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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 238771, member: 289"] I'd like to thank the OP for such an balanced and detailed scouting report. The first thing I would say is that we've played Wisconsin-like teams several time this year. I'm not sure Wisconsin has played a team like Syracuse. There aren't too many of them. We are 33-2 because we have have played all kinds of teams in all kinds of games and still found a way to win them, even though the type of game was not what we normally like to play. The most popular offensive stategy against us is to slow down the game and look to score only in the last 5-10 seconds of the shot clock. It's basically never worked. Notre Dame and Cincinnati beat us by shooting lights out in the first half, not by holding the ball to drain the clock. Watching the Badgers vs. Vanderbilt the thing that impressed me the most was not their defense or their pace but their shooting ability and the willing to run when they got the chance. I think they are a much under-rated offensive team and might actually be doing Syracuse a favor by passing on scoring opportunities early in the shot clock. Syracuse looked lousy vs. UNC-Ashville because, ironically, we don't seem to know how to attack a zone. When teams have success against our zone, they do it by putting a guy with some size who can shoot and pass at the top of the key and working the offense through him. He can score , pass to the baseline or a cutter or back out for a three. But facing a zone, we didn't do that. We just passed the ball around the outside and "settled" for three pointers, missing 18 of 23 of them. Why? I don't know. We have several guys who could have worked form the top of the key. We looked like so many other teams do when facing SU's zone. Dazed and confused. But we won't be facing a zone in this game. When SU saw an man-to-man vs. K-State, it was like a dog seeing a turkey drumstick. But we didn't do all that well in the first half, scoring one field goal in the last 8 minutes of the half. Matt Roe, who does the color commentary for our local radio boradcasts, pointed out that if you are going to win a game by driving to the basket, you still need to pass the ball, back and forth across the defesne to get the defenders moving. When we don't do that we get called for alot of charges, turn thye ball oer or miss awkward-looking shots. They took Matt's advice in the second half and ripped up the Wildcats. That created a lot of optimism that we will do the samw thing to Wiscosnin but we need to remember that drives to the basket are better as the product of a team offense approach rather than guys punding the ball into the woodwork, looking for an opening on their own. We are very good at extending the zone to cover three point shooters so teams looking to "bust" the zone with long range shots tend to fail. Nore Dame and Cicny had success simply because we came out flat and didn't play very good defense in those games, especially in the first half we were down by 13 at the half at South Bend and lost by 9 and were down by 12 at the half in New York and lost by 3. If we come out flat in this game the same thing could happen but those are our only two losses all season. When we play the zone well, we play it very aggressively, feet moving, hands waving, denying entry passes, playing the passing lanes, trapping in the corners, (you don't want to go into the corner vs the 'Cuse). We love to run off of blocks and steals, (not so much off of defensive rebounds). And nobody run a better break than we do. We have some good passers and great athletic finishers. Wisconsin is well-advised to get back to prevent that. But I have to say that coming down the stretch on 'D', we've been less aggressive and haven't generated as many turnovers and fast breaks in recent games. We got 2 fast break points vs. Cincy. The team showed signs of getting more aggressive vs. K-State and I hope we'll be getting back to that. Offesnively we have no inside scoring game at all. Nobody has a post-up, back to the basket game. We are a medicore outside shooting team. Like everybody else, we've had some games where we 'went off' from outside and things got easy. we haven't had many of those games lately. At Louisville we hit one three pointer, one other shot outside the piant and somebody figured out we hit only one other shot outside the charge semi-circle under the basket, (but we still won). We don't have a Preston Shumpert/Gerry McNamara/Demetris Nichols/Andy Rautins type gunner who can hit 3-4 treys in a row and change the game, or hit the "dagger" shot than caps a run or ends the other team's run. We just have a bunch of guys who can occasisonally hit a three pointer. Our half-court offense is based on the dribble-drive and dish game, supplemented by fast breaks off of defensive plays. And too many times, our drives on one-on-one plays where a single player is just probing for a weakness. That's not a lot. We finally pulled away from K-State because we finally started to make some shots. We could use a good run of games in that department. Everybody talks about our rebounding. We are a zone team and you can't box out in a zone, so we are never going to be a very strong rebounding team. What makes it worse is that this year we have no power forward, which is, traditonally, where