great role player because when things get ugly he is at his best.
Arkansas benched its 6'10 center for most of the game and went small, with good results. They were able to spread the Syracuse zone out and let their shorter quicker players out maneuver our big guys inside. Its worrisome that they were able to score so effectively down low. That would not have happened against previous year's Syracuse teams. The 82 points they scored was partially a product of the fast tempo of the game, and partially a product of the refs calling tons of fouls and Arkansas shooting the lights out from the free throw line. Even so, allowing 82 points is unacceptable. If last year's Syracuse team had played this Arkansas team their score would not have gotten out of the 60's. There is clearly a lot of learning to be done on the defensive end of the ball and all the problem lies in the back three of the zone.
The last problem with the Syracuse defense was in transition. Syracuse really struggled with it. People often times think playing transition defense is only a matter of hustling back, but that is not the problem Syracuse is having. The problem Syracuse is having is knowing where to be when the offense attacks before they can set up their zone. This is often a problem when Syracuse has a young team, and I dont imagine it will be a quick fix. If you recall, the championship team in '03 was terrible defending transition all year, but managed to figure it out by March when they went on their run. One of the main reason's Keita played as much as he did was because he helped in transition. He is faster down court than Christmas or Coleman, but that is really not why he played. He played because he was able to instruct other players on where to be (and quick enough cover for their screw ups) where Chrsitmas and Coleman are still lost in the hectic world that is transition D. That will be fixed by March, but between then and now I hope Syracuse doesn't come across too many teams who exploit this weakness as well as Arkansas did.
Due to the circumstances of the San Diego St. game, I was less interested in how each player performed relative to that game, and more interested in the differences in how they were used. The playing time differences from Syracuse's first game against real competition to this one is probably the best indication of how things have been going in practice that we outsiders are going to get.
Cooney and Colman were the two players who earned more time. With Cooney's minutes going towards allowing Triche and Carter-Williams time to rest, and Coleman playing mostly at the expense of Christmas (Keita played about the same as he did against San Diego St and Southerland got a few more minutes at the expense of Grant). Arkansas did not play a particularly Coony or Coleman friendly style of basketball, yet they both earned more minutes, which to me is a good sign that they are progressing well in practice.
Cooney isn't shooting the ball well, obviously, but he is contributing with some ball handling and he helps space the offense. Boeheim is patient with offensive problems, he pulls players for screwing up defensively. Cooney has been solid on the defensive side of the ball, and that means he can play good minutes whether his shot is falling or not. He didn't get any steals today, but he got his hands on two or three passes. He's got quick hands and plays the passing lanes well which is important in the zone. My biggest concern with him is the fact that he takes too long to get around screens. I was not expecting Cooney to play much at all against Arkansas' pressure, but he logged decent minutes and didn't hurt Syracuse any by his presence despite not hitting any shots. That is a good sign. He is contributing without shooting well, eventually the shots will fall and Syracuse will have a rather complete player on their hands.
I have little doubt that Coleman will be a beast offensively by the end of the season. He has all the tools he needs, and I was really impressed with his ability to rebound the ball. I know he was a prolific rebounder in high school, but I had doubts that he was athletic enough to get the job done quit so effectively in college. He proved me wrong today with strength, aggressiveness, good hands, and a nasty attitude. The problem is on defense. Coleman let up two early lay-ups that quite frankly should never happen against the zone Syracuse plays, and immediately got benched (I assumed for the rest of the game). It turned out that after a long talk, Boeheim gave Coleman another chance, and Coleman rewarded that trust with a solid performance. Arkansas went small for most of the game, and Coleman was the only Syracuse player that made them pay for it. The defense is still a long way from where it needs to be but there is reason to be hopeful.
On the down side is Christmas, who I thought has looked great against the mid-majors. He didn't earn nearly as many minutes as he did against San Diego St. and was mostly invisible in the minutes he did earn. This is a situation worth monitoring as the season progresses. Right now it seems like a step backwards for Chrsitmas - at least from my perceived understanding of his readiness. I thought he should have done damage against the small team Arkansas fielded.
