Benny williams

[OrangeDW]

I just hope doesn't transfer

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Hey, he did have a +/- of +1 yesterday, the only one on the team on the positive side, so
maybe coach could mention that, as opposed to trashing him, and only him, after
an earlier loss.

ANYBODY would be fine if given the opportunity to play with the freedoms some of
the others have. I particularly was a fan of:

4:54 - Girard III Turnover, leading a Nova score at 4:27 to go up 59-51
4:24 - Girard III Turnover, Nova steal, leading to a Nova score at 4:21 to go up 61-51.

Some kind of 33 second sequence. Would that all players could do that at times
during the game and not have to worry about being yanked.

Nice to eliminate Joe hitting big shots or Joe hitting Jesse or Joe getting steals. Kid has the ball 80% of the time.
Bad turnovers, sure were, but to single him out, myopia extraordinaire

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Class kid, but we knew that, didn’t we.

 

[NorSyr66]

What I would like to see is the opportunity for Benny to start the next two or three games to give him some playing time with the starting group. Maybe start for JB3 one game and Cole for the 2nd game. Opportunity for him to work in the first group, hopefully stay on the floor a bit longer and get into the flow of the game as it starts. If he has some rough minutes, replace him, coach him and get him back in to replace the other starting forward. We pretty much proved again that only playing 5 starters, we run out of gas. We need to invest and build for the future games and the ACC season.
Lets Go Orange!!

 

[IthacaMatt]

Benny isn’t being frozen out. He gets his chances in the rotation and will get more if he ever does something. Can’t let him play more at this stage when Jimmy is a big factor on offense and Cole is the only one helping Jesse on the boards.

Exactly. We HAVE to win games right now, period. We blew our opportunity for error, and letting more than one slip away. We already have too many losses and are looking up to see The Bubble beyond our reach. We have to get better.

Right now, you look at Benny's most recent stat lines, and he comes in, he commits a foul, he gets beat on defense, he hangs his head and doesn't run back. He takes a 3 instead of trying to score near the basket. He doesn't know where to be on defense, he doesn't know where to be on offense. He is completely lost out there.

He needs to return to playing more instinctively, but if he doesn't know where to be on defense and keeps fouling or giving up easy buckets, you just can't keep him out there. It all starts with the defense. Just play defense and hit the boards, and good things will come.

 

[Orangezoo]

Exactly. We HAVE to win games right now, period. We blew our opportunity for error, and letting one slip away. We already have too many losses and are looking up to see The Bubble beyond our reach. We have to get better.

Right now, you look at Benny's most recent stat lines, and he comes in, he commits a foul, he gets beat on defense, he hangs his head and doesn't run back. He takes a 3 instead of trying to score near the basket. He doesn't know where to be on defense, he doesn't know where to be on offense. He is completely lost out there.

He needs to return to playing more instinctively, but if he doesn't know where to be on defense and keeps fouling or giving up easy buckets, you just can't keep him out there. It all starts with the defense. Just play defense and hit the boards, and good things will come.

I think you have to factor in that he is also trying to find his game while other guys look to do the same to rally from last year or get acclimated. Add in the third most difficult schedule of any P6 team to date and the mentorship that comes with is hampered by the laser focus on battling through this stretch to lay a foundation to build on once conference play starts. Benny gets it and once the mental aspect clicks he should see major growth pretty quickly.

It definitely says something for him to jump on the phone and put this to rest. Also shuts down the pathetic 1000 posts and threads that would be on here every week.

 

[Cuse181]

Ah, but see, the standards have changed.

The bar isn't not having losing seasons.

We used to regularly hit 25 wins and protected seeds.

Now he coaches every game not to lose and we're on the bubble/have to play over our seed in the tourney to advance.

It's one thing when we're awesome. It's another when we're mediocre.

And, I'm really uncomfortable with this idea that if a guy is "meant" to be at Syracuse they see through the adversity. These relationships are not one directional. I promise Red's pitch to Benny wasn't that he should come so he could get token minutes on a middling team, but it's cool, because you'll get put back on the bench if you slip up at all.