our best rebounder played. We basically ahve a center with two small forwards and two guards. Our small forwards are pretty good rebounders for their size when they put their minds to it but are inconsistent at best. Our guard are big and strong but they like to leak out for the break so they haven't rebounded as well as they are capable. We try to make up for poor rebounding by causing turnovers and for much the season that worked. I use stat I call "manufactured possessions": one teams rebounds plus the other team's turnovers. We led in that stat in 18 of our first 19 games but only 6 times in the last 16. The good news is that we are such a good defensive team that even when teams rebound a miss, they often miss again, and again- until we get the ball. That was K-State's problem. They got 25 offensive rebounds but got only 20 second chance points out of it. Since offensive rebounds often lead to field goals and/or trips to the line, that's pretty good. I was interested to learn that Wisconsin doesn't go to the offensive boards much, that they get back to fcover the fast break. Considering that, maybe it would be a good thing for SU's guard to go to the boards, rather than "leaking out". Regardfing individual personnel, losing Fab Melo hurt us. He was an athletic 7-0, 260 pounds. He could block and alter shots and had an amazing knakc for a bag man in drawing charges- up to 4 in one game. Rakeem Christmas is 6-9 222 and Baye Moussa Keita 6-10 213. Both can bolck shots but are less impsoing in the middle. Rak may actually be a better reboduenr than Fab, whyo only got 6 a game, (Rak had 11 vs. K-State). Baye's problem is getitng pushed around and he has bad hands. Rak was a top big man recruit last eyar, though, and we are beginnign to see why. He was mis-cast as power forward much of the eyar and is performing much better at his nautral position. Our big fear is that someone like Sullinger could foul these guys out and we wind up with a small forward playing center, (they've all done it for short periods during their career here but obviously, that's far from ideal). But I don't think that will be a problem vs. the Badgers. Kris Joseph has good all-around skills for a college forward but isn't great at anything. He's a sneior so the team looks to him for leadership but sometimes he tries to do too much himself and he's not that type of player. CJ Fair is a more talented player with a geta knakc for being where the ball is. he doesn't have the range on his jumepr Kris does and in recent games he hasn't been able to throw it in the ocean, (it's usually off the back rim). Like a lot of players in a shooting slump, he seems to be in kind of a daze, wondering what's wrong and his whole game hyas sufferred. We need him to get back to normal if we are going to make a run for the title. Both guys are good at finding lanes to drive to the basket and CJ, when he's on is good and sinking the 'floater'. Both are good dunkers when they get the chance. James Southerland has the best form on his jump shot of anyone on the team. After hybernating most of the season, he's "on" and has scored 15 points in each NCAA game, going 5 for 7 from the arc. He doesn't put the ball on the floor to set up a drive or shot but he's an athletic dunker and an active defender. He's the sort of guy who has not been a consistent contributor during the season and suddenly becomes on in the post season, a key to a good run. Scoop Jardine has been the butt of criticsm thoughout his career but his numbers interms of scoring, assist and assist-to-turnover ratio are actually good. He showed sings of breaking out of a playing slump in the seocnd half vs. K-State, hitting a couple of big threes and getting 8 assists after 7 in the UNCA game. But he did have a bad turnover game with 6 and sometimes SU fans can't fathom what he was trying to accomplish. Like Joseph he's a senior who sometimes interprets that as meaning he's got to do it by himself. He's better being a distributor who takes advantage of an opportunity to score when it's there. Dion Waiters is an explosive player with an extra grear most college players can't match. He's the team's best dunker He can make a three and plays defense well when he puts his mind to it. He's got the biggest "Wow" factor of anyone on the team. Brandon Triche is like Joseph- a good all-around player not great at anything. What he does best is shoot fouls, but he's been getting some yops from the line recently. he has the ability to contribute more but seems to prefer being a supporting player. Behind them is Michael Carter-Williams who may turn out to be better than any of them but is a freshman stuck behind three veteran guards who can play and coaches will stick with their most experienced players this time of year. We were a donimant team earlier in the year. We've been in "survive and advance" mode for some time and that's what what it's all about now. It can be an advantage to "bottom out" just befgore the tournament or even at it's beginning so you can get better as your opposition gets better and that's pretty much what we have done. I don't think our performance vs. either UNCA or K-State would beat Wisconsin but we can play a lot better than that and hopefully will. if we don't we'll be going home and you'll be moving on. [/QUOTE]

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