Mike Anderson, I noticed, took a page out of the Rick Pitino playbook by pressing and then falling back into a zone. This defense strikes me philosophically as the best possible one because most college players are either very skilled shooters who are not great athletically or great athletes who are not skilled shooters (those players who are both great shooters and great athletes usually end up in the NBA sooner rather than later). A press which falls back into a zone exploits both types of players weaknesses. The problem with this defense is that it is extremely nuanced and difficult to teach in the limited practice time that college teams have. Over the years this has lead to inconsistent play in Louisville's case. In Arkansas case (who is much less talented and doesen't have a coach that is heading to the hall of fame) it lead to a team that wasn't very good at either the press or the zone.
Syracuse scored 91 points which looks great on paper, but keep in mind that the tempo of the game was very fast and Syracuse got a good shot just about every time down the court. Given the circumstances, I'd say it was about as bad as a team can play offensively and still score 91 points. The shooting in particular was bad - apart from Southerland who played as close to a perfect game as we are likely to see any time soon. Syracuse as a team shot 41% without Southerland's one man show, and that was against a defense that was undersized and didn't put up much of a fight. That is just not good enough. Its not good enough around the basket, and not good enough from three by Triche, Cooney, and Carter-Williams, none of whom can buy a basket at the moment.
Lets keep in mind though that the season is young, and shooting tends to improve as the season progresses. Let's also keep in mind that shooting is usually bad in every team's first road game.
In general I thought Carter-William's played worse than his numbers indicate. He was not able to drive and dish like he could against the past few mid-majors. The good news is he figured this out by the end of the game and took over late driving and scoring himself. Carter-Williams is clearly a heady player. He seems to learn how to read defenses as the game goes on, and while some teams have given him problems, nobody has stopped him for an entire game. His shot from deep looks really ugly though.
There is no leadership void on this year's team. Triche is the leader. When things got close against Princeton, Boeheim went to Triche in the huddle. Triche responded by playing like a man possessed, getting two steals on two consecutive plays and really turning the tide in the game. When things got close against Arkansas (and Southerland was on the bench with foul trouble) Triche again took over the game on both sides of the court. He has not shot well from deep this year, but he's still scoring. That is huge. In previous year's Triche had many productive games. His problem was always that in those game where his shot was off, he hardly contributed anything offensively, too often putting up two or zero point games. This year Triche has found a way to score despite having off nights shooting, and that shows a lot of growth. One more interesting note, he played point quite a bit going down the stretch, with Carter-Williams off the ball. I think this is because Boeheim was anticipating Arkasas fouling and wanted Triche on the line.
Fair looked very uncomfortable handling the basketball against the guards who play forward for mid-majors. Back against a major conference opponent Fair looked comfortable with the ball in his hands again. Fair is not a star, but he is a great role player because when things get ugly he is at his best.
Arkansas benched its 6'10 center for most of the game and went small, with good results. They were able to spread the Syracuse zone out and let their shorter quicker players out maneuver our big guys inside. Its worrisome that they were able to score so effectively down low. That would not have happened against previous year's Syracuse teams. The 82 points they scored was partially a product of the fast tempo of the game, and partially a product of the refs calling tons of fouls and Arkansas shooting the lights out from the free throw line. Even so, allowing 82 points is unacceptable. If last year's Syracuse team had played this Arkansas team their score would not have gotten out of the 60's. There is clearly a lot of learning to be done on the defensive end of the ball and all the problem lies in the back three of the zone.
The last problem with the Syracuse defense was in transition. Syracuse really struggled with it. People often times think playing transition defense is only a matter of hustling back, but that is not the problem Syracuse is having. The problem Syracuse is having is knowing where to be when the offense attacks before they can set up their zone. This is often a problem when Syracuse has a young team, and I dont imagine it will be a quick fix. If you recall, the championship team in '03 was terrible defending transition all year, but managed to figure it out by March when they went on their run. One of the main reason's Keita played as much as he did was because he helped in transition. He is faster down court than Christmas or Coleman, but that is really not why he played. He played because he was able to instruct other players on where to be (and quick enough cover for their screw ups) where Chrsitmas and Coleman are still lost in the hectic world that is transition D. That will be fixed by March, but between then and now I hope Syracuse doesn't come across too many teams who exploit this weakness as well as Arkansas did.