There was 2 5-6 year periods of golden cuse basketball in the late 80s and late 2000s where that happened consistently. Outside of that Syracuse has largely been up and down. They missed back to back tournaments in 07 and 08 haven’t done that since

 

[OrangeDW]

There was 2 5-6 year periods of golden cuse basketball in the late 80s and late 2000s where that happened consistently. Outside of that Syracuse has largely been up and down. They missed back to back tournaments in 07 and 08 haven’t done that since

That comes off highly exaggerated IMO. We were very consistently good.

Seeds from ‘92-06:
6 seed
Banned (would’ve been probably a 6-7)
4 seed
7 seed
4 seed
NIT
5 seed
8 seed
4 seed
5 seed
NIT
3 seed
5 seed
4 seed
5 seed

 

[OttoinGrotto]

That comes off highly exaggerated IMO. We were very consistently good.

Seeds from ‘92-06:
6 seed
Banned (would’ve been probably a 6-7)
7 seed
4 seed
NIT
5 seed
8 seed
4 seed
5 seed
NIT
3 seed
5 seed
4 seed
5 seed

Yeah.

 

[Cuse181]

That comes off highly exaggerated IMO. We were very consistently good.

Seeds from ‘92-06:
6 seed
Banned (would’ve been probably a 6-7)
7 seed
4 seed
NIT
5 seed
8 seed
4 seed
5 seed
NIT
3 seed
5 seed
4 seed
5 seed

I’d call that relatively up and down, 5-6-7-8 seeds aren’t consistently winning 25 games

 

[Dcuse]

What I would like to see is the opportunity for Benny to start the next two or three games to give him some playing time with the starting group. Maybe start for JB3 one game and Cole for the 2nd game. Opportunity for him to work in the first group, hopefully stay on the floor a bit longer and get into the flow of the game as it starts. If he has some rough minutes, replace him, coach him and get him back in to replace the other starting forward. We pretty much proved again that only playing 5 starters, we run out of gas. We need to invest and build for the future games and the ACC season.
Lets Go Orange!!

This is a great idea. I think you should call in to the coach's show Thursday and suggest it. Just let us know when you are going to so we can listen.

 

[orangefog]

This is a great idea. I think you should call in to the coach's show Thursday and suggest it. Just let us know when you are going to so we can listen.

I sure hope NorSyr66 is tall.

 

[OrangeDW]

I’d call that relatively up and down, 5-6-7-8 seeds aren’t consistently winning 25 games

We played less games back then though.

Those 5-8 seeds were basically all top 25 teams much of the time.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I’d call that relatively up and down, 5-6-7-8 seeds aren’t consistently winning 25 games

You seen to have lost the greater point by fixating on my mention of 25 wins.

Take a look at this. Tell me what patterns you notice. Syracuse Orange Index | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

 

[Cuse181]

S

You seen to have lost the greater point by fixating on my mention of 25 wins.

Take a look at this. Tell me what patterns you notice. Syracuse Orange Index | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

That the swings were magnified year to year

 

[OttoinGrotto]

S

That the swings were magnified year to year

I don't even know what you mean by that, but I actually am not even sure it matters if that's your takeaway.

Maybe focus on the rarity now of 20 win seasons. Or the recent frequency of 14-15 loss seasons. Or our best seed in the 7 previous seasons being an 8.

 

[supp]

Woody Newton was better last year. I wish he'd stayed.

That's part of the problem. One of the reasons why we are mediocre and scratching and clawing to get wins by playing starters max minutes is because we haven't been very successful developing and retaining a bench. It's a vicious cycle. For sure, the kids who leave should have more foresight but so should the coaches. Is the potential (and I stress potential) for short term benefit more important than long-term stability?

 

[Cuse1055]

I’d call that relatively up and down, 5-6-7-8 seeds aren’t consistently winning 25 games

I’d love to go back to worrying about being a 5-8 seed, let alone a 1-4 seed like we were between 84-91 and 09-14.

 

[kcsu]

Class act. Hope Jb gives the kid the ability to grow.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

That's part of the problem. One of the reasons why we are mediocre and scratching and clawing to get wins by playing starters max minutes is because we haven't been very successful developing and retaining a bench. It's a vicious cycle. For sure, the kids who leave should have more foresight but so should the coaches. Is the potential (and I stress potential) for short term benefit more important than long-term stability?

The thing with Woody is not that he was sitting behind two starters at forward; he was also sitting behind Robert Braswell (and Marek for those occasions when he moved to the 4). People forget that he was not the #2 option at his position and if you have not earned status as one of the top two options at your position, why should you automatically get PT? "Just because" is not a good enough reason. If you want to make the case that he should have played ahead of Bras, that's fine. But that is not what people are claiming.

The guy was a freshman, and a freshman has to work his way up. Why should the coaches have to act like it is youth league basketball where everyone gets equal minutes?

Were the guys who played behind Woody in high school guaranteed court time? How about guys who were third in the rotation at his position in high school? I highly doubt it, and yet fans think that PT for freshman should be guaranteed at SU's level so as not to hurt a player's delicate feelings.

JB didn't give Woody court time ahead of the several guys who were ahead of him. BFD; he is now the 8th man at Okie State. Again, this is not youth hoops; it is college competition at the highest level and the coaches shouldn't have to be bullied into playing time for freshman who haven't earned it.

 

[SWC75]

The thing with Woody is not that he was sitting behind two starters at forward; he was also sitting behind Robert Braswell (and Marek for those occasions when he moved to the 4). People forget that he was not the #2 option at his position and if you have not earned status as one of the top two options at your position, why should you automatically get PT? "Just because" is not a good enough reason. If you want to make the case that he should have played ahead of Bras, that's fine. But that is not what people are claiming.

The guy was a freshman, and a freshman has to work his way up. Why should the coaches have to act like it is youth league basketball where everyone gets equal minutes?

Were the guys who played behind Woody in high school guaranteed court time? How about guys who were third in the rotation at his position in high school? I highly doubt it, and yet fans think that PT for freshman should be guaranteed at SU's level so as not to hurt a player's delicate feelings.

JB didn't give Woody court time ahead of the several guys who were ahead of him. BFD; he is now the 8th man at Okie State. Again, this is not youth hoops; it is college competition at the highest level and the coaches shouldn't have to be bullied into playing time for freshman who haven't earned it.

The thing is: couldn't Woody wait and see what the other forwards were doing before he left? Where would he be on this team now if he'd stayed?

 

[orangezen]

I think JB goes game by game … matches our players to the opponent.. Benny will soon on offense get someone who can’t guard him and he could go off .. once it does the light goes on

 

[Forza Azzurri]

The thing with Woody is not that he was sitting behind two starters at forward; he was also sitting behind Robert Braswell (and Marek for those occasions when he moved to the 4). People forget that he was not the #2 option at his position and if you have not earned status as one of the top two options at your position, why should you automatically get PT? "Just because" is not a good enough reason. If you want to make the case that he should have played ahead of Bras, that's fine. But that is not what people are claiming.

The guy was a freshman, and a freshman has to work his way up. Why should the coaches have to act like it is youth league basketball where everyone gets equal minutes?

Were the guys who played behind Woody in high school guaranteed court time? How about guys who were third in the rotation at his position in high school? I highly doubt it, and yet fans think that PT for freshman should be guaranteed at SU's level so as not to hurt a player's delicate feelings.

JB didn't give Woody court time ahead of the several guys who were ahead of him. BFD; he is now the 8th man at Okie State. Again, this is not youth hoops; it is college competition at the highest level and the coaches shouldn't have to be bullied into playing time for freshman who haven't earned it.

I'm not sure he is even the 8th man..last 3 games were all close...OT win and 2 losses...Woody registered 2 DNPs and 8 minutes. They played 10 guys in the 2 Ls and Woody was a DNP. They played 12 in the game where he got 8 minutes.

 

[Knicks411]

Gotta say, my first thought when seeing the tweet about Benny not transferring is that tweet is destined to show up on @oldtakes exposed in March

 

[Dick_in_MI]

The thing is: couldn't Woody wait and see what the other forwards were doing before he left? Where would he be on this team now if he'd stayed?

Of course he could have waited. But there were other issues with him and so he didn’t.